ECOWAS at 50

President Allasane Quatara, scheming toward a 4th term ploy

Abubakar Hashim

ECOWAS will mark its 50th golden anniversary on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. Already, activities of the 50th anniversary have long commenced, with the theme:” People-Centric ECOWAS”.

Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest cocoa producer and exporter, the second economic powerhouse in West Africa after Nigeria, is likely to descend into a slippery slope, as a potential time bomb awaits to explode.

Incumbent President Allasane Quatara, 83, is scheming to contest for a 4th term, though the Constitution stipulates a two-term limit.

Tidjane Thiam, opposition candidate against Quatara’s 4th term bid

He succeeded to contest a thirdrd term in 2020, after the sudden death of his anointed successor, Ahmadou Coulibaly few years back. An amendment to the Constitution was made in 2016.

Côte d’Ivoire has a five-year term limit. Currently, President Quatara, with supporters of his ruling party, Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace, RHDP, are scheming for a fourthth term presidency.

A Ticking Time Bomb For ECOWAS At 50

Apart from the 4th term ploy by President Quatara and his co-travellers, opposition against him is heating up.
The banning of popular opposition leader, Tidjane Thiam, from contesting the forthcoming October 2025 Presidential elections remains a huge stumbling block ahead.

Pascal Affi N’guessan, opposition against Quatara’s 4th term ploy

Tidjane Thiam, 62, a nephew of the country’s first President, Houphouette Boigney, was banned over citizenship eligibility status. He is appealing the court ruling and claims the ban is political. But the court had ordered his name struck off the presidential contenders, because he had taken French citizenship in 1987. Thiam is still fighting his case in court, stating that incumbent President Quatara, too, has a similar fate, as his father is from Burkina Faso.

Abubakar Hashim, in the News Magazine West Africa Bureau Office in Freetown

This, observers maintain, is against the spirit of the country’s “Ivorite” political philosophy. Other strong opposition figure against President Quatara’s fourth term bid includes Pascal Affi N’guessan, 67, a former Prime Minister, a staunch and close ally of former President Laurent Gbagbo, who lost the Presidency in 2010 to incumbent President Quatara, which led to a civil war in Côte d’Ivoire.

A reconciliation between Gbagbo and Quatara had been forged, with Gbagbo back in the country. Pascal N’guessan represents Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front Party FPI.

As the current opposition to incumbent President Allasane Quatara hots up, with the October 2025 Presidential elections just five months away, ECOWAS at 50 might witness another setback in the region, despite some remarkable achievements years back.

Already, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are out of the bloc, though ECOWAS is scheming for their return. Guinea, though still a member of ECOWAS, is in a military regime.

These four countries are watching, with bated breath, events in Côte d’Ivoire and what ECOWAS will do to prevent a likely cataclysmic chaos, in a once stable democracy in West Africa.

There is now an uneasy calm in

Côte d’Ivoire, in the economic capital, Abidjan, in the political capital, Yamassoukrou, and in all the provincial cities. President Quatara has not officially stated he wants to contest for a fourth term in the October 2025 Presidential elections. All the hallmarks, however, indicate a fourth-term ploy, similar to his orchestrated ploys in this third term bid in 2020.

*Abubakar Hashim is our West Africa Bureau Chief