West Africa’s troublesome trio

The decision by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic, three landlocked sub-Saharan African countries, to pull out of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has sparked fears of increased instability and insecurity in the region. Recently emboldened by military takeovers, the three countries have accused ECOWAS of being a tool in the hands […]

The decision by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic, three landlocked sub-Saharan African countries, to pull out of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has sparked fears of increased instability and insecurity in the region. Recently emboldened by military takeovers, the three countries have accused ECOWAS of being a tool in the hands of neo-colonialists.

As if all along, beyond each of them, ECOWAS was not a foreign body, as is each of them to each other. It is a survival instinct to find emergency unity, to draw friends from anywhere, in desperation.

Three coups – Mali in 2021, Burkina Faso in 2022 and Niger in 2023 – have defined this decision to leave ECOWAS. The regional bloc upped the intensity of its response with each coup until it threatened to invade the Niger Republic.

ECOWAS is losing members because it has become a threat to the threats that democracy faces in West Africa. The tiny regional bloc has become a direct danger to the daredevils of West Africa’s democracy. What is a tragedy to ECOWAS is not the loss of the three countries. They were never superpowers in the bloc. ECOWAS has had to pull each of them by their bootstraps before.

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The tragedy is the coups, the blow to democracy and the fact that the coups and the decision to pull out of ECOWAS is the decision of a few disgruntled and potentially despotic soldiers.

When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. The decision to leave ECOWAS may have little economic bearing on the military dictators who are already presumably stealing their country dry. However, the poorest of the poor in those countries who even at the best of times barely manage to scrape by, would sure feel the pinch.

There is talk of the three countries forming their federation. What a weak and illegitimate federation it will be. There is safety in numbers, and there is no telling how vulnerable some of Africa’s poorest countries have become with this incredibly ill-advised decision to set out on this illegitimate and irregular road.

Kene Obiezu wrote via [email protected]