- "When ECOWAS imposes sanctions, people laugh because where were they when the other happenings were occurring? It puts their credibility in doubt."
A former director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Prof Emerita Takyiwaa Manuh has described the spate of coups in the West African sub-region as worrying.
Prof Manuh’s comment follows Tuesday’s botched coup in Guinea Bissau which left many members of the security forces dead.
Coups appear to be making a comeback in West and Central Africa. Over the past two years, there have been military takeovers in Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso and Guinea, as well as further east in Sudan.
“What is happening is very worrying but it gives us an opportunity to dialogue to improve our systems to reinvigorate confidence of the people in the government.
“When ECOWAS imposes sanctions, people laugh because where were they when the other happenings were occurring? It puts their credibility in doubt,” she said on The Asaase Breakfast Show.
She added: “We have a lot of institutions [to resolve conflicts] but we are not allowing them to work. When somebody changes the rules and runs for a third-term we didn’t hear ECOWAS condemning that… And what it does is that it eats into the credibility of ECOWAS and the African Union.”
State of insecurity
Manuh called for a relook at the state of insecurity on the continent.
“The Jihadist groups that emerged from the fall of Libya and the massive arms that they control are all contributing to instability on the continent.
“It is important that we look at this state of insecurity in West Africa as not just a West African problem but an issue for the whole continent. Our borders are so porous that when there is a problem in one country then it will spill over into the other,” she said.
Fred Dzakpata
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