President tells ECOWAS leaders to be concerned about situation in sub-region
The Chairman of ECOWAS, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has urged leaders of member states to be concerned about the deteriorating political situation in the region.
Making specific reference to the recent happenings in Burkina Faso and their ramifications, he said: “No country is insulated from this occurrence in the community and we have to take action to nip it in the bud”.
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President Akufo-Addo, who was speaking during the opening of a virtual Extraordinary ECOWAS Summit at the Jubilee House in Accra yesterday, said: “We are confronted with a setback to our democracy, taking cognisance of the twin coups d’etat in Mali on August 18, 2020 and May 24, 2021; in Guinea on September 5, 2021, and now in Burkina Faso on January 24, 2022.”
The meeting was convened to help address the prevailing situation in Burkina Faso by restoring constitutional order to that country to help stabilise the region at large.
Consolidating democracy
President Akufo-Addo said the happenings in the region were enough testimony that not everybody had accepted democracy as the preferred mode of governance and that some work needed to be done to convince such people that “we are all safer under a democracy”.
“The resurgence of coups d’etat in our region is a direct violation of our democratic tenets and represents a threat to peace, security and stability in West Africa. This situation hinders the much needed economic and social development of the region.
“We should not renege on our collective duties and obligations to ensure a peaceful democratic, just, stable and prosperous community,” he said.
The President also urged member states to examine critically the rising phenomenon in the region so that “we take the necessary decisions that meet the aspirations and expectations of our people”.
He said the rest of the world was waiting to see the outcome of the meeting, including a firm decision the body would arrive at on the situation in Burkina Faso.
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Terrorism
President Akufo-Addo said the phenomenon of coups d’etat was a complex security environment occasioned by terrorist attacks and pandemics.
He quoted the ECOWAS supplementary protocol on democracy and good governance adopted in 2001, which states that the principles of constitutional conversion provides that any ascension to power must be through free, fair and transparent elections, adding that unconstitutional change is prohibited, as well as any undemocratic method of gaining or retaining power.
The President also stressed a zero tolerance for power obtained or maintained by unconstitutional means, saying “the Armed Forces must be apolitical and must be under the command of a legally constituted political authority”.
It further states that no serving member of the armed forces may seek to run elective political office.