ECOWAS told to strengthen strategies to curb membership breakaways

Mr Bill Godson Ocloo, the Executive Director of the African Centre for Human Security and Emergency Management, has urged the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) to restructure its strategies to enable the regional bloc to work effectively.

“I think ECOWAS is supposed to prioritise the safety of its member States, but it seems they failed to deliver on their mandate and many members are losing interest in them.”

Mr Ocloo, also a security analyst, made the call in an interview of the Ghana News Agency, after the recent breakaway by Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso from ECOWAS regional body to form a new bloc.

He said the decision of the three countries could be triggered as a result of the increased suffering of their citizens and ECOWAS’s failure to protect them from the shackles of imperialism and attacks by jihadist groups over the years.

Mr Ocloo requested that ECOWAS should restructure and amend its strategies to favour the member countries.

He alleged that ECOWAS should work and change the perception of working in the interest of selected nations to the detriment of other members.

“If nothing is done urgently to address the current situation, we will continue to see more breakaways by many member countries who seem to have no hope in ECOWAS.”

He said the welfare, safety, and security of nations should be the agenda that should drive African countries but not mismanagement, corruption, nepotism, and others that have been the norm in Africa.

He appealed to the ECOWAS Heads of State and other relevant organisations to address any menace without delay.

GNA