Edwin Snowe Jr: Proposed ECOWAS Standby Force Not Practicable

ECOWAS Parliament Committee Chairman on Political Affairs, Peace, Security and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), Liberia’s Senator Edwin Snowe Jr., in this interview argues that the idea of having a standby force for the sub-regional organisation may be impracticable. Ikechukwu Aleke brings the excerpts:

Why is terrorism, banditry, kidnapping still lingering in West Africa and the Sahel, despite efforts by the government and multilateral institutions to nip the violent crisis in the bud?

Yn Africa, we have African solidarity, but of late, we have been witnessing persistent interference from external forces. So, what is happening in Africa is that we need to work on very seriously and urgently the overbearing influence of external factor. The external factor is playing a major role in what is happening, be it security, slow pace of development or even the perennial poor economic outlook.

There are some African countries that are working with the United States, for example Liberia. There are some others that are working with France, example, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin Republic, and Senegal are working with France. There are a few others that are working with Russia, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso. We would not also forget the growing influence of China and its involvement in African Affairs. Regrettably, the geo-politics has taken deep root into our African culture. It has penetrated the leadership as well, because our leaders are relating with those powers that be and as they fight for space in the global sphere, it has a trickle-down effect on our continent, particularly in our sub-region and it is affecting us severely. The sooner we realise that the better it will be for us.

 Are you saying that the West is surreptitiously replicating the 1884/5 scramble for Africa in the 21th century?

It is not far from it, but I think that we now have the sophistication to curb and correct this overbearing influence of our erstwhile colonial masters. But if we allow it to linger for so long, it might leave our hands and of course we will continue to suffer in the hands of Western powers.

What is responsible for terrorism in West Africa, the Sahel region and Lake Chad Basin?

There are several factors, it is not just one. There are the issues of marginalisation, unemployment, drug abuse, where people get high on all manner of substances and lose control of their sensibilities. So, there are lot of factors that play into these situations. I believe that the sooner we take control of our own African destiny, in solidarity amongst ourselves as brothers and sisters, the better for us. Most times the people that are on the forefront of these crises in West Africa and elsewhere are not on their own, they take instructions from people they don’t even know, sometimes third or even fourth party. They are just there to implement instructions that they don’t know how it was arrived at. They don’t know what they are doing. We need to focus more on youth empowerment and education, job creation and the issue of drug abuse is playing a major role in escalating these multifaceted crisis confronting the sub region.

What is ECOWAS and its member states doing to reintegrate into society the over 6.3 million displaced persons in West Africa?

ECOWAS has its own challenges with three of our member states, I can say four, because Guinea has not fully returned to the economic bloc. ECOWAS needs a strong union, we were 15 member states and now we are 11 that are participating actively. Even with the eleven members, there are some that are indebted to ECOWAS, Liberia for example, Nigeria is the highest contributor but Nigeria is also the highest in terms of indebtedness to ECOWAS. ECOWAS has its own challenges; finance is a big problem in the day to day running of ECOWAS. I am very happy that the President of ECOWAS Commission is now proposing a summit where ECOWAS leaders can sit and express themselves and reform and rebrand ECOWAS to fit into the reality of today. We are challenged and if we don’t put our house together, it could lead to greater problem for us.

Is the proposal by ECOWAS to have a standby force to tackle terrorism, violent political crisis and other emerging security threats in the sub region practicable?

I think the idea of having an ECOWAS standby force to tackle terrorism, banditry, violent seizure of power and other emerging security threats is excellent, but may not be practicable. Not just because of the financial implications alone, but the sophistication and training of the armed forces of different member states. Niger had a crisis, and we said we were going to go into Niger with military force and other countries supported them in solidarity. Remember that Niger was prepared to face the ECOWAS forces in defence of its sovereignty because of the local solidarity and foreign support. Let us take into consideration the casualties of innocent victims, which of course would be inevitable if ECOWAS had taken the path of military force, instead of the diplomatic option.

Again, the money we would spend in creating a standby force to fight could be invested to impact our people through education, health care, and food security. There are more challenges that I think we can address with such massive fund in the sub-region, than military options that will destroy already existing infrastructural development, and depletion of human resources.

Do the police and armed forces in ECOWAS member states, possess the capacity to extinguish terrorism and other emerging security threats in the sub-region?

Terrorism is not a conventional warfare, and the armed forces strive to adhere to the Geneva Convention as well as respect the International Humanitarian law in their counter terrorism operations, whereas the terrorists and bandits go to churches and mosques to blow up the buildings and kill hundreds of worshipers without recourse to the legal instruments governing conflict of such nature.

So, it is not about capacity, our police and armed forces are sufficiently trained to surmount the challenges but they play by the rules to avoid the international outcry over human rights violations. I will suggest that the government within the sub-region should focus more on youth empowerment, food security, job creation, and fight against substance abuse. Those are the things I would like us to focus on, it may not solve the problem 100 per cent but it will help to reduce the threats.

 What do you think can be done in the short term to solve the problem of food insecurity?

You know that a hungry man is an angry man. We need to move away from political rhetoric to walk the talk. We need to create opportunity for farming, we need to deliberately invest in farming. At the ECOWAS bank for instance, we need to have a section for agriculture investment. The return on investment in agriculture in West Africa is very high. I am a farmer myself, I have over a thousand hectares of oil palm plantation in Liberia. So, I can tell you that the cost of a bag of fertilizer, especially since the crisis in Ukraine has quadrupled. So, there are challenges and I think that we need to invest in agriculture. Food Security cannot be addressed through an event or programme where quick and beautiful speeches would be made. It has to be a practical reality where people have to go back to the soil, invest in the soil and then we would have the necessary yield. That is better than talking and doing nothing.

The dream of having a single currency in West Africa has been in the pipeline for two long, what is preventing its operationalisation?

The influence of our colonial masters to a very large extent is frustrating the operationalisation of the single currency code named ECO, in West Africa. The foreign reserve of francophone West Africa is in France, if you introduce ECO, it takes away that foreign reserve from France and bring it back to West Africa. Is France willing to relinquish that? My answer is no. So, in the politics of it, we need a strong political will power to make sure that we push it through since that is what we want. We must confront the hard realities with a will power. Until we stop French involvement in running the economy of Francophone West Africa, the reality of ECO would be a dead dream.

What do you think triggered the current resurgence of coup d’états in West Africa?

Guinea in their response to the country report at the first ordinary session of ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja said that there were two coups in Guinea and people only mention one. I felt that was very interesting and the Guinea delegation explained that there was a coup against the constitution and there was a military coup. The coup against the constitution was when the president tried to seek a third term outside the constitution. Those are some of the problems. In Mali, the problem was that the president tried to manipulate the results of the parliamentary election in favour of his political party and that led to the rebellion by the military. You see what is happening in Mali today, there are factors, so there are no quick solutions to it. There are different factors that lead to these things, trying to ambush the constitution, marginalisation, crackdown on opposition unwarrantedly. For instance, in Liberia, we heard of the crisis between former president George Weah, and the current president, Joseph Boakai, over the presidential lounge at the airport. What is it that the former president will be stopped from using the presidential lounge, while travelling or coming into the country. A president who lost an election, conceded defeat before the final result was announced, handed over and walked away and then you turn around to say that he cannot use the presidential lounge, it is too childish. And those are some of the reasons why presidents don’t want to leave office because they feel that once they relinquish power, they would become tootles bulldog. We need to re-examine our democratic system and do better. The West is also not doing better, look at America today, Donald Trump is convicted but he is a forerunner in the US presidential election. So, what example are we following today? We must go back to our African tradition and culture because I believe that we have more values in our culture and traditions than what we have taken from the West.

Liberia conducted a successful presidential and parliamentary elections last year, and the reports of election observation missions were favourable. What would you recommend that other nations in West Africa should copy from Liberia’s good example?

 Election will always produce a winner, there is no need to rig election to favour yourself or your political party. Allow the people to decide who they want to be their leader. George Weah, my very good friend respected the outcome of the election, just like your former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. When they lost elections they bowed out gracefully and respected the will and decision of the electorates. Today, Weah is respected in Liberia, though the government may not give him the due courtesy he deserves, but he is highly respected by ordinary Liberian and also respected around the world. While, we encourage African leaders to leave power, we should also call on their successors not to harass them. They must not be intimidated, they must be given that courtesy and respect befitting of a former leader. In that case, we would have more leaders willingly leaving power because they know that after they have left power, they will not be harassed.