New Agenda for Border-less Region
This Day (Lagos)
OPINION
24 June 2007
Posted to the web 25 June 2007
By Gboyega Akinsanmi
Lagos
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been transformed from its status of Executive Secretariat to a Commission. Behind its transformation is the plan to create a border-less West Africa. In its 32nd Summit held in Abuja last week, the Regional Strategic Vision, a new initiative of integration, was launched to accelerate the entire process. Given its member states’ troubled histories, socio-economic woes and societal diversities,
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of State and Government concluded its 32nd Summit in Abuja last week with remarkable consensus and bright prospects. Yet some questions still beg for answer on its newly launched regional strategic vision to speed up the process of cooperation and integration in the sub-region.
From what transpired at the summit, it is more glaring now than any time in the history of the sub-region that its leaders are now ready to jettison the factors that have remained as a clog in the wheel of a borderless West Africa. This represents a major milestone in the history of the sub-region. The summit was a major development meant to sever the Gordian knots of barriers and impediments to the process of integration.
But now history has been made. The stage has also been set as all ECOWAS leaders now embrace the ten-pillar vision of integration. Prior to the summit, some developments have taken place to fast-track “border-less zone” in West Africa, which most of its member states are plagued with diverse manners of socio-economic miseries. First is the creation of ECOWAS Commission. This marks the completion of the process of transformation of ECOWAS from Executive Secretariat to Commission. Second is the appointment of its first president, Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas who assumed office January 1.
Besides, the Vice president of ECOWAS Commission and six of the seven commissioners were sworn in at the 58th Ordinary session of its Council of Ministers in Ouagodougou. Last week, the institution’s foreign ministers also gathered in Abuja to agree on a regional approach to manage migration, particularly within West Africa and Europe.
With the launch of regional strategic visions, the whole cycle of dreamed border-less West Africa was perfected. This points to one fact: national borders are no longer contraints to the conduct of businesses as soon as the new initiative is implemented among its member states.
This can be interpreted to mean that a new stage is being set for another European Union (EU) type of administration in the sub-region, which comprise fifteen independent states, a standard earlier set by the African Union (AU), but difficult to accomplish. But most of these states are still lame ducks and bedeviled by bad governance, violent conflict and corruption among other factors. This raises question whether ECOWAS Commission possess tensile strength to realize its strategic vision
What Vision?
At the Summit, Chambas was excited to roll the ten-pillar vision while addressing the session. He said its making was a sharp departure from existing strategies. As stated in his address, the border-less West Africa shall be governed based the ten pillars among which are capacity building, inclusiveness, service, ownership, priorities-driven programming, transparency, results-based management, the sharing of best practices, partnership and subsidiarity.
Dwelling on why concerted efforts are required to transform the state of the sub-region’s economy and governance, this vision creates a regional space where its citizens can transact businesses through the creation of opportunities for sustainable production and live in dignity and peace with respect to the rule of law and democratic governance.
Sentiments and suspicion are major foes to the whole process, and must not be allowed to play a role if the visions will be attained. This is why Chambas stated at the summit that non-compliance befell the process in the past. He thus termed its success with the implementation of regional Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Establishment and that of Trade Liberalization as major challenges facing the ECOWAS.
Chambas took cognizance of this need when he made a special call for compliance on the part of member states. This call arose from the previous experience when some countries, especially those colonized by France did not demonstrate some quanta of understanding when the idea was first introduced. In spite of efforts by the Commission, he said, to ensure hitch-free movement of persons and goods within West African states, compliance remains frustrated by numerous roadblocks along regional highways and extortion by officials mostly at border posts.
Unlike the past, it appears the new initiative builds on the past order as it provides incentives among border officials to promote compliance and that pilot monitoring units to monitor compliance and promote best practices are being established at the borders of Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria and Togo.
New Consensus
This time, there were less expressions of suspicion and tension among ECOWAS leaders. This is evident in the way some leaders reacted. To some, it is a new thrust aimed at broadening the spectrum of peace and democratic governance.Others recognized that some member states were still fledging between violence and peace, the situation most analysts described as “the regime of troubled peace.”
But the initiative has been linked with the path to institutionalizing democratic peace as held that “democracies hardly war against each other.” On this note, Ghanaian President John Agyekum Kufuor nailed on the need to build a wide spectrum of consensus and confidence. This must have informed his address in which he tasked his colleagues to remove all forms of barriers capable of clogging the path of greater integration and cooperation. He thus tied its success with transparent, credible, inclusive and violent-free elections, what most members states are struggling to achieve.
This, he described, as critical to establishing the strong edifice of peace, development, democratic governance, regional integration and human security. Like Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson whose country is just emerging from the ash of civil war, Kufuor now takes lead in the campaign that ECOWAS member states must uphold the Mechanism and Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance. ECOWAS Chairman, President Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso too shared this ideal and claimed it “is required for actualizing the goals of regional strategic vision.”
Agenda for Thought
But little was said about the problem of the new initiative. Though Kufuor hammered on the state of infrastructural development in the sub-region, little was said about road and rail network in the sub-region. Communication and power, as critical as they are, are not perceived as major setback to the whole process. The spectrum of corruption, border criminals and gad governance is becoming wider.
The French factor still remains a threat. Chambas recognized this fact. But it was only glossed over in his appeal to attain the set goal of integration. While all these issues are raised, discussed and alternatives offered, bad leadership still forms a whole world of threat to the entire process because most leaders can best be described as authoritarian democrats. Those countries, which are not plagued with despots, are war-torn. This is a problem, which must be addressed as urgently as the process of integration and cooperation. As some analysts observed, instead of building democratic institutions in West Africa, the structure of these authoritarian democrats is rooting deep in such a way that most states are run like private estates of some leaders. Leadership, as critical as it is, was not well addressed at the summit, forgetting that it determines how far can the regional strategic framework can go.
As Kufuor argued, adherence to agreed protocols would make the Commission a better building block in the quest for African Union Government. But this vision is no doubt vague if basic infrastructures are provided. European Union (EU) is a good example of regional government. Though still confronted with some challenges, the good state of infrastructures help EU attain its goals of integration. This is what West African countries lack in abundance.
The initiative is laudable. It contains what the trends of growth and development in the 21st century. It has prospects to integrate the West African countries if the environment is enabling and if it reflects their socio-economic and political realities. But these are still lacking. In the face of these deficiencies, to what extent will benefit the ordinary people? Since this initiative is all about them, were they carried along? How much can be achieved in the face of these deficiencies? All these call for a rethink if the ten-pillar framework of integration must work in accordance with the set objectives.
