Enter the Chad Dragon in the ECOWAS-CENSAD region!

Back in October 2011, my piece “Hot Issues on the AU needing popular advocacy (I) – or Travelling Cheaply in Africa, & Southern Sudan” touched briefly on CENSAD. I started off with a history of CENSAD, going on to ask the way forward.

The Community of Sahel-Saharan States was established in 1998 by the late Colonel Qaddafi. After the rationalization of the regional economic communities in 2006, it became an AU-REC – that is one of the eight RECs mandated and recognized by the African Union. It has twenty-eight members, and Ghana is a member.

Despite many meetings that had taken place and a then-fully-functioning website on http://www.censad.org, the uprising that started in Libya in March threw a huge spanner in the works of the organisation, effectively throwing the regional grouping out of sync with the other RECs at its base in Tripoli. Regrettably, the conspicuous absence of the African Union itself on the future of CENSAD has not helped dispel the notion that the AU is nothing more than a “toothless” bulldog.

The passing of Qaddafi, I intoned, has effectively taken the wind out of the sails of CENSAD, probably throwing all the good work – including the Great Green Wall being built along the sub-region to protect the region from climate change; as well as the establishment of a free-trade area of ECOWAS-UEMOA-CENSAD/ECOWAS-CENSAD/ECCAS along the likes of the SADC-COMESA-EAC tripartite free trade area, which was mooted in 2008.

Going forward, I would expect to see the AU taking serious the need to engage the National Transitional Council in Libya on their commitments to the African Union. This would include discussions on Libya and where it stands on the establishment of the AU-mandated and Tripoli-hosted African Investment Bank, as well as the state of play of CEN-SAD, and how it can be factored into discussions of Africa’s ongoing discussions over Africa’s integration.

In January 2013, an organisation by the name of Centre 4S, which is based in Morocco, and which researches defence and security in the Sahelo-Saharian band /strip; armed violence and terrorism, among other subjects, released a paper in French entitled “Revitaliser le CENSAD”, or reinvigorating CENSAD.

The main idea of the paper is to look at the critical role CENSAD can play in the Sahel; ways in which cooperation and synergy can be created around the zone, and ways in which there can be strengthened cross-border cooperation.

Truth be told, the uniqueness of CENSAD is in its ability to merge ECOWAS; Arab Maghreb Union and ECCASS countries together. The article maintains that the contribution that CENSAD offers its member states ought to be re-examined. Furthermore, the crisis in Mali has set an important precedent for the member states to really get serious on what can be done to use the body as a tool for securing the region politically and diplomatically.

The paper states that “CENSAD should present itself as an institutional and diplomatic framework, of unity and action, capable of formulating a pertinent response, inclusive and varied, to current security challenges.” Even more important for a reinvigorated and re-launched CENSAD should be the aspiration to complement ECOWAS and the Arab Maghreb Union, especially as they are two RECs most-familiar with the security deficits of the Sahel region. These efforts will “equally allow for a better coherence and coordination of different initiatives on the Sahel”, such as Algeria’s Joint Military Command with Mali; Niger; and Mauritania.

Chad rising, Chad in ECOWAS?

Chad is a Central African country and a member of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Some wonder why it should not also become a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) According to one Elvis Kodjo, writing in fratmat.info, 'although the idea has not been officially announced, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Moussa Mahamat Dago indicated on 19 January 2012 in Abidjan during a celebration of Chad's 50th anniversary that the issue was currently being considered.”

The idea for joining rests with the fact that Chad has emerged from several decades of unrest, and understands “more than any other African country that “African integration is necessary for its development”.

The fact is that since the start of oil production in 2005, “Chad has become the ninth largest African oil producer and has improved its network of roads, which has expanded from 200 to more than 3 000 km. Plans for a new, ultramodern airport are underway, and a railroad linking the country to Cameroon will soon be constructed”. Kodjo maintains that “while being a veritable construction site, Chad also has forty million hectors of arable land”.

In order to encourage the effective use of this land, the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs spokesman Mahamat has said that the country “has equipped itself with a particularly attractive investment code” and is looking to secure the best opportunities for itself by diversifying its economic partners in both Central and West Africa.

In March 2011, Chad was, in fact, granted observer status of ECOWAS and my monitoring of Chad's wooing suggests that Chadian President Idris Deby is still keen on sweet-talking Jonathon—in his capacity as leader of the regional hegemon, Nigeria—to accept Chad as a full member of ECOWAS. In April 2012, I was quick to speculate that it is unlikely to happen soon, given the instability in the Sahel region and the headaches of Mali and Guinea-Bissau. All that can be said for now is for observers to keep a keen eye on Chad making “incursions” into ECOWAS sooner than later.

Then Mali happens. And suddenly, we are confronted with a Chad that is offering support to the Africa-led support mission in Mali (AFISMA) to the tune of around 3000 troops, which is around a third of what all ECOWAS troops have offered.

One of the reasons why Chad is an important country to look out for is for what happened on Saturday 16 February when Chad’s president Idris Deby hosted some eleven leaders of the CENSAD regional economic community that was established in 1998. The capital N’djamena played host to what should have been 20 members of the populous grouping. Even if a little over a third of the Heads of State showed up, it was encouraging to see that the 17 other member states dispatched representatives. Furthermore, it has shown that the raison d’être for the establishment of the grouping might still be relevant.

Some of the major outcomes include a revision of the Charter, to reflect the fact that the organisation is interested in two major things: peace and security; and sustainable development. Two permanent organs will be established to this end, and Egypt is likely to host the peace and security organ.

As this is a developing story, with much of the material in French, watch this space over the next couple of weeks when the implications of a rising Chad will begin to unfold. For what it is worth, CENSAD’s next meeting will be in Morocco, which is itself making overtures to re-join the African Union.

In April 2012, I wrote of how there is talk of an ECCAS-ECOWAS-CENSAD free trade area along the likes of the Tripartite FTA (T-FTA) of SADC-COMESA-EAC that was mooted in 2008. With Central Africa only last week meeting and seeking concretely to rationalise its programmes for ECCAS and CEMAC to harmonise and merge, it is really exciting times for African integration!

ENDs

In 2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42^nd Generation—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the role of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuel owns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org). Established in 2004 as an initiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integration initiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integration initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: +233.268.687.653.

ECOWAS Has Been There; done that; Gotten the T-shirt for the Coups. It's getting to work!

Barely had the dust settled on the elections in Guinea-Bissau when West Africans woke up not to world-wide celebration  of World Water Day, but a search for incumbent Malian president Amadou Toumani Toure who had escaped from the Presidential palace.

Although I believe, as I averred in my last piece, that ECOWAS has a “mission”--and indeed responsibility—to protect West African citizens from criminals, and attendant cross-border crime, there is no gainsaying ECOWAS' latest diplomatic headache includes finding and enforcing peace in coup-torn Mali; restoring (a semblance of) democracy in lusophone Guinea-Bissau—and all against a backdrop of more sanguine news that ECOWAS is deepening ties with China.

Even before Ghana's Business&Financial Times newspaper started reminding us about an ECOWAS-China dalliance that would be manifested through a forum, we knew this was not the first-ever meeting, and that there had already been one held in 2008 in China when Dr.Chambas—the incumbent secretary-general of the Brussels-based ACP Group—was ECOWAS Commission president. 

That meeting saw over 1000 participants  from the sub-region, including 200 private-sector operators and 150 government officials. We can already speculate from this that the interest by Africa for China to be more involved on the continent and sub-region had been percolating in the minds of policy-makers. As to whether this interest was accompanied by a plan is less clear, but what we do know with this ECOWAS-China Forum is that there will indisputably be a clear and present opportunity for China in the sub-region.

This will manifest itself through key projects of infrastructural development—examples include roads; railways; housing; construction and transportation. Others include health care; mining; agriculture; power; pharmaceuticals; and ICT.  Ghana's vice-president John Mahama explained that the forum will seek to maximise inflows of foreign direct investment from China to ECOWAS countries, and attract long-term concessionary funds for developing infrastructure.

Senegal says goodbye to Wade

As Senegal voters saw Wade out, making way for newly-elected President Macky Sall, social networking sites were understandably congratulating the Senegalese people, forgetting that ECOWAS—as the player in the sub-region—had more than 100 election observers, including an envoy in Obasanjo who all had contributed to the outcome. Macky Sall himself congratulated the international and national observers 'for their contribution to successful elections.' While it may be too soon to congratulate the ECOWAS and AU elements, it is arguable that the success of the elections is in no small part due to our sub-regional and continental actors.

Sahel fatigue? Mali coup!

I have no doubt that even with the crisis in the Sahel, there might regrettably be a “Sahel crisis” fatigue, and that the good news from Senegal might have been overshadowed by it. Having written two pieces for this column on Mali and the crisis already, I can fully understand why people might be apathetic to the whole apparent chaos in the sub-region.

Truth be told, the threat of hunger in the Sahel is real—as UN agencies would testify. No less than the UNDP administrator Helen Clarke was involved in a live twitter conversation some three weeks ago in which she engaged the twitter audience to inform them what the UNDP and other UN agencies plan to do to help the hungry in the Sahel. ECOWAS around the same time donated one million dollars towards resolution of the crisis.

While the Sahel crisis has gone fairly under-reported by the West African media, it has ramified into unpredictable outcomes, such as terrorism in Northern Mali, including the coup in Mali proper, which genesis is tied to the Sahel crisis. Or at least, so the mutinous soldier would let us believe, claiming their president ATT had done little to stem the crisis in Northern Mali, so they were taking over to stop the terrorism in that part of the country, which is, in fact, contributing to the Sahel crisis. In short, it is a quagmire, which ECOWAS needs to really sink its teeth into to ensure they have well and truly nipped in the bud.

Guinea-Bissau comes of age?

Observers of the elections in Guinea-Bissau may recall how the Western press—and indeed much of the African media—had been describing this West African country as a “narco-state” in the run-up to its elections. ECOWAS observers went in—as per the provisions of ECOWAS's protocols, and elections have gone smoothly over-all.  I believe one can tick this off as another election gone down well, after Senegal. ECOWAS deployed 80 observers, led by former President of Niger's Transitional Government Salou Djibo, for the elections, which followed the death in January of President Malam Bacai Sanha after a long illness

In conclusion, it might be too early to speculate that continental and sub-regional conflict management has come of age, given what happened last year in 2011 in Cote d'ivoire and Libya, but I believe the signs are very encouraging. ECOWAS and the AU cannot afford to be complacent in the wake of eventual coups, given how a relatively stable country like Mali has found itself in a state of flux and confusion. There's no gainsaying that vigilance by Ecowas community citizens are indispensable, but even more so, in my view, is vigilance of what ECOWAS and AU are doing to entrench democratic dispensations.

As I write, ECOWAS is having an emergency summit in Cote d'Ivoire to resolve the crisis—and I have no doubt they will eventually put paid to the Mali question. When Western observers last week started tweeting and facebooking that the AU had suspended Mali, my eyes glazed over. This is nothing new; as the AU did so to Niger when it was involved in a coup in 2008. It's so standard practice it should no longer be news to Africans. I joked last week that on Mali, ECOWAS has been there; and done that.

I look forward to the day when it gets the T-shirt – stating it's a problem-solver on coups in the ECOWAS sub-region!

In 2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42nd Generation—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the role of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuel owns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://critiquing-regionalism.org ). Established in 2004 as an initiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integration initiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integration initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net  / Mobile: +233-268.687.653.