THE RELEVANCE OF ECOWAS (SAT. MARCH 21, 2009)

IN 1975, some Heads of State of the West African sub-region mooted the idea for the formation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Since then, ECOWAS has been the key player in efforts at strengthening economic and regional integration.
However, quite contrary to the expectations of the founding fathers, ECOWAS is yet to provide the right stimulus for the integration of the sub-region.
One of the major protocols of ECOWAS, the free movement of people, is yet to be attained. A visit to any of the border towns in the sub-region reveals the ugly spectacle of ordinary people in long queues, sometimes being brutalised by border security and customs officials, on the flimsy excuse that they are not carrying travelling documents.
At some of the border towns, such as Aflao in Ghana and Lome in Togo, Seme in Benin and Badagry in Nigeria, border officials have refused to observe the protocols and continue to harass travellers, some of whom travel to the neighbouring countries to visit relations and friends.
Presently, immigration officials at Aflao and Lome openly extort money from travellers before they are allowed to cross the border. It has become a harrowing experience for ECOWAS citizens to travel freely in the sub-region in order to transact business.
Although the economies of individual countries in the sub-region are too weak to compete on the international market, our leaders are doing very little to expedite action on the protocols.
With a population of more than 250 million, the sub-region can be a force to reckon with if our leaders work hard to integrate their markets and other economic endeavours so that the space will become bigger to market our commodities.
Presently, ECOWAS activities gain prominence at the level of governments, while the citizens contribute virtually nothing to the activities of the sub-regional body because it has sidelined the people.
Thus, many of the people who travel in the sub-region do not even know their rights and obligations under the protocols in order to challenge border officials when their rights are being trampled upon.
The DAILY GRAPHIC, therefore, welcomes moves by some civil society groups to create public awareness of the ECOWAS protocols, especially the one dealing with the free movement of people.
These groups, including the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), the Abusua Foundation, the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), the Ghana Youth Network and other governmental institutions, have held a rally at the Paga border in the Upper East Region to sensitise the people to the regional protocols.
These protocols, which were adopted some decades ago to facilitate the free movement of people and other collaborations, have not helped to ease travelling frustrations in the sub-region.
Members of the travelling public within the sub-region have gone through nightmarish experiences because of the numerous roadblocks and illegal barriers and the extortion of money by border officials at every border or checkpoint.
The DAILY GRAPHIC acknowledges the huge challenge in achieving the protocols on free movement, a single currency and increased trade. Nonetheless, we want our leaders to galvanise our people to the ideals of ECOWAS in order to create a borderless sub-region.
We also call on the ECOWAS Secretariat to engage more stakeholders in the sub-region, such as media organisations, to educate the people and the agencies on the benefits of an economic and political union.