General News of Tuesday, 25 January 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-01-25Citizens view ECOWAS as a presidents’ club - Adib Saani
Security Analyst, Adib Saani
Expect more coups if human insecurity issues are not resolved - Security Analyst
ECOWAS has lost its legitimacy - Adib Saani
Coup makers no longer fear ECOWAS sanctions - Security Analyst
Citizens of West African countries see the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) as a presidents’ club, a security analyst, Adib Saani has said.
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According to him, citizens of ECOWAS member countries see the body one that has not necessarily taken actions to reflect their interest.
Speaking to GhanaWeb, Adib Saani said this view of the body by the citizenry has made the body lose its legitimacy in the eyes of many of them.
He also said coups are becoming more frequent in the sub region because the coup makers view ECOWAS as powerless and illegitimate.
“ECOWAS has lost legitimacy; ECOWAS has lost respect in the eyes of West African Citizens. Because they see it as a president’s club rather representing the interest of the citizens of ECOWAS. That is why a lot of these militaries decide to take over power without fear of ECOWAS sanctions,” he told GhanaWeb.
He added that even though ECOWAS was relatively performing well in terms of economic integration, it was performing poorly in the area of security in the sub region.
“Perhaps with economic integration, ECOWAS has done well but to talk about security, ECOWAS has done a bad job. I do not think it has done enough to improve security in the sub -region,” he added.
Adib Saani further stated that the major issue that accounts for the military coups and other political upheavals in the sub-region is human insecurity.
“There are serious issues with human security within the West African Sub-region and for countries such as Burkina Faso it is a major issue with a lot of the people living on less than a dollar a day. And Burkina Faso ranking 182 out of 189 in the human development index,” Adib said.
He added that unless leaders of ECOWAS countries take practical steps to resolve these insecurities, the leaders should prepare themselves for more political upheavals.
