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The Sahel is a region riddled with poverty, endless political instability and power struggles. Any analysis of the region’s crises should be made within the context of the failures of governance by the incompetent ruling elite (whether civilian or military) who have been running countries in the region since independence.
That is why countries like Chad, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Guinea Bissau and Gambia remain underdeveloped. Some of these countries are struggling with internal divisions, severe economic problems, now seriously compounded by the activities of cross-border terrorists, coups and corruption.
There are also other factors like the global headwinds of climate change, and cost of living crisis that continue to impact negatively on the economies of all nations, but far more devastating for poorly managed nations. All of these have made the Sahelian struggle more complex and difficult.
While the regional economic bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been active in trying to resolve internal divisions in the sub-region, the more important issue of economic crisis has been pushed to the background.
ECOWAS leaders should be more focused on how to lift the region’s population out of poverty by creating the enabling environment for direct foreign investment and cross-border business partnerships. This would engender stability and prevent the frustrations that lead to coups in the sub-Sahara region. Rather than focus on foreign aid, Africa should be thinking of how to create a positive atmosphere for internal economic prosperity.
Leaders of the African Union should immediately inaugurate an African Economic Forum to fashion out realistic policies for the continent’s development. African leaders must look inwards for internal solutions to African problems and end the perennial reliance on foreign solutions for local challenges.
The leaders should spearhead this battle to liberate the continent from poverty, ignorance and disease. The same vigour it deploys against coups, should be deployed against poverty, if we are to expect any meaningful change which could engender stability in the whole of Africa.
The suspension of Niger Republic by the AU, following the overthrow of the civilian government by the country’s military, is a welcome development. It signals to the coup leaders and other potential plotters in Africa that coups will not be tolerated any longer on the continent.
However, it is worrying that ECOWAS and the AU are working at cross purposes on the Niger crisis. While the continental body is clearly opposed to military intervention to remove the military and restore power to the deposed civilian government, ECOWAS is pushing for military action if the Nigerien army does not return to the barracks. This is not a helpful approach. Both the ECOWAS and the AU should harmonise policy positions and act in a decisive, purposeful manner to solve the Niger conundrum. This is not a time for diplomatic rivalry. What is needed now is unified action.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who himself has just gone through a tumultuous election and became ECOWAS chairman right in the middle of the Niger coup crisis, must use the country’s influence to steer the regional body away from its hard-line stance and encourage a moderate approach. Any kind of military action in Niger may not bode well for Nigeria because seven northern Nigerian states share borders with Niger. With the Boko Haram insurgency and other severe economic hardships arising from Tinubu’s policies, a new proxy war across the border is something Nigeria can ill afford.
•Ayodeji, author, pastor and life coach, can be reached on 09059243004 (SMS, WhatsApp and email: [email protected] only)
