The Regional Citizens’ Dialogue Programme (RCDP), an initiative for preventing and responding to Unconstitutional Changes of Government in West Africa, will be launched on February 27 in Abuja.
A letter of invitation sent to participants by the Director General of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, Nigeria, Prof. Ayo Omatayo, noted that the regional programme is designed to mobilse and organise civil society contributions towards the prevention, mitigation, and response to incidences of UCG in the West Africa sub-region.
He said the effort was motivated by concerns about the recent wave of military coups across West Africa that threaten the future of democracy and political stability amid persistent and growing economic hardship, poverty, and security crises induced by violent extremist organisations on the continent.
The RCDP is a collaborative effort of a consortium of civil society and research think tanks with leadership drawn from the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, the Regional Centre for Governance and Security Policy Initiative (RCGSPI), with headquarters based in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and the Dantiye Centre for Good Leadership and Journalism (DCLJ), Kano, Nigeria, with support from the International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID), based in Lisbon, Portugal.
Also, the Chairperson of the RCGSPI, who also doubles as the Chairperson of the
AU ECOSOCC Peace and Security Cluster, Dr Jonathan Sandy, said the rationale for the RCDP is to complement and support the implementation of the main recommendations from the African Governance Report 2023, which focused on UCG in Africa, published by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).
To also build synergies with existing initiatives and ongoing efforts such as the AU ECOSOCC Annual Citizen’s Dialogue Forum and the West Africa Democracy Solidarity Network (WADEMOS), and for its implementation phase to serve as a platform for enhancing cooperation and complementarity between civil society organisations and ECOWAS institutional mechanisms in response to UCGs in West Africa.
