Election Monitoring: Embarrassed ECOWAS Vows Never to Invite Obasanjo Again Posted: December 10, 2012 - 04:05 Former Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjo and Ghanaian President elect,
John Dramani Mahama-Photo: Reuters
By SaharaReporters, New York Following embarrassing and
undemocratic utterances by General
Olusegun Obasanjo at yesterday’s
meeting of the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS), the
leadership of the commission today held a review meeting that could end the
possibility of future election observation
on its behalf by the former Nigerian
leader. As SaharaReporters reported yesterday,
Obasanjo was the figure behind the
recommendation of the ECOWAS
observation team to curtail the media in
election observation that contradicts the
position of ECOWAS and other international democracy observers. A senior ECOWAS official said of today’s
development, “Our meeting this evening
has resolved, and this will be
communicated to the political leadership
of ECOWAS, that Chief Obasanjo should be
saved the trouble of trying to give what he doesn't have.” He said the review was necessitated by
the negative reaction generated by
General Obasanjo's role in the
observation mission and the potential for
it to undermine the credibility of ECOWAS
in future observation missions. According to the senior officer, “You
know Obasanjo is a loose cannon. He
becomes uncontrollable once bestowed
with power. We regret this appointment
and vowed never to have the man
invited to head missions again. “ECOWAS was only fortunate to have
[been] at an election of an advanced and
stable democracy. Were it to be a volatile
country, his disposition,
recommendations and utterances are not
only capable of truncating the electoral process, they are capable of jeopardizing
the security and safety of our 250
monitors mobilized from across the sub-
region.”