The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Africa Reparation. The idea of African Unity as a mechanism of African reparation, pioneered by Dr Kwame Nkrumah and his compatriots, gave birth to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963. As the years passed other organisations aiming at economic integration were instituted in different regions of Africa. Amongst these regional institutions shaped in post-colonial Africa was the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The roots of the ECOWAS go far back to 1964, when President William Tubman of Liberia proposed the idea of creating a West African community. The following year, 1965, four West African countries, two Anglophone (Liberia and Sierra Leone), and two Francophone countries (Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire), signed an agreement amongst themselves, but without really creating any form of community. Seven years later, in 1972, Generals Yakoub Gowon of Nigeria and Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo expressed the idea again and convinced their counterparts to institute an Economic Community in West Africa. After a series of preliminary meetings in 1973, 1974 and early 1975 in Lomé, Accra and Monrovia respectively, the ECOWAS was created. The distinctiveness of this Community, created on May 28, 1975 by the Charter of Lagos, compared to other associations such as the Commonwealth and the Francophonie is that it was founded on purely economic grounds. Like the African Union, it is an all-African institution that aims at promoting economic development in the region. It has also, so far, partially managed to evade the colonial cultural divide of languages and public administration in the Member States of the community. The treaty that established the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was signed by fifteen (15) West African States to attain economic cooperation and integration amongst the people of West Africa. Cape Verde became the sixteenth Member State of the Community immediately after its inception, in 1976. However, Mauritania withdrew in 2002, because of its disagreement on “community policies,” thereby reducing the ECOWAS membership to fifteen (15). The community has now eight Francophone Member States,(1) five Anglophone(2) and two Lusophone countries.(3) To appraise the degree of achievement of the ECOWAS and its impact on African reparation especially in the West African region, in the form of sustainable socio-economic development, we have to take into account its objectives and functioning, as well as its political and military impact on governance and peacekeeping, which has now become an increasingly greater facet of its programme of activities due to the multitude of conflicts in the Community. According to the Revised Treaty of ECOWAS, 1993, its main objective is: ...to promote co-operation and integration, leading to the establishment of an economic union in West Africa in order to raise the living standards of its peoples, and to maintain and enhance economic stability, foster relations among Member States and contribute to the progress and development of the African Continent.(article 3) To realise these objectives, the Member States have chosen common economic resolutions. The Treaty also defined the attachment of Member States to the following fundamental principles: …equality and inter-dependence; solidarity and collective self-reliance; inter-State co-operation, harmonisation of policies and integration of programmes; non-aggression between Member States; maintenance of regional peace, stability and security…; peaceful settlement of disputes…; recognition, promotion and protection of human and peoples’ rights in accordance with the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights; accountability, economic and social justice and popular participation in development; … promotion and consolidation of a democratic system of governance…; and equitable and just distribution of the costs and benefits of economic co-operation and integration. (article 4) The aim of the new treaty was discernibly to give teeth to the project of economic integration and development that envisaged economic and monetary union, as well as a strong political co-operation amongst the ECOWAS Member States. The ECOWAS is a pioneering association because before its inception, African nationalists had, since Independence, concentrated more on political integration at the expense of the economy. However, the Community is not only about economic integration, it also deals, as we have just noted, with a variety of domains. The state of political instability in the West African region incited the ECOWAS to adopt a protocol on Non-aggression in Lagos, in 1978, which essentially provided for peaceful resolution of disputes in Member States. The Non-aggression protocol was followed by a relatively more elaborate protocol on Mutual Assistance on Defence (MAD), signed in Freetown in 1981, and in July 1991, Declaration A/DCL.1/7/91 on Political Principles was signed in Abuja. In 2001, Protocol A/SP1/12/01 on Democracy and Good Governance, which was Supplementary to a previous protocol signed in 1999, relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security was signed. For the security of its Member States, the Authority of Heads of State and Government created the ECOMOG (4) in 1990, whose intervention for peacekeeping was operationalised at the Liberian bloody civil conflict in August 1991, with eleven ECOWAS member states contributing soldiers to the ECOMOG, as well as Uganda and Tanzania. The mechanism for conflict resolution of the ECOWAS therefore provides a framework for intervention in the region in the event of inter and intra State armed conflict in the Community with the ECOMOG as the intervention force. It has contributed to putting an end to major intra-community conflicts, especially in Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast. The 1975 Treaty had provided for the following institutions of the Community: the Authority of Heads of State and Government; the Council of Ministers; the Executive Secretariat; the Tribunal of the Community; and Technical and Specialised Commissions, namely the: i. Trade, Customs, Immigration, Monetary and Payments Commission, ii. Industry, Agriculture and Natural Resources Commission, iii. Transport, Telecommunication and Energy Commission, and iv. Social and Cultural Affairs Commission. When the Treaty was revised in 1993, the institution of the Tribunal of the Community was replaced by the Community Court of Justice. The new treaty established new institutions such as the Community Parliament, the Economic and Social Council and the Fund for Co-operation, Compensation and Development. The second institutional reform (5) of the ECOWAS in 2007, transformed the Executive Secretariat into the ECOWAS Commission, headed by a President. The revision of the 1975 Treaty and the subsequent institutional reform of 2007 were motivated by a number of events, in and outside the region that required restructuring the strategies and approaches of the ECOWAS in view of transforming it into a more authentic instrument of regional economic growth and integration. The Revised Treaty, 1993, has thus geared towards extending economic and political co-operation and integration among Member States; it identified the accomplishment of a common market and a single common currency as economic objectives. In the political domain it has provided for a West African parliament, and the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice to replace the existing Tribunal as a means of effectively enforcing Community decisions, and an Economic and Social Council. The treaty has also put more emphasis on preventing and settling regional conflicts. The Authority of Heads of State and Government of the ECOWAS, which composes of Heads of State and/or Government of Member States, is the supreme authority of the Community. It determines the major guidelines and policies by embarking on measures to ensure its development and the realisation of its objectives. The Authority also prepares and adopts its own “Rules of Procedure,” and appoints the President of the Commission in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty. It also appoints the External Auditors on the recommendation of the Council. (article 7) The Authority meets once a year at least in ordinary session. An extraordinary session may be convened by the Chairperson of the Authority or at the request of a Member State on condition that such a request is supported by a simple majority of the Member States. (article 8) The Council of Ministers comprises the Minister in charge of the ECOWAS Affairs or any other Minister designated by a Member State. The Council is responsible for the functioning and development of the Community. (article 10) It therefore, makes recommendations to the Authority of Heads of State and Government on actions and strategies according to the objectives of the Community. The Council prepares and adopts the rules of procedure of the Community; it also adopts the Staff Regulations, approves the structure, the budgets and work programmes of the Community and its institutions. (ibid) The Council of Ministers meets at least biannually in ordinary session. One of the two sessions usually immediately precedes the ordinary session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government. The Chairperson of the Council may convene an extraordinary session at the request of a Member State supported by a simple majority. (article 11) The President of the Commission, who is appointed by the Authority of Heads of State and Government for a four (4) year term renewable once, is the legal representative of all the institutions of the Community and the Chief Executive Officer of the Commission. The President coordinates the activities of all the institutions of the Community, represents the ECOWAS in its international relations and takes care of policy analysis, strategic planning and regional integration activities. A Vice President, who is also appointed for a mandate of four (4) years and accompanied by seven (7) Commissioners, assists the President. The role of the Vice President is to ensure the organisational continuity of the Community, especially in the absence of the President. The Vice President therefore supports the President in the exercise of duties related to the mandate of the ECOWAS. The Vice President also monitors, coordinates, and evaluates programmes, and relations between the Commission and other ECOWAS institutions. The Vice President supervises the Community Computer Center and discharges other duties conferred by the President of the Commission. As the Assembly of the peoples of the Community, the House of Representatives is the Parliament of the ECOWAS. It is equally known as the Community Parliament and is located in Abuja, Nigeria. The ECOWAS Parliament is a forum for dialogue, consensus building and consultation as a factor of enhancing integration. Members of the Parliament are drawn from the national parliaments of each Member State; therefore members who lose their seats in the national parliament also lose their ECOWAS Parliamentary seat. Presently the Parliament only plays a consultative and advisory role without legislative powers; its members, as we have seen, are not elected directly. The Parliament comprises one hundred and fifteen (115) seats, with each Member State having a minimum of five seats. The remaining forty (40) seats are shared according to the populations of Member States. The Revised Treaty, 1993, stipulates that the number and distribution of parliamentary seats could be reviewed by the Authority on its own initiative or upon the recommendation of the Parliament. Representation for each Member States as follows: No Name of country No of seats 01 Benin five(5) 02 Burkina Faso six(6) 03 Cape Verde five(5) 04 Cote dIvoire seven(7) 05 Gambia five (5) 06 Ghana eight(8) 07 Guinea six(6 08 Guinea Bissau five(5) 09 Liberia five(5) 10 Mali six(6) 11 Niger six(6) 12 Nigeria thirty five (35) 13 Senegal six(6) 14 Sierra Leone five(5) 15 Togo five(5) The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, also created by the 1993 Revised Treaty, is the judicial organ of the Community, mandated to resolve disputes related to the Treaty of ECOWAS, protocols and conventions, by addressing complaints from Member States and institutions of the Community; it equally addresses issues relating to defaulting Member States. The Community Court alsohas competence to hear individual complaints of alleged human rights violations. Its offices are established in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. In 2005, the Supplementary Protocol A/SP.1/01/05, gave the Court jurisdiction to rule on cases of violations of human rights in any Member States. Protocol A/SP1/12/01 on Democracy and Good Governance provides that the Court hears inter alia, cases relating to violations of human rights. The Economic and Social Council of the Community plays an advisory role on economic and social matters and includes representatives of the various categories of economic and social activity. The ECOWAS Fund for Cooperation, Compensation and Development provided by article 21 of the 1993 Revised Treaty, gives compensation and related forms of assistance to Member States which have incurred losses as a result of the application of the provisions of the Treaty. The fund also provides loans and grants to finance national or community research and development activities, and promote development projects in the relatively less developed Member States of the Community. The Specialised Technical Commissions of the ECOWAS comprise: i. Food and Agriculture; ii. Industry, Science and Technology and Energy; iii. Environment and Natural Resources; iv. Transport, Communications and Tourism; v. Trade, Customs, Taxation, Statistics, Money and Payments; vi. Political, Judicial and Legal Affairs, Regional Security and Immigration; vii. Human Resources, Information, Social and Cultural Affairs; and viii. Administration and Finance Commission. According to the Revised Treaty, the Authority of Heads of State and Government might restructure the Specialised Technical Commissions or establish new ones, whenever it deems it necessary. (article 22) The Commissions are composed of representatives of Member States, and each establish subsidiary commissions to support it in carrying out its task. Under the advice of the Council of Ministers, the Commissions meet as frequently as required; they prepare their rules of procedure for the Council’s approval. The functions of the Specialised Technical Commissions are to prepare projects and programmes within their fields of competence for the consideration of the Council of Ministers through the President of the Commission. The projects and programmes may be drawn on the initiative of the Commissions or at the request of either the Council or the ECOWASCommission. The Commissions also ensure the coordination and harmonisation of projects and programmes, facilitate and monitor the application of the provisions of the Treaty and protocols pertaining to their domains of responsibility, and carry out other functions allocated to them. (article 23, 24) After the July 2013 institutional reform, the ECOWAS now has six new departments, namely Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and Information Technology; Industry and Private Sector Promotion; and Finance and Administration. Manifestly, the Treaty of ECOWAS has revealed a huge aspiration for integration and development in the economic sector, which is the principal reason for its existence. Its Revised Treaty, 1993, that, as we have seen, extended political and economic co-operation among Member States, and sets the achievement of a common market and a single currency as economic objectives. The same Treaty provides, in the political sphere, for a West African Parliament, an Economic and Social Council and an ECOWAS Court of Justice to replace the existing Tribunal and enforce Community decisions. The Treaty also formally assigned the Community the responsibility for preventing and settling regional conflicts. The ambitions of the founders vis-à-vis the objectives of the ECOWAS defined by its Treaties have however not yet thoroughly been attained especially in its main domain, the economy, after nearly forty years of existence. The Organisation is progressively putting in place the modalities of free movement of citizens, goods and services in the community as stipulated in the 1979 Protocol A/P.1/5/79 relating to the free movement of people, residence and establishment, programmed to be implemented in stages within fifteen (15) years, but the project of a common currency (6) in West Africa, to replace the franc CFA, (7) and other currencies in the region, which was initiated during the 22nd Summit of Heads of State and Government, held in Lome, in December 1999, has been staggering. It is worth highlighting that this project of monetary union, actually started as early as 1975, when the West Africa Clearing House (WACH) (8) was created. The objectives of the WACH were to promote the use of the currencies of member countries of the Clearing House in trade, and to motivate them to liberalise trade and promote economic and monetary arrangement amongst themselves. The WACH was therefore established as a means of payment for transactions among institutions within the Community. The West Africa Bankers’ Association (WABA) as a professional association of financial and banking institutions and services, was subsequently established in 1978, to support the operations of the WACH, a scheme to which other financial and credit institutions joined. The Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the ECOWAS launched the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Programme (EMCP) nine years later, subsequently leading to the establishment of the West African Monetary Agency (WAMA) in 1995, to ensure that the process was systematically linked to the ultimate creation of a single monetary zone in the Community. Collectively, the EMCP and WAMA aimed at adopting common policies to achieve a harmonised system and a common central institution in the region by the year 2000. The main objective of this in the short term was to reinforce the methods of payment, which further led to the introduction of the ECOWAS Travellers’ Cheque. In the medium term, the aim was to achieve limited currency convertibility, and in the long term, to achieve a single monetary zone in the sub-region characterised by the use of a common single currency and the creation of a common central bank. The effective realisation of a common single currency is very vital for the sub-region in the sense that it will reduce the cost of transactions by avoiding the use of currencies foreign to the Community, for example the Dollar or the Euro. This helps to combat speculation and ensure price stability, which under normal circumstances stimulates trade and the growth of business within the Community. In the perspective of economic integration, the common currency will therefore render trade more effective in the West African region where a lot of informal trade takes place, which constitutes a huge loss in revenue, simply because informal traders do not pay tax on their transactions and the money conversions are usually carried out by illegal money dealers in unfair competition with banks and exchange bureaux. The single currency will also have the positive effect of disciplining countries in the economic partnership by coercing them to manage their economies more effectively to respect the criteria, which will further promote economic growth and development enabling the region to be competitive in international trade. However, the monetary sector of the ECOWAS has been differentiated by two sub-groups: one consists of the eight UEMOA (9) countries, basically Francophone with a unique currency, the franc CFA as well as a customs union. The second group consists of the remaining seven ECOWAS Member States, mostly Anglophone, each of which has its own currency, namely the Cedi of Ghana, the Dalasi of the Gambia, the Escudo of Cape Verde, the Franc of Guinea (Conakry), the Dollar of Liberia, the Naira of Nigeria and the Leone of Sierra Leone. Five (10) of the seven Member States have joined efforts in an institutional cooperative framework to establish a second monetary zone: the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), whose objective is to establish a common market characterised by a single currency and common central bank to replace the existing national currencies. The realisation of the common currency of ECOWAS has therefore necessitated the adoption, beforehand, of a common monetary and exchange rate policy of the West African Monetary Zone, i.e. countries out of the CFA zone, before a fusion of the two zones to institute the West African Common currency. In the framework of monetary cooperation of the ECOWAS, the WAMZ established the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, in March 2001, as an intermediary organ responsible for setting up the West African Central Bank (WACB). For the WAMI to effectively monitor the creation of the proposed West African currency, member states of the WAMZ were expected to meet a set of primary and secondary macroeconomic convergence criteria before the monetary integration. The WAMI outlined the commitments of member countries to adopt policies that would allow price stability, including maintaining inflation rates inferior or equal to 5% of GDP as well as a sustainable fiscal position. Member countries of the West African Monetary Zone must build a stable situation of public finance and limit the financing of budget deficits to less than 10% tax revenue. Members of the zone also need to maintain efficient external reserves of about 6 months import cover, tax receipts of about 20% of GDP and the capacity to generate as much as about 20% of public investment from the domestic economy. The anticipated common currency of the second zone has been named the ECO, and the initial date set for its introduction was January 2003. However by November 2002, it became cleared that the countries of the potential ECO zone would not manage to meet the convergence criteria, which consequently forced the ECOWAS to push the dates of introducing the ECO to July 2005, then to 2009, then to 2010 and then to 2015. The fusion of the franc CFA of the UEMOA and ECO of the WAMZ is now projected for 2020. The will to adopt a common currency in West Africa that in turn will undergo a probationary period of at least three years before it gets into the Community as a common currency for the fifteen (15) Member States has emerged from good intentions. However, the common single currency programme has not yet been successful, because of various factors. First of all the delay fixed to harmonise monetary policies has been apparently too short, consequently, the fifteen (15) countries involved in the project have found it enormously difficult to meet the convergence criteria, because the economies of the countries involved are at different stages of development. Also the ECOWAS intends to bring together the economies of two categories of countries essentially different: countries of the franc CFA zone that has an internationally convertible currency, and the others deprived of this advantage but some of whose demographic and economic weight are considerable, such as Nigeria. In the ECOWAS zone where there are several national currencies including the franc CFA, as we have seen, the differences amongst the currencies remain significant. For the economic integration and collective autonomy through a common market articulated around an economic and monetary union to be efficiently realisable, other measures must however be taken to avoid a situation in which some Member States impose their will on others with relatively weak economies. In short the economic adjustment programme of Member States of the ECOWAS must be structurally and efficiently planned. Also a credible monetary union necessitates the establishment of an effective and sustainable Customs union, which is yet to be effective in the Community. The Community has suffered a huge diversity of resource and capacity limitation, because the Member States are different in their sizes, their natural resources, their states of development, their relations with the world market and their colonial histories. The Gambia with relatively few natural resources, and Liberia that has emerged from a ten-year civil war, have neither the same interests, nor the same economic potentials as huge petroleum producer Nigeria. Anglophone Ghana does not have the same economic objectives as Francophone Senegal. The convergence of economic and financial policies has therefore become a difficult mission considering these enormous disparities of interest and capabilities that exist amongst the Member States. Around the end of 2002, it became practically impossible to respect the calendar for monetary union scheduled for January 2003. The situation of economic convergence of Member States in the course of 2003 was judged insufficient. Therefore the principal shortcoming to the project of a common currency is the Member States’ diversity of interests combined with their weakness in micro-economic convergence, illustrated by their inability to maintain fixed criteria. During meetings of the WAMZ in Conakry, Guinea, between August 30 and September 3, 2004, the Heads of State and Government asked the West African Monetary Institute to conduct a study to determine the positions of Member States with regards to the institution of the monetary union. The result of this study was exposed to the authorities during the meetings held in Banjul, the Gambia, between May 2 and 6, 2005 (wami-imao.ors). (11) The Community is without doubt a bright architecture and a progressive form and attempt of regional economic integration, but these weaknesses that weigh on it hamper the capacity of its members to abide by the rules and follow a consistent strategy for a single currency. The Protocol relating to the free movement of persons, residence and establishment adopted in Dakar in May 1979, followed by supplementary protocols, in 1986 and 1990 on the same issue, to be implemented in stages in fifteen (15) years, has, as indicated, been relatively progressive; however it has been put into difficulty by some Member States. The ECOWAS free trade area, which is known as the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS), aims at the free movement of transport, goods and persons within the Community, as well as the removal of all tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, to promote greater economic growth. The long term objective of the Free Trade Area is to progress to a full customs union and ultimately a common market to facilitate trade in the region. However the implementation of the ETLS has so far not been effectively successful. On the issue of free movement of persons, the Authority of Heads of State and Government adopted and launched the ECOWAS passport at its 23rd session in Abuja, in May 2000, in view of the ECOWAS citizenship. The ECOWAS passport was to progressively replace national passports within the period of five years. However, up to now, the majority of Member States have not yet issued the passport to their citizens. Also, although the Community has abolished visas there are still some difficulties in implementing the ECOWAS protocols guaranteeing migrant workers in other Member States their rights as citizens of the Community, and for entrepreneurs to rightfully settle in other Member States of the Community. There are still a large number of checkpoints which pose unvarying sources of harassment for ECOWAS travellers. Nigeria, which massively expelled citizens of other Member States including Benin, Burkina Faso and Ghana in 1984, had argued that the protocol of free movement of people did not authorise living in the country beyond 90 days and that the stay should not be accompanied by a search for work. Nigeria is in fact underprivileged with regards to immigration, because its relative economic prosperity has attracted citizens of other Member States. Apart from the difficulties concerning the free movement of people in the Community, the lifting of Customs and Excise duties has also met with some problems at the frontiers and Customs posts in many Member States of the community. Some acts of fraud have been reported on the highway that goes from Cotonou, Benin to Niamey, (Niger). The situation is similar between the ports of Lomé, (Togo) and Ouagadougou, (Burkina Faso). Member States have therefore taken measures to remedy the problem by creating national committees to follow-up the programmes on the free movement of people and goods, which has led to the establishment of an insurance card, today in service in many Member States. Some countries in the Community might have reasonably feared that the reduction or the outright elimination of Customs and Excise duties with regional partners would deprive them of an important source of revenue. The sources of income from Customs and Excise being in general limited, fear of losing revenue coming from Customs duties could further hinder trade liberalisation in the Community, except if the compensation fund that has been put in place is effectively administered. The treaty of ECOWAS envisaged payment of compensation subject to losses in revenue in relation to Customs and Excise duties to relatively small and less competitive Member States unable to stand competition from other Member States. The ECOWAS Travellers’ Cheques, introduced in 1998, after several postponements, was supposed to be a practical, efficient and simple means of payment that should allow paying for expenses in any ECOWAS Member State or obtaining cash in the national currencies. Businessmen, tourists or ordinary travellers could pay for their hotel expenses, acquire merchandise and even procure local currencies in banks and exchange bureaux. They were therefore to facilitate payments, and accordingly satisfy users. However the ECOWAS Travellers’ Cheques have been only slightly successful due primarily to inadequate publicity and bureaucratic bottlenecks. The West African Bankers Association (WABA), in Nigeria had advised that for ECOWAS Travellers’ Cheques to be successful there was a need for massive public awareness in order to ensure adequate public knowledge and patronage for it. (modernghana) This instrument of payment was supposed to reduce the disparities amongst the values of the currencies in the Community. As a result it shows the will of Member States of the ECOWAS to reinforce the process of economic integration in the zone. In terms of the maintenance of peace and security, the ECOWAS is recognised as having the most advanced peace and security arrangement amongst the economic communities in Africa. This is aided by its mandate to intervene not only politically, but also militarily in its Member States in case of the imminence of serious social disaster and a threat to peace and security, especially when an attempt has been made to overthrow democratically elected governments. The Community equally has the authority to intervene in situations where the human rights of its citizens have been threatened or violated. The ECOWAS’ approach to deal with conflicts emerged from the principle that without peace, integration and development are not possible. Therefore in spite of enormous difficulties and setbacks, the peacekeeping mechanism of the ECOWAS has had relatively more success. The Community has also been more active in the procedure of mediation as a means of finding preventive measures and lasting peaceful solutions to conflicts in its Member States. Through the ECOMOG, the ECOWAS has therefore played a primary role in extinguishing several conflicts in West Africa. It helped end the war in Liberia, subsequently facilitating democratic elections in July 1997. The ECOMOG also reversed the military coup in Sierra Leone, and reinstated democratic rule in that country in 1998, which ultimately gave way to the United Nations peacekeeping force (UNAMSIL) after the 1998 Lome agreement. The ECOWAS has made successful interventions in Guinea Bissau to reverse different military overthrows, the most recent being the April 2012 coup d’état just about two weeks before the second round of the presidential election. The coup-makers were forced to return power to civilians, which led to the organisation of successful democratic elections in April and May 2014. The ECOMOG also contributed enormously to the ceasefire and maintenance of peace between the government and “rebels” in the Ivorian civil conflict in 2002. The three ECOWAS summits held in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, after the eruption of the conflict in Ivory Coast, and the intervention of 3,000 ECOMOG soldiers, did not initially bring a concrete solution to the conflict, largely because of the intransigence of the two sides in the conflict. In the long run the ECOWAS succeeded in bringing the two enemy parties to the table and has effectively maintained peace in this country, at least before the post-electoral crisis, in the resolution of which again it played an important role. Just recently, in collaboration with the African Union and the United Nations Organisation, the ECOWAS put an end to the conflict caused by the invasion of northern Mali by Islamists, which followed the March 2012 coup d’état. Working with other continental and international organisations such as the African Union, the United Nations Organisation, the Commonwealth and the Francophonie, the ECOWAS has effectively contained most of the political problems that have emerged in its Member States. In the domain of culture and languages the ECOWAS has manifested enormous interest and capacity, aware of the fact that economic integration and development in a community cannot be effective without the cultures and languages of the people of the community in question. This is why in Article 62 (c) of its Treaty, the ECOWAS manifested the desire to adopt an African language as a working language, in partnership with the existing official languages inherited from colonisation, namely English, French and Portuguese. At the sixth meeting of the ad hoc Committee in Charge of Monitoring and Evaluating the Implementation of the ECOWAS Culture Development and Integration Programme, organised in Cotonou, Benin from April 16 to 19, 2012, the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN)as a specialised institution of the African Union mandated to empower African languages, was invited to propose a way forward on the choice of a common working West African Language for ECOWAS. The ACALAN proposed three Vehicular Cross-border Languages in West Africa, namely Fulfulde, Hausa and Madenkan as working languages of the ECOWAS. At the same meeting, delegates prepared the Terms of Reference and modalities for the institution of Cultural Industries as a Creative Enterprise, and a West African Cultural Institute (WACI). This shows that the ECOWAS has strategically considered adopting the cultures and languages of the West African region as part of the building blocks of socio-economic integration and development in the Community. The problems caused by the two main colonial cultures in Francophone and Anglophone West Africa, and their consequent rivalries, have adversely affected reparation efforts in the region. However when the Member States of the Communauté Economique de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CEAO),(12) now Union économique et monétaire oust africain (UEMOA),(13) and their compatriots in Anglophone West Africa joined hands to create the ECOWAS, the recommended solution became the intensification of cooperation between the two zones that do not differ in their need for reparation. The only difference was their colonial histories and the official languages they use in administration; but the ECOWAS became regionally more open, because it is relatively larger and relatively more independent. The existence of the two monetary zones does not seem to pose any problem, since the Member States of the Community are consciously aspiring to a common independent currency. The ECOWAS is considered by far the most effective Economic Community in Africa in almost all domains, but the overall result obtained by the Community after nearly forty years of existence, as we have noted, has not matched its ambitions, for several complex reasons, some of which have already been mentioned. The mediocrity of the markets in the Community offers poor economic prospect to West African States. This has adversely affected ECOWAS projects, especially in the presence of big international commercial blocs. The multiplicity of institutions and associations having very similar, or sometimes the same objectives and the concomitant membership of the majority of Member States of the Community of several associations, have inevitably provoked conflicts of interest and inefficiency.(14) To these weaknesses, the problem of funding has been added. Some Member States of the ECOWAS have difficulty in paying their contributions. A huge problem has, in the past decades, also been created by the lack of political will, appropriate democracy and human rights by some individual Member States. These have caused enormous problems by instigating conflicts and political instability, consequently impinging on economic activities and development. There is a lack of formality of commercial activities, and little cooperation between West African central banks. The application of certain protocols of the Treaty of ECOWAS becomes sensitive and delicate because they directly affect the national interests of some Member States. Nigeria, for example, is the most vulnerable to the protocol of free movement of citizens and goods, provoking massive immigration to the country, because of its relative economic prosperity. Nonetheless, there is a great desire by West Africans to promote economic progress, integration and peace, and the spirit of solidarity that determines the emerging forces behind the continuity is progressively growing in strength. All these difficulties encountered by the ECOWAS do not therefore prevent it from undertaking the project of a common single currency, which is going on. The inception of the European Common Market took thirty-five years to become a reality and the establishment of a common European currency took even longer. (15) This should serve Africans as a lesson of courage that nothing has been lost. ECOWAS has only thirty-nine years of existence, but that lesson of courage should not be taken for granted. The reforms of the revised Treaty of ECOWAS, signed by the Heads of State during the 16th summit of the ECOWAS in Cotonou in July 1993, awakened high hopes in the Community. These reforms envisage the creation of new institutional apparatuses such as the Economic and Social Council to represent the civil society, and a Community Court of Justice to replace the community Tribunal. The new Treaty has also created a Community Parliament, a mechanism of direct regional taxation, and a Code for community investment. No country, apart from Mauritania,(16) has ever questioned its membership of the ECOWAS. The fact that it continues to exist is already an achievement for the West African people, because that shows their determination to face the many hurdles standing in front of their reparation efforts, including the artificial colonial barriers of languages. Policy-makers are thus continuing their efforts, in spite of all these problems, to make the process of economic integration more evocative. For example, the ECOWAS Commission has drawn up a Regional Poverty Reduction Strategy that supports national strategies and proposes a joint strategic framework to provide external aid to Member States as a means of accelerating regional integration. Owing to the adoption of the Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance that aims at strengthening intra-communal peace, democracy and stability, relative peace and stability have gradually established the process of democracy in the West African region. This protocol provides the ECOWAS election monitoring and observation process that has contributed enormously to the organisation of relatively free and fair elections and to the promotion of democratic institutions in Member States. Apart from the politico-military agitations in Mali and the two Guineas, (17) the governments of all the Member States of the ECOWAS have been democratically elected in the formal sense of democracy. The recent coups d’état in the Community have been brilliantly dealt with by the ECOWAS, by communally leaning on the Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance and imposing financial, economic and diplomatic sanctions on the perpetrators of the coups d’état in Mali and Guinea Bissau. The coup leaders of both Mali and Guinea Bissau had to agree to conditions imposed by the ECOWAS for transition to democracy. Therefore, in Mali and Guinea Bissau, democratic elections were conducted in late 2013 and early 2014 respectively. This is remarkable progress, because in spite of the non-aggression pact of 1978 and the 1981 protocol on mutual defence, the West African region was affected by intermittent instability in the form of civil and military conflicts, caused by the lack of democratic rule and the principles of human rights. The West African region has now enjoyed relative peace and security, thanks to the efforts of the ECOWAS. The transformation of the ECOWAS Secretariat into the ECOWAS Commission is a key reform that aims at increased democratisation of the policies and administration of the Community. The citizens of the Member States are also now becoming progressively more involved in the affairs of the Community and those of their countries through representation in the new ECOWAS parliament, whose members, we have seen, are chosen from national parliaments. In the domain of international relations, ECOWAS is consequently enjoying more recognition now. Firstly it had been mandated by the African Union to implement and coordinate the NEPAD and other programmes in West Africa. For example, the ECOWAS has been entrusted with the mandate to harmonise and coordinate the implementation of the framework of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) (18) in the West African sub-region with national authorities. Secondly, it is a key partner of the United Nations Organisation especially in the domains of economic development and the maintenance of peace and security in the West African region. The current ECOWAS Vision 2020 project, which is a long-term strategic plan seeking to provide a reference point for an integrated development approach for the West Africa region, in line with a bottom up strategy of involving community citizens for a people-centred Community development approach, is a demonstration of more commitments by the West African people to closer integration. For example through the West African Civil Society Forum (WASCOF) and other similar civil society groups, the ECOWAS Commission is promoting the active involvement of ordinary citizens in the affairs of their Community. The ECOWAS Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP), whose objective is to guarantee food security and sovereignty as a means of reducing dependence on imports by giving priority to food production and processing is another bright example of the efforts of the Community to promote economic growth and development, in all the sectors of the Community. The ECOWAP was adopted in January 2005 by the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, on the notion that national (agricultural) policies should be aligned with the global regional policy. Considering these positive elements, despite the main problem of resource and capacity limitation, the ECOWAS is really at a crossroads of African reparation. The community is, in this new millennium, enjoying relative peace and stability after decades of civil and politico-military wars. The region had been destabilised by the violence of the late 1980s and the 1990s, including massive refugee displacements due to wars, which disrupted economic activities and caused widespread diseases. One of the objectives of the ECOWAS Commission should henceforth be the continuous effective running of the compensation scheme in their common tariff project. European and North American experiences should serve as lessons for Africans, since integration requires the effective implementation of protocols, declarations and measures to reduce inequalities. Even if these inequalities are not necessarily produced by the process of the integration in question, the reduction of such disparities depends on the good functioning of the process. If we consider the case of the European Union, it disposes of a number of mechanisms that allow Member States to assist others in a relatively weaker economic situation. The ECOWAS Member States should equally find the means of effectively remedying such inequalities in the zone. The bigger and economically stronger Member States of the community should therefore strengthen the moral responsibility of sacrifice and solidarity that the Community has been exercising. As with the European Economic Community, the ECOWAS Commission must show that the vital characteristics of the harmonisation of general economic policies imply that each government disposes of some power and capacity of control over the dominant forces of the national economy. This power must not be reduced by lack of efficacy, and the fear of losing sovereignty; it must instead be strengthened by the need for integration and reparation. (1) Dahomey (Benin since 1975), Upper Volta (Burkina Faso since 1984), Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. (2) Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. (3) Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau. (4) The Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Observer Group. It was a formal arrangement for separate armed forces to work together as an army of intervention in conflicts in Member States. The Nigerian army was its main pillar and the major part of its financial source, with army units contributed by other ECOWAS members. (5) The first reform was in 1993 when the Treaty was revised in July 1993. (6) The idea to have all the Member States of the ECOWAS use a single currency is as old as the Community itself when the West Africa Clearing House (WACH) was established as a mechanism for the payment of transactions between and among institutions within the member states.. (7) The CFA franc or franc CFA in French, is a currency used in twelve former French African colonies, as well as in Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony and in Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony. The CFA franc is fixed to the euro at the rate of 100 CFA francs to 1 French (nouveau) franc, which equals to 0.152449 euro; (655.957 CFA francs = 1 euro). Until 1958, CFA meant Colonies françaises dAfrique (“French colonies of Africa”). From this date (the French Fifth Republic), it stood for Communauté française dAfrique (“French community of Africa”). Since Independence in the 1960s, CFA is taken to mean Communauté Financière Africaine (African Financial Community). (8) WACH comprise the eight Central Banks of ECOWAS member States, including the Central Bank of West African States - BanqueCentrale des États de lAfrique de lOuest, (BCEAO), which is a central bank of the West African Economic and Monetary Union – Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA), i.e., seven francophone countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, and one lusophone country: Guinea Bissau. (9) Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest .Africaine. The eight countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. (10) Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Liberia and Cape Verde are not yet members but attend WAMZ meetings as observers. (11) The studies revealed that amongst other things, the situation of convergence has shown remarkable results in 2004 relative to 2003. Nigeria and the Gambia have met three most important criteria in 2004, two in 2003 and inflation has continued to slow down. Sierra Leone has recorded appreciable results going from respect for no criterion to one in 2003, to two important criteria in 2004, while Guinea has improved its performance from non-respect of the criteria in 2003 to one first rank criterion in 2004. Ghana maintained the two criteria that it respected in 2003. In brief the criteria of the West African Monetary Zone have not totally been met and in that condition no single country is eligible to the monetary union. (12) Economic Community of West Africa (13) West African Economic and Monetary Union. (14) This multiplicity of institutions and associations having similar or even the same objectives and the concomitant membership of several associations is not exclusive to ECOWAS, it equally affects the African Union and almost all global international organisations. (15) It took Western Europe 44 years to realise a common currency, from the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) or the European Community in 1957 to the introduction of the Euro on 1st January 2002 by twelve European Union Member States. (16) Mauritania decided to quit ECOWAS in 2002, because of “the organisation’s decision to establish a common currency by 2004,” and Mauritania is not ready to give up its own currency, the Ouguiya. However, the real reason for Mauritania’s departure from ECOWAS was said to be based more on the fact that it did not have the desire to integrate in Sub-Saharan Africa or participate in the Common Market. The proof is that Mauritania has not paid its membership contribution to ECOWAS for the last 16 years, since Colonel Ould Taya seized power through a coup d’état in 1984. (17) On March 2, 2009 the president of Guinea Bissau João Bernardo Vieira, was assassinated by the army in what was alleged to have been a revenge attack following the killing of the country’s military chief. On December 23, 2008, shortly after the death of President Lansana Conté, in Guinea Conakry, a section of the army lead by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara called the National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD) declared a coup d’état. Mutinying Malian soldiers, displeased with the management of the Tuareg rebellion in North Mali, attacked the presidential palace, state television, and military barracks on 21 March, 2012. The soldiers, who had formed the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State ended up overthrowing the government of Amadou Toumani Diabate Touré forcing him into hiding. . (18) The Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) is initiated by African Governments under the auspices of the African Union/New Partnership for African Development (AU/NEPAD) to accelerate economic growth and development of African countries. It is an agriculture-led development scheme seeking to eliminate hunger, increase food and nutrition security, improve well-being, and facilitate the expansion of exports.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 13:00:45 +0000
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