Walking a Tightrope: ECOWAS’ Responses to Democratic Reversals in West Africa

• In Event: Democratic Reversals and Breakdown in Africa

Abstract

Nowhere is more notorious for democratic travails in the African continent than the West African region, where democracy has been going back and forth since the attainment of independence. After years of colonial rule under Britain and France, West African countries attained independence and adopted western liberal democratic order as the system of government. However, no sooner than the democratic order was adopted than series of coup plots emerged and displaced it. At a point all the west African countries were under military rule. However, after the end of the cold war, democratic pressures intensified, and forced many of the military regimes to give way to democratic order. While some of the military rulers transmuted to civilian presidents, some of them handed over to democratically elected leaders. However, in the recent time, signs of democratic erosion have emerged and threaten to wipe off the democratic gains recorded in the last few years in the subcontinent as witnessed in successful military take overs in Niger, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Guinea, and failed coup attempts in Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Sao Tome. Also, some democratic governments in the region tamper with presidential term limits. As a regional organization, ECOWAS has tried to respond on the side of democracy. In the wake of the coup in Niger, it imposed economic sanctions, and threaten military invasion, and diplomatic isolation. This was to put pressure on the military junta to return power to President Bazoum. However, the junta not only rebuffed the threats and sanctions but also aligned other countries in the Sahel belt – Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea - to revolt against the organization. This tends to question the relevance of ECOWAS as a preeminent regional organization and intervening force in the region. This study not only examines the nature, pattern, causes, consequences of democratic reversals in West Africa, it also interrogates the response of ECOWAS to the challenge and the efficacy of the response. The study contends that ECOWAS situation in the unfolding democratic reversals in West Africa amounts to walking a tight rope. It faces legitimacy crisis over its inability to stem the rising tide of coups and illegal change of constitution by some democratic governments in the region.

Author

• Azeez O. Olaniyan, Federal University, Oye Ekiti