Tinubu on ECOWAS Rostrum

Emma Okondu

Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will soon be one year in office as the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the regional body comprising Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’ Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Togo.

As the multilateral institution closest to Nigeria, and to which the country is a formidable member for many reasons, Nigerians tend to be quite interested in developments within the community, and West Africans have come to expect more whenever this regional body is headed by a Nigerian.

Looking back to its founding in 1975, a number of Nigerian leaders have at various times been called upon to chart the same course as President Tinubu, leading the community      through calm and turbulent times. Each of these leaders had left behind formidable records of their efforts to cement the unity of member states and advance the economic progress of the community.

When Tinubu joined this club of leaders of member countries of ECOWAS at their 63rd Ordinary Session in Bissau, capital of Guinea Bissau in early July 2023 to present himself as the leader of the sub-regional body, it marked his first step on the African continental platform.

When the leaders chose him to lead the bloc at the union’s 48th anniversary, it was a massive vote of confidence in the new president who was inaugurated less than two months earlier. As he took over from the host country’s President Umaro Embalo, Tinubu effectively mounted the rostrum and placed himself on a pedestal, assuming the proverbial head that wears the crown. Once again, I am reminded of President Tinubu’s theory on the mechanics of leadership.

In the Guardian newspaper of Nigeria issue of Friday, March 29, 2024, he reportedly said: “In politics you can’t be a spectator and hope to succeed. It is like a football game. In the course of playing, you sustain injuries and have bruises. You nurse your injuries and bruises and continue to play. That’s the only way you can win.”

So, there is no doubt that when Tinubu saw himself in the West African pitch he was upbeat, eager to introduce new approaches to doing things.  He was immediately concerned with the threat to peace in West Africa and the menace of totalitarian regimes. “We must stand firm on democracy…. We will not allow coup after coup in West Africa,” he said.

Apparently, as a dye in the wool democrat, he understood instinctively that the struggle for political stability in individual nations is inherently proportional to the level of cooperation and regional integration that ECOWAS can hope to achieve. He was a leader spreading the same message of renewed hope and progress that he preached throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria in the period leading to the February 2023 elections.

President Tinubu has since proved how steadfast he was on the necessity for peace, security and well-being of all the member countries and their peoples.

If the ECOWAS Chairman was infuriated with the coup d’etat in the Republic of Niger that dislodged President Mohamed Bazoum on 26th July, 2024, it was because he had a natural abhorrence for military regimes, and because the ECOWAS leader had earlier warned against such acts of brinkmanship by military and civilian adventurists. It was also because like every right thinking democrat, it was the last thing to expect   from Niger, Nigeria’s closest neighbour to the north, which shares common interests and even common ancestry with many northerners.

So, between the ECOWAS leaders’ first Extraordinary Summit in Abuja on 30th July, 2023 and the second of 10th August, 2023, the anger over the defiant posture by the military authorities in Niger led by General Abdourahmane Tchiani rose astronomically. What followed was a number of heated debates over sovereignty, the correct way to take over power in a civilized society, the merits of democracy over militarism the unintended sufferings of innocent citizens across the two borders as a result of the sanctions, and soon after, the ill-advised decision of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso to withdraw their membership of the regional institution.

According to the ECOWAS leader, the mandatory sanctions on Niger, the one-week ultimatum for restoration of constitutional order and the threat to raise a standby force may be tough resolutions but it was within the rights of the member states to take them, and they attested to the “power of collaboration and unity among member states” especially as “all diplomatic efforts were … rejected (by the junta) at various intervals.”

However, to the relief of many, especially the suffering people of Niger republic, Chairperson Tinubu in the Extraordinary Summit in Abuja on February 2024 held to discuss Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger’s purported withdrawal from the regional group, demonstrated high leadership acumen by rescinding the debilitating sanctions. He told his colleagues that they “must re-examine our current approach to our quest for constitutional order in four (Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Niger) of our member states,” as the situation in the sub region “demand difficult but courageous decisions” that required them to put the plight of the people at the centre of their deliberations. Thus began the healing process that has since lowered the political temperature of the region. As Tinubu noted,

“Democracy is nothing more than the political framework and the path to addressing the basic needs and aspirations of the people.”

That statement clearly showed how progressive and how bold his leadership was, because while the regional body fought a rearguard battle with the juntas, valuable time was being wasted and energies dissipated as security challenges persisted and the lives of the people of West Africa remain poor, and endangered.

Softening his earlier hardline tone particularly with respect to Niger, Tinubu certainly took into consideration the aggregate of public opinion, and the impassioned plea of the only surviving founding father of ECOWAS, Nigeria’s General Yakubu Gowon who urged the lifting of sanctions and the return of the three defiant countries to the fold.

As Tinubu constantly explained, he had no personal agenda in the matter and he urged junta leaders not see him and his colleagues as enemies but as allies on the path to ensure that their citizens partake in all the “benefits of regional integration initiative” like other citizens across the region.

Indeed, for the ECOWAS leaders to have swiftly approved President Tinubu’s persuasive memo presented by the ECOWAS Commission lifting all manner of sanctions and restrictions placed on Niger, Mali and Guinea was an outstanding vote of confidence on the leadership of the Nigerian leader. He continued to consolidate his support by expanding the pool of opinion available for his consideration and taking contributions from all relevant stakeholders.

At the inauguration of the first session of the sixth legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja on the 4th of April, 2024 he spoke within the context of the need for wider consultations with the people’s representatives, for expanded citizen participation.

One of the brighter implications of Tinubu’s one year at the helm of ECOWAS is his savvy interventions that no doubt contributed to resolving the political impasse in Senegal where President Macky Sall gave in to popular desire to berth a credible presidential election that gave birth to a successor, Bassirou Diomaye Faye in March 2024. That success story of democracy no doubt has a benevolent effect on the sustainable growth of democractic governance in the region and may yet propel the people living under dictatorial regimes to push for civil elections in their countries.

There is also the less known story of how his intervention in Sierra Leone stopped former Presidents John Bai Koroma and his immediate successor Julius Maada Bio from re-enacting the events that led to a gruesome civil war in that country. Now Koroma has been resettled in Nigeria and there is peace once more in Sierra Leone.

In conclusion I am reminded of U.S. President Harry Truman who said after Adolf Hitler’s surrender in World War 11 that, “it is easier to remove tyrants… than it is to kill the ideas which gave them birth”. In a number of his speeches, President Tinubu has insisted that unless democracy provides the dividends it promised, unless people see that civilian governments take care of their well-being and reduce poverty in their lands, the threat of coups will not go away.

History is replete with leaders experiencing challenges and difficulties as they strived to steer the ship of state, therefore Tinubu’s path on the rostrum will meet some rough patches. What is however not in doubt is that as leader of the regional body, Tinubu has been able to take decisive measures to discourage impunity, to encourage dialogue and to bring more peace to the region.

Okondo is former deputy director News, NTA Headquarters