There has been a trend to move away from the Ecowas of states to Ecowas of the people by ensuring term limits and the assumption of office based on the consent of the people. Unconstitutional takeover of government was considered to be history. The quality of elections and the accountability and transparency of government was high in the agenda of the state. Peaceful transfer of power was becoming common.
Now a new trend has emerged and is being consolidated by bringing Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso into a Union of Sahelian States without even a referendum to know what their people think of leaving Ecowas and establishing a Sahelian Union. Such unions become really isolated in the world and their governments could always be changed through conspiracies to carry out new coups d’état.
Ecowas however appear helpless in being able to give inspiration to the people of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger since Ecowas of the people is still a dream rather than a reality. It is time for governments to change the mindset of their people so that they feel a sense of belonging and shared destiny with all the people in the sub region in particular and the continent at large.
It is unfortunate that the current leaders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso are moving the peoples of these countries from the bonds they should have with the other peoples in the Ecowas countries in particular and the continent at large. Ecowas needs to constitute a body of experts capable of communicating with these countries and encourage them not to make their countries weak by maintaining governments of coup origin that could not save themselves from foreign intervention. None of these governments could consider themselves as powerful as the Gaddafi government was. Only a united people could make a country, West Africa and Africa stable and impregnable.
