The leadership in the subregion should utilize their summit to guide the countries and the people on how to identify and address the burning issues of the day. Mali and Guinea are in crisis today because of the failure of governance and leadership. This should have been uppermost in the agenda of the community.
Ecowas had come to a point where it was free from coups d’état and only two countries were left in the course of introducing a two-term limit. Now those term limits are being torn asunder, country after country and coups d’état are coming back as a way of taming the excesses of government.
Secondly, we have a growing youth population in West Africa who are currently facing the existential threat of joblessness in a subregion that has not taken any position on industrialization. Holding summits and only focus on covid 19 and terrorism while ignoring the absence of the state in the lives of most people in our countries which causes alienation is not the way forward. There is need to move from formality and transform the community organisation into an instrument that pioneers changes in each country that would address the burning issues. Unless that is done the community would not be visible in the lives of the people and the Ecowas of the people will remain an illusion.
