The African Union and sub-regional body, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), have highlighted efforts being taken and plans to address the recent spike in democratic decline in different countries on the continent.
They emphasised their efforts to engage civil society organisations to help achieve their goals of firming up democratic governance across West African countries and on the continent in general.
Top officials of the inter-governmental bodies spoke in Accra, Ghana, on Wednesday, the first day of the second annual conference of the West Africa Democracy Solidarity (WADEMOS) Network, a body of civil society organisations from across the sub-region.
The network of civil societies, concerned with deepening democratic governance and pushing back against an unconstitutional change of government across the sub-region, was launched on 15 September 2022.
Its two-day annual conference for this year, with the theme, ‘Amplifying CSO Response to Democratic Recession in West Africa,’ started on Wednesday and will end on Thursday.
Speakers on the first day of the event on Wednesday lamented the democratic reversal in various countries in the sub-region including the latest in the Niger Republic, while also advocating the adoption of two-term limits for elected leaders in the country.
Coups
Going down memory lane in his remarks at the event, the ECOWAS Commissioner of Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Abdel-Fatau Musah, recalled that between 2020 and 2023, the continent of Africa has experienced nine “successful” military coups, of which two were “counter-coups”.
Amb. Abdel Fatau Musah-PhD
“Of the nine successful coups, six of them took place in West Africa,” said Mr Musah, who was represented by Ebenezer Asiedu, Head of Democracy and Good Governance of ECOWAS.
The successful coups took place in Mali (2020, 2021), Guinea (2021), Burkina Faso (January and September 2022) and Niger (July 2023).
“In addition to these successful coups, there have been other attempted coups within the same time in Niger (March 2021, two days before the inauguration of President-elect Mohamed Bazoum), The Gambia (December 2021), Guinea Bissau (February 2022), and now the apparent one in Sierra Leone,” Mr Musah said.
The ECOWAS official who described the developments as West Africa’s “present scorecard”, lamented how it has turned the region into a butt of joke “at certain international fora where West Africa is now referred to as ‘the coup region’.”
ECOWAS’ steps, plans
He said the recent experience of unconstitutional change of government “had informed our quick and proactive concerted response in safeguarding democracy in Sierra Leone.” There was a break into a Sierra Leonean military armoury in the capital, Freetown, on Sunday, in an attempted coup.
“The success gained so far can be further consolidated by leveraging strategically the agency of the civil society in managing democratic transition and deter future political uncertainties in the region,” Mr Musah said.
Ebenezer Asiedu
He said the ECOWAS Commission management is consolidating engagements with CSOs for “advancing democracy, good governance, and sustainable development as a pathway to accelerating the realization of the ECOWAS Vision 2050.”
He noted that ECOWAS has a renewed interest in partnering with CSOs “to make the West African CSO platform more proactive in galvanising, amplifying and harmonising forces to address the prevailing democratic reversals and threat to peace and security in the region”.
“This effort will not only reflect prevailing standards at the continental and global levels, but also, will be guided through an enhanced framework for West African CSOs to play a more active role in contributing to the realisation of the ECOWAS Vision 2050, and in line with Article 81 of the ECOWAS Revised Treaty (1993),” he said.
The ECOWAS Vision 2050 which replaces the expired Vision 2020 proclaims that ECOWAS must, within 30 years, become a community of peoples and economic integration.
Vision 2050 is based on five pillars, namely “a secure, stable and peaceful region; a region endowed with strong institutions, and that complies with the rule of law and fundamental freedoms; a fully integrated and prosperous region; a region mobilised for transformation, inclusive and sustainable development; a community of peoples fully inclusive of women, the youth and children.”
AU’s plan
For his part, the Commissioner, Political Affairs, Peace and Security, AU Commission, Bankole Adeoye, reiterated AU’s aversion to “democratic regression” and the continent, which he said, “must be resisted by all stakeholders inclusive of WADEMOS and other network members.”
He said the AU plans, in 2024, “to revamp the implementation of the Accra Declaration on unconstitutional changes of government”.
The Accra Declaration emphasises “zero tolerance for the overthrow of constitutionally elected governments, including manipulation of constitutions by incumbents and all other forms of unconstitutional changes of government, as well as his advice that a stable period of constitutional government and proper management of the economy can lead to inclusive prosperity for Africa.”
Mr Bankole said there is a need “to build necessary resistance against the onslaught of unconstitutional changes of government.”
H.E. Amb. Bankole Adeoye
He said the AU would partner with civil society to achieve the goals of its numerous “normative frameworks, shared values, in strengthening democracy, promoting constitutionalism and the rule of law.”
“And I am pleased to announce that we have also established with the civil society a network, a pan-African network of civil society for political affairs, peace and security in our department,” he said.
WADEMOS concerns
WADEMOS made up of over 30 civil society organisations from the West African sub-region, was launched in Accra on 15 September 2022.
“In the period since our last meeting, as far as the democratic landscape in the West African sub-region is concerned, we have experienced one more incident of democratic collapse in Niger,” said the WADEMOS Project Director and Executive Director, Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Ghana, Kwasi Prempeh, a professor.
On July 26, the government of President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger Republic was overthrown by the military in one of the latest successful coups in the sub-region.
ECOWAS, in reaction to the incident, rolled out sanctions against Niger and issued an ultimatum to the junta to restore democratic governance in the country.
Mr Prempeh recalled on Wednesday that the incident in the Niger Republic almost led to a war for the restoration of democracy and raised concerns about the future of democracy in the sub-region.
“That particular incident sent shockwaves through, not just the region but across Africa, and created a storm that I think continues to reverberate a standoff between ECOWAS and the Nigerian junta and, I think, it caused a lot more uncertainty around democracy and its future in the region.
“Even though we were already familiar with the situation in Mali and Burkina Faso and Guinea, I think the Nigerien situation just raised the whole issue to the fore in a different kind of way.”
Kwasi Prempeh
Mr Prempeh called for the adoption of two-term limits for elected leaders in the countries in the region.
He noted that “the uncertainty” in Senegal about the plans of President Macky Sall to run for a third term in office was finally laid to rest with his decision not to stand as a candidate in next year’s presidential election.
But he said “It leaves the question of whether or not the term limit provision in Senegal allows for only two terms or more. “
READ ALSO: Security Breach: Nigeria, ECOWAS send delegation to Sierra Leone
The Executive Director, Campaign for Good Governance and Chair of the National Election Watch, Senegal, Marcella Sessay, in her keynote address, said democracy must be made to deliver for the people of West Africa.
Marcella Sessay
Ms Sessay, who was represented by Damian Ihekoronye, called on CSOs in the region to work towards returning West Africa to its glorious days of the 1990s when democratic governance began to take root in the region.
The Executive Director, CDD West Africa and Co-chair of WADEMOS Steering Committee, Idayat Hassan, called for a collaboration between CSOs and the media to stop the shrinking of democratic space in the region.
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