Professor Kwesi Aning, a security analyst, has urged the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to use dialogue in addressing the ongoing political crisis in Niger.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, Prof Aning noted that ECOWAS’ announcement of the activation and deployment of a standby force to restore constitutional order in Niger was not the best option for now.
Prof Aning, who is the Director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), said there were specific steps within the ECOWAS framework for responding to challenges such as military coup d’etats.
He cited that in the case of Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso, there were mediation processes that resulted in a transitional plan.
“And I think the military option in the ECOWAS framework is always the last option. That is why some of us have always opted for a negotiated solution,” Prof Aning stated.
“Because where Niger is located is of strategic importance; but probably a military intervention now is not the best option.”
He noted that some leaders, including the former Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had gone to Niamey to talk to the military junta; which gave an indication that they were interested in sitting down and finding a solution to the crisis.
“So, already we are beginning to move in the direction of a negotiated process.”
Touching on the August 16th, Accra Meeting of the Chief of Defence Staff of ECOWAS, Prof Aning described the Meeting as very useful and that when one wants to negotiate, one must do so from a position of strength.
He said there was the need for ECOWAS to start the process of moving from a zero-sum game to a win-win situation.
He said the past three weeks had witnessed an escalation of the issues involved in the military coup d’etat in Niger, which had led to multiple national interests, particularly foreign interests.
He said ECOWAS had to automatically respond to the issue because Member States had signed on to a certain normative framework; adding that the challenge was that maybe the response had to be graduated.
“Instead of waiting for a country to have a coup d’état and then you impose sanctions, you have a graduated set of responses relating to corruption, media freedom, the rights of civil society, the way democratic elections are held, so that when countries flout these processes then you can crack the whip.”
That, he said would help ECOWAS to ensure that Member States towed the line.
“If we take Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and now Niger, that is more than 25 per cent ECOWAS’ Member States that have broken their own rules,” he said.
“If we have instances where constitutions have been changed (to extend the tenure of a sitting President) and there are about two or three countries, that have done that, that means that more than half of ECOWAS’ Member States are not compliant to their own rules.”
Prof Aning said that raised questions about the efficacy and then the belief of those who had signed those documents (normative framework documents).
He said” one joins a group because there are shared norms and shared values, and shared principles, but when those principles consistently are flouted then it raises concerns about the efficacy of that institution and then probably about its long term survivability… ”
Concerning the lessons to be learnt from the current Niger crisis, Prof Aning said the lesson was that ECOWAS must be consistent in the ways that it applied its rules, because consistency would help it to prevent future occurrences.
With regard to the decision by the military junta to charge Niger’s ousted President Mohamed Bazoum with high treason, Prof Aning urged ECOWAS leaders to ensure that due process was followed and that human life was “sacrosanct” .
Niger’s ousted President Mohamed Bazoum was toppled by a military junta on July 26.
GNA