Membership withdrawal negates due process, Touray insists
Delegation to the Extraordinary Session of the Mediation and Security Council at Ministerial Level of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), yesterday, met in Abuja over the decision by Burkina Faso, Mali and Republic of Niger to withdraw their membership of the sub-regional body.
The meeting, which consisted mostly of the foreign affairs ministers from member-states and chaired by Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, was proffer ways of resolving the impasse.
The forum also expressed worry about the situation in Senegal, where the postponement of the presidential election has led to massive protests.
Tuggar regretted that the region has been in the spotlight for wrong reasons, citing military coups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger and their eventual threats to withdraw their membership.
His words: “Therefore, this crucial meeting has been convened to address these recent developments and challenges faced in the sub-region. As esteemed members
of this important ECOWAS body, it is incumbent upon us to devise solutions to the challenges presented by these decisions.
“Our meeting here today (yesterday)provides us the opportunity to carefully assess the challenges presented by the decision of the military rulers of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to withdraw from ECOWAS, with all the potential implications for the lives of their people, and indeed, for the Community as a whole.
“We are also here to review the unfolding situation in Senegal and develop a plan to navigate the resulting complexities. We have faced similar crises in the past. As a region, we have not been found wanting.
“There are high expectations out there, from ordinary people, as well as our partners in the international community, that this meeting can come up with far-reaching decisions to transform our challenges into
opportunities.”
In his remarks, President, ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, decried that while plans were initiated towards transition in terms of elections this year in the affected countries, they sadly announced their withdrawal from ECOWAS “with immediate effect.”
The three countries have cited a perceived departure of organisations from the “Pan-African ideals of its founding fathers; perceived influence of hostile foreign powers on ECOWAS; feeling of abandonment by ECOWAS in their fight against terrorism; and the imposition of illegal, illegitimate, inhumane and irresponsible” sanctions by the body as reasons for their decision.
Touray added that while the above claims have no real basis, the hasty decision did not consider the conditions for withdrawal of membership as espoused in the 1993 ECOWAS Revised Treaty.
