Executive director of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), Chukwuemeka Eze, has expressed the need for ECOWAS to implement reforms on its protocol on democracy and good governance.

According to him, the relevance of this has been proven again following the current happening of coup in Niger. He revealed that the unfolding event in Niger is not only complicated and very complex, but also defines what stakeholders expect from ECOWAS going forward.

Mr Eze indicated that the strength of ECOWAS and how they are able to deal with the coup in Niger will determine what happens in the near future.

“I think that the protocol on democracy and good governance is overdue for reforms, and the ECOWAS Commission is aware of this, and they have already taken steps, alongside willing civils society organizations to make those amendments. It’s left for our authority to provide a political will to approve those amendments that is made so that ECOWAS can have more teeth to bite. At the moment, the democracy and good governance protocol does not provide ECOWAS with the teeth to bite when things are about to happen. We leave it for too long and when it happens, we begin to react…”
Chukwuemeka Eze

Mr Eze lamented that the regional bloc is spending so much resources now to address the issue in Niger, which could have been prevented a long time ago if the protocol was reviewed. That notwithstanding, he emphasized the need to also develop indicators to measure governance.

“I think that there’s a lot of bad behavior that exists within the corridors of power now that we need to check. Otherwise, when citizens get frustrated, when the military gets frustrated, when the entire country gets frustrated because of lack of good governance, we will still come back to this period…”
Chukwuemeka Eze

Touching on the decision by the Niger military to block the country’s airspace, Mr Eze stated that the military must have made its analysis to come out with a position of retaliation. He noted that the move will send a signal to ECOWAS that “a lot of other countries will also receive the kind of pain they are receiving” following military announcement of no-fly zone in Niger.

“So, I’m also sure that they are also trying to reciprocate and to ensure that such pain will also push ECOWAS to relax its sanction on no-fly zone.”
Chukwuemeka Eze

Repercussions of imposition of sanctions on Niger

Regarding ECOWAS ultimatum and imposition of sanctions on Niger, Mr Eze stated that ECOWAS may not be entirely right in approach, as in the first place ECOWAS countries are against any form of unconstitutional change of government.

He explained that because the former President of Niger was actually the Chair of the authority when the protocol was signed, ECOWAS’ ultimatum should have been thought through. Additionally, he noted that ECOWAS could have gathered allies including the peace and security council of the United Nations and other African countries through the Africa Union and ensure no dissenting voice creeps in.

“So, I’m pretty sure that the meeting coming up later this week will look at some of these pros and cons – but you cannot blame ECOWAS for being so stringent on any issue relating to coup d’états. Otherwise, ECOWAS begins to lose its relevance and then we are back to the same trench where we left thinking that we are over and above coup d’états in West Africa.”
Chukwuemeka Eze

Moreover, Mr Eze revealed that on the part of ECOWAS, there are lot of things it can do to put pressure on the military junta. With this, he noted that Nigeria for instance has cut off electricity, and that’s just one out of several other things that could be done. Also, he emphasized the need to make sure that ECOWAS speaks with one voice as a community so that there’re no dissenting voices.

“At the moment, there’s a coalition of the willing, as it were, among the countries that are under military regime against the rest of West Africa – that is not a good sign. The second thing also is that there are some other African countries that seem to be aligning with Niger, that’s also not a good sign. We were able to succeed in Gambia because there was no dissenting voice, and because whether it is at the level of the United Nations or Africa Union, everybody cued behind ECOWAS.”
Chukwuemeka Eze

In a bid to foil future coups in the region, Mr Eze underscored the need for ECOWAS to tread carefully but also ensure it maintains a strong stance. This, he noted, when not done, will just be one of the several other coup d’états the region is going to see in the near future.