By Aliou Cissé.
It is of great interest to many of us that ECOWAS has swiftly responded to the withdrawal announced by the three Sahel states of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger by calling for dialogue and highlighting the potential dangers that such a withdrawal would mean for the organisation.
Many of us in Senegal watched this with an equal measure of shock and amusement because, until these states announced their decision, the so-called regional integration protocol seemed to have been consumed by an arrogant assumption that our collective objective was simply the entrenchment of a particular template of the democratic principle that could never be compromised.
Many of us agreed with this insistence if, as the organisation promised, it was unbiased and hinged on the protection of the rights of the people. However, as we watched the situation unfold across the three states, and saw the groundswell of support for the actions of the military juntas against their established democratic governments, many of us reappraised our positions on the subject and questioned the notion that the insistence on a return to democracy superseded the need to alter the social and political realities within these states.
As the organisation continues to insist on the validity of its punitive measures against these three states, we have not seen equal thrust against the constitutional coup being carried out by our President, Macky Sall, in Senegal. His unilateral decision to stop the February 25 elections on the self-manufactured claims that the process of selecting the candidates by the constitutional Council was fraught with fraud clearly suggests that he has become the sole arbiter in Senegal’s political space, of course with the backing of his political cohorts in the national assembly.
The fact that the opposition members in Parliament who vehemently opposed the move to postpone the elections were violently removed from the building has not even elicited strong condemnation from the organisation.
All we have heard from the ECOWAS, which has assigned itself the duties of defender of the democratic principle, is a plea for Sall to reconsider his actions and there has been no tough-talk or threat of punitive steps.
ECOWAS ‘s continued insistence on the return to constitutional governance through the conduct of elections within the shortest possible time in the three Sahel states totally ignored the protests of the majority of the populations against imposition of political leadership through ‘electoral coups’ and legislative subterfuge, like we are experiencing in Senegal today. This is where we believe ECOWAS has shown its bias the most.
How do we accept these so-called democratically elected leaders who have no qualms changing the rules of the electoral game in their respective countries whenever it suits them and castigate those who rise to challenge their actions?
How does an organisation, which prides itself on building one of the most enduring integrative processes on the continent of Africa, ignore the calls of its members for a coordinated action against growing insecurity and then turn around and punish same members when they act in the interest of their national security?
I do not have the answers to these questions but I believe it is imperative that the body tries to give answers that would clear our suspicions that it has become a tool of former colonists to entrench their puppets in our political spaces.
All we have asked for in Senegal is that our long-standing democratic institutions be allowed to function without political interference. We do not seek to go the way of the Sahel states because we place immense value in our institutions that have guaranteed our democratic rights for many years now.
However, if the regional organ that we have placed our trust in to ensure our rights as citizens are guaranteed does not come to our aid at this crucial time, then the people of Senegal will consider our path to liberty a course that would be shaped by any means necessary.
Aliou Cissé writes from Dakar.
