At 50, ECOWAS is now driven by a people-centred policy, with strong political will at the highest level, to achieve inclusive governance in free movement of people and trade. This is to ensure political stability and economic emancipation, despite existential challenges, and exit of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger
By Abubakar Hashim
What the founding fathers conceived in Lagos in 1975, as an economic bloc, has snowballed into a peacekeeping, political is, today, celebrated as a people-centric community.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will be 50, Wednesday May 28, 2025.
ECOWAS was initially formed as an economic bloc, similar to the European Union (EU), as a facilitator, to promote regional economic affairs, thereby attaining economic integration, to fast track industrialisation in the region.
During this period, the founding fathers, Nigeria’s Yakubu Gowon, now 90, Liberia’s late William Tolbert, Sierra Leone’s late Siaka Stevens, others, met in Lagos in 1975, to form and ratified ECOWAS treaty.
But this economic blue print was short lived. In the late 1980’s, 1990’s, and even in early and mid 2000’s, the region was engulfed with multilayered crises, ranging from military coups, counter coups and civil wars.
It was the civil strifes in Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, others, that, officially, transforned ECOWAS into a peacekeeping force called ECOMOG.
In these countries, particularly in Liberia and in Sierra Leone, ECOMOG performed spectacularly proficient in ending the wars.
Today, at 50, ECOWAS, has moved away to a people-centric platform, transcended beyond an economic and peacekeeping platform, onto a people-to-people forum, aimed to promote citizen’s welfare in the region. This is so, as the 400 million people in the 15 member countries appear to be disconnected from governance.
To mark its 50th anniversary, ECOWAS mobilises youth around a conference on the development of an economically inclusive and peaceful West Africa. Youth unemployment, its impacts on the region, take the front burner. Youth entrepreneurship in the region also form part of the 50th golden anniversary. It is strongly believed by the golden jubilee planners that Boko Haram, terrorism, kidnapping and other myriads of insecurity in the region, are primarily caused by youth unemployment.
Today, at 50, ECOWAS is at crossroads, with six military takeovers, within three years. In 2023, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso withdrew. Citizens in these regions now prefer military regimes to civil leadership, as they feel disconnected from governance.
Another setback is lack of harmonisation of policies, like common currency and single market in the region.
To solve these set backs, at 50, the organisation is now geared toward a people driven community.
At 50, ECOWAS has achieved regional stability through ECOMOG and the recently formed ECOWAS Stabilisation Force, headquartered in Freetown.
In the area of trade, its Economic Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS), though with challenges, has helped in facilitating trade within the region.
The ETLS, ECO Single Currency, are aimed at unifying trade in the region, but the trade data within the region is still low at 10 to 15%, a far cry to what obtains in the EU and other similar bodies in Asia.
At 50, it is evidently clear the the theme of May 28, 2025 anniversary: “ A People-Centred ECOWAS”, is appropriate, backed with strong political will at the highest level, to achieve inclusive governance in free movement of people, trade, political stability and economic emancipation, to achieve industrial and economic development the region desperately needs today.
*Abubakar Hashim is our West Africa Bureau Chief