President John Dramani Mahama has committed Ghana to leading efforts to reknit the fabric of unity with the Alliance of Sahel States.
President Mahama said the decision by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to exit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was a regrettable one which needed to be tactfully addressed with patient diplomacy to restore confidence in the sub-regional body.
Speaking at the launch of the 50th anniversary of the ECOWAS in Accra yesterday on the theme “Stronger together for a brighter future”, President Mahama said the bloc must not respond to the three nations with isolation or recrimination but with understanding, dialogue, and willingness to listen and to engage.
The launch saw representatives, including Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers, members of parliament from the 12-member bloc and staff of the ECOWAS Commission deliberate on the year-long anniversary of the regional body founded in 1975.
“Ghana stands ready as the bridge to help reknit the fabric of West African unity. We believe that through sustained dialogue, patient diplomacy, principles, negotiations, we can restore cohesion and rebuild trust in our community.
“This period calls for greater solidarity and understanding for the difficult challenges that confront our brothers and sisters in the Sahelian states,” President Mahama told participants.
Since assuming power, President Mahama said he has had engagements with the three leaders in a bid to understand their concerns; stressing that diplomacy was not only about resolving disputes but about creating the conditions for peace, inclusion and progress, fostering mutual respect, and advancing common interests.
ECOWAS, President Mahama noted, has demonstrated over the years that African solution to African diplomacy works with success stories in Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Ivory Coast and Togo.
To this end, he said there was the need to empower ECOWAS institutions to act swiftly, credibly and transparently to restore confidence in the body.
“Our citizens must feel that ECOWAS is not some distant bureaucracy but a living community that understands their struggle and champions their hopes,” he emphasized.
President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Oumar Alieu Touray, on his part dismissed claims that the bloc has lost its relevance in the scheme of things.
According to him, the ECOWAS region is the most integrated in Africa with free movement of people, trade liberalisation, a promising infrastructure base in the areas of transport, energy, telecommunication and water resources.
“All these initiatives are a source of hope and constitute a need to celebrate. Nothing is more worth celebrating like the peace and security in our region,” Dr Touray stated.
In an address on his behalf, Chair of the ECOWAS Conference Heads of States and President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, called for a deepened economic cooperation, support for intra-regional trade, and a commode to ensure that the Africa Continental Free Trade Area became the vehicle for genuine transformation of the African continent.
He also stressed on the need for ECOWAS to implement bold and comprehensive reforms that would ensure its effectiveness, relevance, and credibility to meet the challenges of the present and the future.
“Let us use this jubilee celebration as a moment of renewal. Let us rededicate ourselves to the spirit of Pan-Africanism that inspired our forefathers,” President Tinubu rallied.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI & CYNTHIA ASAMPANA
