Policy Briefs
Selonnes Policy Tidbits: | ECOWAS Unglued And Unbundled
#BuFMaNxit is here. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have jointly decided to exit ECOWAS. The move is unheralded, but not entirely unexpected. If the UK could exit the EU, then every regional bloc stood at risk, if and when reaching consensus becomes intractable and a counterpoise to achieving national interest.
In this brief tilted, “Avoiding the Niger Quagmire, just after the Niger coup, https://www.primebusiness.africa/avoiding-the-niger-quagmire-oseloka-h-obaze/, we presciently cautioned that “What happened in Niger is of interest to France, the U.K., the U.S. and Russia. We certainly don’t want to make West Africa the “Grand Chessboard” for global powers fixated on controlling the uranium rich territory.” Now we Know! #BuFMaNxit is reality and reality bites. ECOWAS is unglued and unbundled.
Ironically, it was under Nigeria’s military regime that ECOWAS was founded. Now under Nigeria’s democratic regime ECOWAS has split. #BuFMaNxit is real and we know the architect. Nigeria in her erstwhile bellwether and regional hegemon role, would have never allowed ECOWAS to splinter. That this has happened, speaks to Nigeria’s overly diminished regional and global influence and her flux domestic circumstances. All said, purposeful leadership matters; and Nigeria is not providing that desirable leadership, not in West Africa and certainly, not on the African continent.
