By As ECOWAS prepares to mark its 50th anniversary, key voices across West Africa are raising alarms over the regional bloc’s future, warning that without bold structural reforms, it risks disintegration.
At a high-level dialogue in Abuja on Wednesday, organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in collaboration with WADEMOS, stakeholders reflected on ECOWAS’s history and current struggles. CDD Senior Fellow, Dr. Jibrin Ibrahim, praised ECOWAS’s legacy in promoting democracy but said the wave of recent coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Guinea threatened the bloc’s unity.
“ECOWAS has played a pivotal role in deepening democracy in the region,” Ibrahim noted. “But the rise of unconstitutional regimes is eroding the progress we’ve made.”
He called for continued dialogue with Sahelian nations now under military rule, advocating their reintegration into the bloc under renewed democratic commitments. Ibrahim also raised concern over economic instability, youth unemployment, and mass poverty—conditions he said are fueling extremism and disillusionment.
“The dream of independence—access to education, opportunity, and self-determination—has faded,” he said. “Today, that broken promise is being expressed through terrorism, displacement, and deepening poverty.”
CDD Board Chairman, Comrade John Odah, urged civil society to reflect on ECOWAS’s journey and protect the integration vision. “We must interrogate both our gains and our failures,” he said. “Despite challenges, this is a dream worth defending.”
