…ECOWAS reiterated its promise to reduce the airfares amongst its member states. But I wonder why the emphasis as regards regional transportation is not on building railways across the region and a coastal transport system, since eleven of the ECOWAS countries are along the coast. In my view, the 51-year-old ECOWAS is dozing.
A dozen Heads of State of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) met in Lungi, Sierra Leone on 19 July. They issued the usually bland communique on a single currency, supported the illegal violation of a sister country’s sovereignty, and made false declarations on the region’s political situation and democracy.
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The West African leaders spoke tongue-in-cheek when they declared that they are satisfied with “the steady progress made in democratic consolidation and political governance, as well as the relative stability and resilience of the region, amidst increasing geopolitical and geostrategic pressures.” But what satisfaction in democratic consolidation can they be talking about when, of the current twelve countries in ECOWAS, Guinea-Bissau is under direct military rule, the five-year military junta in Guinea, headed by General Mamadi Doumbouya, has just on 31 May shed its military uniform for civilian regalia, with the people having no free choice, while Presidents Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire and Faure Gnassingbé of Togo are civilian coup plotters who continue to subvert the constitutional term limits in their countries? In fact, Gnassingbé has been in power for twenty-one years since his 2005 coup.
ECOWAS leaders lied when they talked about “the consolidation of democracy, peace, security, and the maintenance of social cohesion and stability in the region.” We who live in the West African region experience the contrary.
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Interestingly, in the same communique, these leaders who talked about “the consolidation of democracy, peace, security…” in the region also expressed their “deep concern over the continued deterioration of the security situation across the region, particularly in the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin, characterized by attacks, kidnapping and disruptive operations by Terrorist Armed Groups, TAGs…”
A specific evidence of their claimed consolidation of democracy and peace in West Africa is the unfolding events in Guinea-Bissau. On this, the ECOWAS leaders claim to take note of “the efforts underway in Guinea-Bissau to conclude the country’s political transition through a constitutional referendum slated for 30 August 2026 and the holding of general elections scheduled for 6 December 2026.”
But the ECOWAS leaders should be aware that there is no “political transition” in that country. The simple issue there is that following the 23 November, 2025 presidential election in that country, the opposition defeated then-President Umaro Mokhtar Sissoco Embaló. Rather than allow the president-elect, Fernando Dias da Costa, to take over power, in accordance with the will of the electorate, Embaló, three days after the elections, announced a coup against himself and invited the head of his presidential guard, General Horta N’Tam, to seize power.
Since the results of the elections were known, various countries and organisations demanded that they should be announced and the victor sworn in. To forestall this, General M’Tham sent soldiers to seize the ballot papers and the vote tallies and destroy the servers showing the results. Rather than hold the coup plotters responsible and insist the president-elect should be sworn in, the ECOWAS leaders went silent. Today, they are mouthing a phony “political transition.”
In further insulting the intelligence of the West African people, the ECOWAS Heads of State urged the hostage takers in Guinea-Bissau “to ensure transparency and inclusivity in these pivotal processes (and) prioritize inclusivity in all the processes leading to a swift restoration of constitutional order.” What “transparency and inclusivity”? What true “restoration of constitutional order” or transparent elections can take place in Guinea-Bissau when, since the 26 November 2025 coup, the opposition leaders have been detained illegally and threatened?
Former Prime Minister Domingos Simões Pereira, leader of the main opposition African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), was seized by soldiers immediately after the coup and locked up at the Segunda Esquadra Prison in Bissau. This January, he was moved from prison and placed under house arrest. On Friday, 10 July, that was nine days before the ECOWAS Heads of State meeting, Pereira was returned to prison and insanely charged with planning two attempted coups in 2023 and 2025 against then-President Embaló. Does it make any sense for coup plotters to try a person for allegedly plotting coups against the same government they overthrew years later? How can the ECOWAS leaders think such men would organise inclusive, free and fair elections? What is wrong with African leaders?
Also, the ECOWAS leaders declared their endorsement for the signing of the Inter-Governmental Agreement on the African Atlantic Gas Pipeline (AAGP), better known as the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP). This project is designed to transport natural gas from Nigeria to Morocco, onward to Europe.
A major issue in this project is that it passes through the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), better known as Western Sahara, which is a founding member of the African Union (AU), without the country even being consulted.
It is unacceptable that ECOWAS Heads of State would lend their support to the brigandage of Morocco militarily occupying territories and the coastline of a fellow African country.
Equally, the Nigerian delegation to the Lungi ECOWAS meeting, led by Vice President Kashim Shettima, did not appear to have fully considered the economic interests of the country before endorsing this project along with other ECOWAS leaders. The Moroccan option is a long 6,000 to 6,900-kilometre pipeline that traverses fourteen countries. In contrast, the alternative Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP), designed to pipe gas from Nigeria to Algeria onward to Europe, is 4,128 kilometres, or about two-thirds of the Moroccan length, and passes through only three countries: Nigeria, Niger and Algeria. While the estimated cost of the Moroccan project is $25 billion, the Algerian option is $13 billion, or about half the Moroccan cost, and they are both to transport annually the same 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas. Also, while Morocco does not have a gas pipeline to Europe, Algeria has the existing Trans-Mediterranean Maghreb-Europe Pipeline.
Commendably, the ECOWAS leaders considered a roadmap for the activation of a Counter-Terrorism Brigade to assist in fighting bandits and terrorists. They also extended the consultations aimed at normalising ECOWAS relations with the breakaway Sahel states of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. However, they also made another of their bland promises on an ECOWAS single currency, the ECO, which has been in the works for a quarter of a century. Their promise is that this will be launched in 2027.
Equally, ECOWAS reiterated its promise to reduce the airfares amongst its member states. But I wonder why the emphasis as regards regional transportation is not on building railways across the region and a coastal transport system, since eleven of the ECOWAS countries are along the coast. In my view, the 51-year-old ECOWAS is dozing.
Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.
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