ECOWAS should sanction members who fail to implement protocols – Expert

Mr. Joe Afolayan is a development consultant with decades of experience in trade related issues.
In this chat with BENJAMIN UMUTEME, he harps on the need for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to sanction members that fail to implement protocols they signed.
He also made his thoughts known on other issues.

Is the ECOWAS protocol on trade and free movement not an irony considering what Nigerian traders are passing through in Ghana? I have worked in the sub region and I have realised how difficult it is for other nationals either to trade in ECOWAS member states or move goods across the sub region and it is a serious issue.
I am very happy that the National Association of Nigeria Traders is organising this protest over the treatment Nigerian traders are going through in Ghana.

There are complaints over non-implementation of the protocols by ECOWAS states? ECOWAS member states signed to the protocol on free movement way back in 1975.
They have refused to really implement.
What we have are abuses, very difficult to move goods around, very difficult for nationals of other countries to live peacefully in those states, harassment have occurred in many places.
I saw the way Nigerians were treated in my own time in the Gambia.
ECOWAS is a weak organisation, and I think they should do more in relation to having procedures and mechanisms in place to sanction member states that are not adhering to protocols they have signed to.

Is it really possible for ECOWAS to sanction its members considering their peculiarities? Absolutely, they have the power to do so! Once you have agreed to sign the protocol, then you should implement that protocol.
And if you are a member state and you refuse to implement the protocol that you have signed to, ECOWAS has all the right to sanction that particular member state and that’s why we are trying to see how ECOWAS can be strengthened, to be able to have the capacity to sanction member states that don’t adhere to the protocols.
Why use the phrase ‘ECOWAS of meetings’ to label the sub regional body? They refer to themselves as ‘ECOWAS of people’ but I think they are slowly but surely becoming ‘ECOWAS of meetings’.
Rather than focus on serious matters and begin to see how they can implement some of the protocols member states have signed.
What they tend to focus on is going around and having meetings across the sub region.
Today it is Ouagadougou, tomorrow its Accra, you have another one in Cape Verde.
They just go round, running around in circles.
Some members are beginning to feel that it should focus more on really implementing the protocols that member states have signed to rather than engaging all those needless meetings.

Is it not a way for staff of the body to better their lot? There are regional bodies in Africa, we have COMESSA, and we have SADC.
Thrust me they are doing very well in terms of regional economic cooperation and integration.
COMESSA is doing a lot in East Africa in terms of opening up access for free movement of goods and services and even nationals as well.
SADC in the Southern region is doing a fantastic work in terms of regional integration.
Unfortunately, we cannot compare ECOWAS with these regional bodies.
That is why I believe that ECOWAS should step up its game.
And for God’s sake, this body was created in 1975, and we need to really begin to see very concrete evidence of what they have been doing.
We want them to focus more on infrastructure that would affect access to moving goods freely.
We want them to focus on prevailing on national governments to implement the protocols they have signed to.
We want them to focus on youth entrepreneurship to see how they can begin to advice member states on how youth unemployment can be reduced in the sub region.
I mean, those are the kind of serious issues we want ECOWAS to focus on.
Government is just an enabler; they are there to basically provide an enabling environment for businesses to flourish.
And that is why what NANTS is doing today is right.
As a Nigerian National, I should be able to go to Ghana and freely set up my business without any form of harassment.
So I believe the Ghanaian should be able to come to Nigeria and freely set up his or her business and become an employer of labour as well as pay his or her taxes to that particular economy.
So, ECOWAS should have policies, programmes to promote those kinds of initiatives; and that is why we are really focusing on that and making sure that ECOWAS steps up its game.

Is it not time Nigeria reconsiders it foreign policy on trade in the light of what is happening to Nigerian traders in Ghana? For me, I have always believed that this is a country that is big in terms of size, big in terms of population and resources.
But we have not been able to leverage on the type of power that we have.
We provided most of the funding for ECOWAS to fight and end the wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone and reconstruction.
You would have thought the Nigerian government would have a systematic way of pushing Nigerians who are engineers, teachers, and medical doctors to really go down there after things have settled to really begin to work in those places.
That is what other western or developed countries do.
Not just to spend your money and walk away.
Across the globe not only in the sub region, we provide technical Aid Corp to some of these countries.
What do we get back in return? Do we leverage on what we are giving them to really draw some power.
No, we are not doing that.
I think it’s time for us to really begin to see how we can leverage on the kind of power we have in size to be a leader that we really should be, not only in Africa but in the world as well.

Is it not asking too much when you talk about focusing on infrastructure considering that many ECOWAS countries are classified Least Developed Countries? I agree with you.
We are surrounded by a lot of countries in economic terms that are classified as Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
But even at that, I think in our own way we can begin to see how we can open up roads and railways networks that can walk across the sub region.
Infrastructure does not have to be funded by national governments.
You can do a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement in which you bring in international or local financiers to finance the infrastructure.
And what you’ll do is that they can say ‘look, you have a toll gate, and within 25 years we will be able to recoup our money’.
We don’t need ECOWAS to initiate a programme where they will begin to task member states to do this kind of infrastructure.
Their own is to reel out policies and try and be the hub to coordinate this particular initiative to develop infrastructure.
Once we develop infrastructure there will be free movement of goods and that will be better for the 350 million people who live in this sub region.
Commerce will flourish and there will be economic development because when taxes are paid they will be able to use those taxes to better the lot of their people.
So, national governments don’t have to use their money alone.
What they can do is to use their capacity on how to harness infrastructural development.

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