Some Nigerians could shout me down but it must be said that since 1975 of the ECOWAS treaty, it is high time common border for all the members come to stay to arrest coupist tendency and to uphold great commitment of all to good governance and to avoid further Mauritanian escapism, not minding that majority of its population, though weak, are Blacks or Browns not Arabs.

Mauritania just felt that its Maure-Arabic leading minority could not survive as part of west Africa and, so, they opted out of west Africa and joined the north African states; though far from being 100% Maghrebians as its Peul/Foula or Poular or Mande group does not fit into Maghreb, it remains to them the best approach to avoid ECOWAS prying in their affairs.

Their neighbouring state, Mali, seems to be toeing that line also and it is currently raging as fire, and has attained Burkina Faso as well as Niger Republic. So the question is: where did ECOWAS go wrong with its court and parliament eating deep into Nigerian coffer that it is not able to arrest such rage.

The current coup in Niger Republic must be reversed if ECOWAS still wants to be relevant as Niger Republic stands strongly as the country that must test the resolve of ECOWAS, being the country that stands in between coastal countries of ECOWAS and the acerbic Maghreb, north Africa, as well as the about drowning central African countries of Chad and Cameroon. Remnant of Maghrebian tribes, central African tribes and west African tribes are all found in Niger Republic with the Hausa tribe in majority but greatly oppressed.

Mahamodou Issoufou happened to be the only Hausa who had ruled Niger Republic with great success of finishing two terms of presidency and unfortunately, he supported and enthroned a successor who failed to understand that being an Arab, it behoves him to prove that inclusiveness pays for the sustainability of a country that has all the remnants of seemingly rebellious tribes found in Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Lybia, Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon, Benin Republic, Togo Ghana, etc.

What is more, they are all United in claiming that their colonial masters France is their problem, failing to understand that the same France is greatly threatened by the Maghrebs that borders them on the north and have their Nationals in France as unsettled migrants.

Between France and the Maghrebs, ECOWAS must decide who among the two “devils” is to be dined with, to stop the rage of coups in West Africa before it turns to another Arab spring, united against West  Africa, as Tunisia has started, openly, to maltreat west Africans in their midst. The poor always find excuse to attack strangers or those who are not like them when misgovernance or economic profligacy by elite boomerang and that is what is causing coup d’état in West Africa with its growing population of poor people caused by misgovernance and insurgency that ECOWAS could have stood as a body to arrest.

ECOWAS is the problem and it must be made to stand up to the challenge of rescuing the West African region. National borders of the fourteen ECOWAS countries, as Mauritania is not there, mean nothing if the common borders of ECOWAS, with the Central Africa (Cameroun and Chad) North Africa (Mauritania, Algeria, Morocco, Libya) and in the Ocean (Equatorial Guinea, and Sao Tome and Principe) as well as in the air monitoring the desert areas and the international waters, are not commonly and resourcefully controlled.

Here is Nigeria with 64% GDP of the region, over 200 million people among the total 450 million people in West Africa, contributing about 75% of ECOWAS budget and remaining aloof in matters that concern the overall well being of the region as it contends with great powers like USA, France, Russia, China who are milking away the “God given” resources of the region.

In effect, it is high time ECOWAS recognized that its problem is mainly France  and the Maghreb, and that the two must either be checked at the borders as well as within ECOWAS economic confines, as the coastal countries contend with France’s influences, a great naval and NATO-linked power.

The aberrative presidency of Sarkozy in France gave clue to that as it worked hard to neutralize the influence of non-speaking French Libya among the Maghreb and helped in getting the Maghreb find relative stability after the Arab spring.

As of today, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, French speaking Maghreb, enjoys greater human development index (HDI) than their peers, either in the north or close to the north of Africa, leaving their west Africa counterparts in a very battered state. For example, on Sustainable Development Goals’ Parameter, Niger Republic with 24 million population can only boast of 4% of the population accessing electricity whereas the above stated Maghreb states, about 100 million have 99%, if not 100%, access to electricity. France has been very much helpful in their growth notwithstanding their often misunderstanding stoked by far right politicians in France.

France is not showing the same concern in the Sahel region of West Africa and ECOWAS needed to sit on a round table with France to arrest such biased favour against West Africa that encourages insecurity as the jihadists seem to make West Africa a ground of solace from the heat they encounter in France and the Maghreb.

Let ECOWAS frame up a tactical and operational approach to common border and see how it goes in taming insecurity as well as ushering in a new economic template that could see it accomplishing the SDG as it is doing for the Maghreb besides Libya seen as the enemy of the West and being brought down by France to saveguard its interest in the Maghreb and the Mediterranean sea.

ECOWAS must be, indeed and in truth as the UNILAG logo says, an integrated region. So, common border now!
Ariole is Professor of French and Francophone Studies, University of Lagos .