West African leaders will hold a summit later this month as the region struggles to reverse a series of coups and contain jihadist conflicts in the Sahel.

The Economic Community of the West African States will meet in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on December 10, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara’s office said in a statement after talks with ECOWAS chiefs.

The leaders last met in August for talks on Niger after a July 26 coup there which overthrew elected president Mohamed Bazoum. He has since been sequestered in his residence in Niamey.

ECOWAS heads of state threatened military intervention as a last resort to restore Bazoum and imposed heavy economic sanctions on Niger, now ruled by a military regime led by General Abdourahamane Tiani.

But the regime has dug in and demanded it may need up to three years for a transition to civilian rule. Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is current chair of ECOWAS, says back-channel talks are still ongoing with the Niger regime.

“I would not say that we have given up on the military option. We have suspended it, waiting for the sanctions to produce results,” said Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, in a published interview Thursday on the Jeune Afrique website.

“Many things are negotiable, but under no circumstances will we accept a three-year transition.”

ECOWAS commission president Omar Alieu Touray said the bloc could not recognise the military government. “President Bazoum remains as the president until the leadership of ECOWAS reaches an agreement on the situation,” he told the ECOWAS parliament in Abuja on Thursday.

Of the bloc’s 15 member countries, four have been led since 2020 by soldiers resulting from coups: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea. All have since been suspended from the organisation, and will not be represented at the Abuja summit.

The first three, struggling with jihadist violence, have grouped together within an Alliance of Sahel States. A failed coup attempt that left 21 dead took place Sunday in Sierra Leone, another member of ECOWAS, according to senior officials in the country.

AFP

"The putschist is not only the person who takes up arms to overthrow a regime. I want us all to be well aware of the fact that the real putschists, the most numerous, are those who avoid any condemnation - they are those ... who cheat to manipulate the text of the constitution in order to stay in power eternally."

Racoon:
Not when many of them have long translated to complete constitutional abusers, civilised criminals, sit-tight dictators with no good plans for their countries but to continue to perpetuate their dynasty in power and loot the sub-region in collaboration with their neo-colonists slave masters.

The subregion and continent will never make progress or be powerful enough to negotiate and advance its interests @ the world stage with this mentality. ECOWAS is useless! AU is useless.

Chiefpriestt:
Emilokan your time is coming. This coup go go round

nairalanda1:
So we should replace them with another sit tight set of millitary rulers? I no like Tinubu, or indeed any of our leaders since 1999.

Democracy in Nigeria for me has been a morass of corruption and bad leadership. But at the end of the day, army rule was worse. And it did not make Nigeria or any other African nation better places to live in...

nairalanda1:


Better the oppostion unites around PDP in 2027, and gets rid of APC once and for all.

Coup always ends with the same old corrupt system in place, only this time with more repression.

If we want better governance, we got to put pressure on the people in power. Coup would not only make matters worse, but if the army rulers turn out to be awful, we won't have any means of putting pressure on them.

Racoon:
Whether we like it or not, democracy is a useless venture especially when the useless and tyrannical African leaders makes military regime more desirable.

This was the same reason Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu gave for his coup of January 15 1966. He said "no politician can be comfortable voted out through the ballot because they are sit-tight and so corrupt that they never wants to give up political power easily."

The last elections was another classical case. Nigerians came out determined to have a change of leadership but a gang of desperate people in government colluded with INEC to undermine the will of the people. The rest is history. Now, how will such political scenario not be give rise to such mentality. Even president Obasanjo said Africa is not ready for the Western type of democracy yet. Was he calling for a coup? Truth is sacred and sacrosanct.

Chiefpriestt:
Emilokan your time is coming. This coup go go round

Racoon:
A government having forced itself into power in a similar way the putschist did in the Niger Republic, cannot be arrogating itself the honour to lead a puritan force against a sovereign nation. The process leading to any electoral activity is a lot more important than its outcome.The processes that led to the 2023 general election were skewed, manipulated, and rigged.

A government that came into office through such illegal means does not have the moral justification to begin to query a similar process perpetrated outside the shores of this country. If the election is wantonly manipulated, a govt that emerged from such a process is similar to a military coup.

A coup is actually where people extend their limit beyond what is being provided by the constitution. When you rig yourself into election, it is also a coup. The process or procedural sequence is being contested. Emancipation from mental slavery, none but us could free our minds( Bob Nesta Robert Marley).