The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has, in a recent meeting held in Abuja-Nigeria, ordered the immediate activation of its standby force to possibly intervene and restore constitutional order in Niger.
The decision followed the failure of the Niger coup leaders to hand over power back to the deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, as earlier ordered by the regional body. Though the deployment of troops from member countries is yet to start, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have already started warning President Akufo-Addo not to contribute troops to the French-speaking country.
The positions held by these CSOs are that ECOWAS itself has sat down for some of the leaders to orchestrate constitutional coups in their respective countries without any reprimand. They mentioned Alassane Dramane Ouattara, President of La Cote d’Ivoire, who amended the national constitution to enable him contest elections for the third term.
Faure Gnassingbe of Togo also did a similar thing to his country’s constitution, which helped him to contest for the presidency again, which he won.
Former President Alpha Conde of Guinea had wanted to use the same strategy to perpetuate himself in power, but unfortunately for him, he was removed by the military. To these CSOs, if ECOWAS could sit down for all these developments to happen, then it has no justification in sending troops to Niger to defend one of its own.
The Chronicle agrees one hundred percent with the position taken by the CSOs, because the attitudes of some of our leaders in the sub-region are, indeed, sickening. Since the late Gnassingbe Eyadema seized power through a military coup in the 1960s, Togo has become a political dynasty for his family. Elections in Ghana’s eastern neighbouring country can best be described as a charade, as it is organised by the Minister of the Interior, who is appointed by the President.
Alhassane Ouattara is a western trained Economist, who came to power after a lot of blood was shed. He made sure his opponent, Koudou Laurent Gbagbo, who was reluctant in handing over power to him until French forces intervened, had been handed over to the International Criminal Court of Justice (ICC). As a result, no one expected Mr. Ouattara to amend the Ivorian Constitution to enable him contest the presidency again after his tenure ended, but he did that.
As we put this piece together, President Macky Sall of Senegal is also making efforts to change the constitution so that he can also stand for a third time, which is beyond his constitutional mandate. He is doing this by harassing the opposition leader in an attempt to cow him into submission.
ECOWAS leaders are aware of all these twaddle going on, yet no efforts have been made to rein in colleagues to respect their constitutional term limit. However, immediately the military steps in, the same sub-regional body is ready to defend these constitutional dictators. It is upon the basis of this that The Chronicle thinks the CSOs have made a cogent argument against the sending of our troops to Niger.
But the flip side of the argument is that the worst form of civilian government is better than military dictatorship. In our opinion, the emergence of coups in West Africa in recent years is a serious threat to the stability of the sub-region.
Already, the coup leaders in Burkina Faso and Mali have, or are planning to recruit the Wagner Group, a private military company based in Russia, to defend them. Wagner, we are told, demands mineral resources as a means of payment for their services.
By allowing them to make incursions into West Africa, they are eventually going to take over our mineral resources, which they would use to destabilise the sub-region. In our view, therefore, the Wagner Group should be stopped from establishing permanent bases in West Africa.
The sub-region would be laughing at the wrong side of its mouth if the military coup leaders are not prevented from recruiting the Russian private military company to provide security for them. The Wagner Group is simply fire that we should never play with.
Based on these analyses, The Chronicle is reluctantly supporting the deployment of Ghanaian troops to Niger to help restore constitutional order. When the Niger mission is successful, it would put the fear of God in those who may be planning to overthrow their governments.
