By Ibrahim Umar, Esq,
West African countries are not novel to military take-overs, popularly known as coup d’état which is salient to the African continent. BBC Africa says a total of 78 coups are noted in all the West African countries with the exception of two.
Niger republic, for the first, and hopefully not the last time, the country witnessed a peaceful democratic transition of power in 63 years. President Mahamadou Issoufou escaped being toppled when he handed over power to Mohamed Bazoum in 2021. The country threaded on the path of democracy in the 21st Century, to the extent that the military deposed President Mamadou Tandja to halt his bid for extension of term in office. However, barely two years after the celebrated transition, the Nigerien Presidential Guards disrupt the country’s democratic thread.
The Nigerien coup is on the global news headlines with concerns about the safety of the ousted President Bazoum and the future of the developing democracy. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as the unity organisation of the West African Region swung to action of saving the pre-matured democracy. Although Niger is Member State of the United Nations and the African Union, ECOWAS proves to be more impactful.
One might wonder where the ECOWAS derives the legitimate authority to breach the territorial integrity of the Nigerien borders and that of the doctrine of sovereignty which posits that no nation or international organization shall interfere in the domestic affairs of another. In the same vein, Article 2 (4) of the United Nations governing constitution, the UN Charter prohibits the use of force which is almost consistent with subsection (7) of the same Article that the UN does not intervene in essential domestic affairs. These provisions are almost similar to that of the African Union Constitutive Act which provides for the principle of non-interference in (Article 4 (g)).
However, ECOWAS derives intimacy with its Member States as a governing body of a semi-homogenous region. Niger republic and its neighbouring Nigeria shares similar characteristics prominent among which includes time zone, language and religion. Thus simply implies that ECOWAS is in the best position to mitigate in the affairs of Niger republic.
The Preamble of the Revised Treaty of the ECOWAS suggested that Member States of the demand for partial pool of political sovereignty. In support of democracy, the Authority of Heads of State signed the Supplementary Protocol A/SP1/12/01 on Democracy and Good Governance.
Article 1 (b) and (c) of the Protocol recognize free, fair, and transparent elections as the only means of power accession and disregard any other means of ascending power. Section IV, Article 19 (1) is explicit that the armed forces should remain non-partisan and loyal to the nation. The key role of the armed forces is to salute the flag of nation and answerable to the civilian constitutional authority (Article 20).
The ECOWAS categorized the overthrow of democratically elected governments as a ‘Member State in Crises’ in its Protocol Relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peace– Keeping and Security (1999). Also, the overthrow of a democratically elected government serves as a condition to activate the application of the Protocol. Article 17 establishes the ECOWAS Cease–fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) as one of the organs of the Protocol. Article 22 lists the roles of the ECOMOG to serve as the Community Police whose duties include enforcement of sanctions and embargoes.
Beyond the legal provisions, it is customary for the ECOWAS to restore governments in West Africa with the use of force. However, the Community is known to employ diplomatic efforts before offensives as urged by the UN Charter and the ECOWAS Treaty. The non-Community member but a West African neighbour, Chad is a neutral third party whose leadership is the intermediates between the ECOWAS and the Nigerien leadership. Forget not when Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari led ECOWAS acted against the then Gambian Yahya Jammeh in 2017. Niger was itself subjected to suspension until the restoration of democracy in 2010. Most recently, Guinea faced sanctions and suspension from the Community since 2021. The ECOWAS has a history of force actions in the event diplomatic failure. This is evident when the then ECOWAS leadership under Nigerian General Sani Abacha led the restoration of democratic government in Seirra Leone in 1997 upon diplomatic failure although it is an uncommon alternative. The answer to the violation of international laws on that regard is subjective.
However, bearing in mind that the Burkinabe and Guinean leaderships back the Nigerien Military Government, the diversity of the West African leadership into military and democratic blocs is adverse and disastrous to the developing sub-region.
Ibrahim Umar, Esq, LLM, ACIArb (UK)
