The Role of ECOWAS Parliaments in Combating Insecurity in West Africa,
Thesis
The objective of this study is to examine the role of the ECOWAS Parliament in combating insecurity within the sub-region and ascertain factors militating against the effective role of the ECOWAS Parliament in combating insecurity in West Africa. The study is motivated by the fact that security challenges continued to rise unabated despite the presence of 5,000 French troops, over 1,000 US servicemen and 15,000 UN peacekeepers on stabilisation missions in West Africa and the entire Sahel region, of which some are now nearly a decade old. Existing figures for 2020 indicated that between January and October 2020, the West Africa region recorded 570 terrorist incidents, which directly resulted in the death of 2,201 persons. The report also indicated that civilian population of the sub-region suffered more casualties than both the military and terrorists put together in the ongoing war against insecurity. These security challenges range from politically inflicted conflicts such as the case with Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, etc. to religious and terrorists attacks in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Mali. Insecurity has become the bane of a formally peaceful region like West Africa. This work investigated the role of ECOWAS Parliament in combating insecurity in West Africa. The research design adopted for this study is the ex-post facto design. The study also relied on secondary data to examine the role of the ECOWAS Parliament in combating insecurity within the sub-region and ascertain factors militating against the effective role of the ECOWAS Parliament in combating insecurity in West Africa. It is a research design which involves the study of facts that have already occurred without the interference or manipulation of the investigator. Thus, this study adopted secondary methodology which relied solely on relevant information that were sourced from the survey of journal articles, textbooks, archival documents, newspapers, news viii magazines, ECOWAS treaties and protocols, etc. The study population consisted of the 115 members of the ECOWAS Parliament. Finding shows that insecurity in the sub-region are religious, political, social and economic in nature. It also found that the ECOWAS Parliament plays important roles in combating insecurity in the sub-region and among member states through conflict prevention and management as well as strengthening democracy and good governance by supporting all Community treaties, making legislative pronouncements (though with no force of law), etc. Others are through support for sustainable human development and technology. The study also revealed that democracy and governance deficits, quest to protect the sovereignty of member states, language barriers, xenophobia, external interferences, as well as the current status of the Community Parliament as a mere consultative and advisory assembly are some of the factors inhibiting the achievement of peace and security in West Africa. The study recommended among others the institutionalization of ECOMOG as regular permanent military institution headquartered in one of the member countries but with branches in all other member states. Severance of the long existing economic and defence ties between France and her former colonial enclaves in West Africa; according the Parliament full parliamentary powers to perform the tripartite functions of modern legislature in the sub-region, understanding the power of unity in diversity, etc. are some of the key recommendations of this study. In conclusion, this study is based on appreciation of important role the legislature plays in every known democracy and regional integrative bodies such as the European Union, etc. and an effort to bring to the fore challenges bedevilling the ECOWAS Parliament in the discharge of their functions.