ECOWAS: Tinubu’s leadership credit for his re-election merit

By Jimoh Olorede

Exactly 41 days after his inauguration as the newly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on May 29, 2023, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, was also elected Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), precisely on July 9, 2023. To lead ECOWAS, one must not only be a leader with outstanding leadership prowess and sagacity from West Africa, but must also be an incumbent president or a head of state or government of any of the 15 member-states (countries) in West Africa.

The ECOWAS-member countries include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Out of a total of 54 countries in the African continent, the Heads of State and Government of these 15-member countries within the West of the continent came together and formed a bloc with a Treaty on May 28, 1975, in Lagos, Nigeria.

The nugget of the Treaty, popularly known as the Treaty of Lagos ECOWAS, was the establishment of “ECOWAS to promote cooperation and integration in order to create an economic and monetary union for promoting economic growth and development in West Africa.” History would not forget the efforts of the then Nigerian Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon whose efforts with his Togolese counterpart, Gnassingbe Eyadema, led to the emergence of the Treaty in 1975, after their 1972 tour of the West African region in support of the integration idea.

Since inception, many past Nigerian Heads of State and or Presidents have chaired the regional Community. However, President Tinubu’s election into the chairmanship of the regional bloc at a time when it’s going through putsches, and his sagacious application of wisdom and leadership wits in managing the crises in few of the member-states ravaged by recent coups depicts his tenure in the last one year as daunting and highly challenging, and his leadership as proactively reactive, consultatively combative, collaboratively inclusive and innovatively solution-driven.

It’s democratically retrogressive and progressively counterintuitive that the bloc (ECOWAS), whose all 15 member-states had constitutional, civilian-led governments in 2017, has experienced seven coups (including Sudan’s) about the last four years, starting from August 18, 2020, when the military overthrown President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita-led government of Mali, formed a transitional government in October, later, on May 24, 2021, arrested (ousted) the civilian President and the Prime Minister, and thereafter inaugurated Colonel Assimi Goita in June as president.

On July 26, 2023, 17 days after Tinubu’s election and assumption of the position as Chairman of ECOWAS, the military in Niger overthrew President Mohamed Bazoun and installed General Abdourahamane Tiani as the new strongman of the country. Earlier, in 2022, Burkina Faso had gone through two putsches within eight months. The military in the country ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kabore from power on January 24, 2022, installed Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba in February, dismissed him in September, and made Captain Ibrahim Traore transitional president. The Bloc experienced the same putsch on September 5, 2021, in Guinea, when President Alpha Conde was overthrown by a military coup and appointed Colonel Mamady Doumbouya as president.

Painted above was the unwholesome scenario in the West African region when President Bola Tinubu came onboard as the regional helmsman in 2023, combining this neck-cracking heavy load with the humongous task of governing his own country, Nigeria, African most populous nation. However, like a fearless hero, the ‘President-Chairman’ faced the challenges head-on without hesitation. Given in the following sections is a list of President Tinubu’s leadership credits as Chairman of ECOWAS.

Defence of Democracy: He charged ECOWAS to stand firm in defence of democracy and to prevent further coups in West Africa. The Chairman pledged to prioritise democratic stability and security in the region and to fight against terrorism and insecurity in West Africa. He affirmed the regional bloc’s commitment to supporting the people of Niger’s journey towards peace and democratic stability.

ECOWAS’ Framework Harmony: President Tinubu called for collective action from member-states on the harmonisation of relevant frameworks for the actualization of dreams contained in the Treaty, which birthed the Economic Community of West African States.

MoU on PPP: President Tinubu called for beneficial Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) that would engender improved private sector participation in the economic development of member-States and their social integration within the bloc.

Crisis resolution in ECOWAS: He emphasised the importance of the remarkable outcome of the summit authorising the standby deployment of ECOWAS troops to restore constitutional order in the Republic of Niger and other coup ravaging member-countries with a reaffirmation of the commitment of ECOWAS to the people and the progress of the ECOWAS community.

Threats as crisis resolution strategies: The Chairman of ECOWAS, President Bola Tinubu charged the Committee of the Chiefs of Defence Staff to activate the ECOWAS standby force with all its elements immediately after the military’s overthrow of the government in Niger. He issued a stern warning to member states whose actions impede the peaceful resolution of the Niger crisis, emphasising that such actions would entail consequences within the ECOWAS community.

These and many others are the heroic leadership credits and exploits which redound to President Tinubu’s merits for his unanimous reelection by the Heads of States and Governments in the West African region in Abuja, Nigeria, on July 7, 2024, for a consecutive second term as Chairman of the economic Community.

Nevertheless, except they are eliminated, the existence of many peculiar factors in Africa would continue to encourage putsches and consequent overthrow of powers in some parts of the region. Using reactionary and combative approaches without application of preventive and holistic measures would never address the issue of the incessant military incursions. For instance, a study conducted by U.S. researchers, Jonathan Powell, a political scientist and Visiting Scholar at the University of Kentucky, and Clayton Thyne, also of the same University, found that “of 492 attempted and successful coups carried out around the world since 1950, Africa has seen 220, the most of any region, with 109 of them successful.” Powell said this is because Africa tends to have most of the conditions associated with coups.

The continent’s most populous country, Nigeria, had also been plagued by military coup d’etat. Between 1966 and 1999, Nigeria witnessed eight strings of coup d’etat with five successful. The Nigerian government was successfully toppled five different times in July 1966, July 1975, December 1983, August 1985, and November 1993. However, the country has been democratically stable with successful electoral changes of government since the beginning of the fourth Republic in 1999.

To find a lasting solution to the incessant military incursions and other associated peculiar problems of democratic governance in Africa, certain conditions that are cogs in the wheel of democratic progress would have to be removed. According to the African Union Peace and Security Council in 2014, unconstitutional changes of government often originate from “deficiencies in governance” along with “greed, selfishness, mismanagement of diversity, mismanagement of resources and opportunity, marginalisation, abuse of human rights, refusal to accept electoral defeats, manipulation of constitution(s), as well as unconstitutional review of constitution(s) to serve narrow interests, and corruption.” As the newly reelected Chairman of ECOWAS and a strong stakeholder of the African Union, the President-Chairman, Bola Tinubu, GCFR, should engender an advocacy leadership that would ensure the elimination of the “deficiencies in governance” in Africa for a sustainable stability of democracy in the continent.

Dr. Olorede is Head of Strategic Communication and Media Studies Department at the Federal Polytechnic Offa, Kwara State, writes in via [email protected].