The Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Hon. Kwaku Ampretwum Sarpong has lamented that the persistent widespread conflict, violent extremisms, and political instability in West Africa have derailed the key objectives of ECOWAS.
Speaking during a keynote address in a two days sensitization workshop on ECOWAS protocols in Koforidua, Hon. Kwaku Ampretwum Sarpong said, “It is wealth notice that the regional integration is not just an economic issue, likewise since 1975 when ECOWAS was established each objective was solely to promote economic development and prosperity of the member states”.
“However, following widespread conflicts and instability in the sub-regions in the 90s and 2000s, the leaders realized that economic prosperity cannot be achieved in the absence of peace and security, military groups, violent extremism are gradually coming back to the continent as witnessed particularly in west Africa and central Africa countries,” he said.
“It continues to poss challenges in peace and stability despite the effort of the International and Regional Organizations such as the United Nations (UN) ECOWAS and Africa Union (AU) which impose sanctions on these sister countries by condemning this worrying trend and promoting good governance”.
He however said to mitigate the current situation ECOWAS faced; it must assiduously work through regional integration and focus on peace and security, development of infrastructure, policy harmonization to facilitate integration and development, growth and consolidation of democracy, and good governance.
He said with the introduction of the ECOWAS card, very soon there will be free movement of persons from one ECOWAS country to the other provided there are identifications of belonging to any of the West African countries.
The Eastern regional Minister Seth Kwame Acheampong on his part also said “it is very important to educate ourselves on the advantages of being a member of the ECOWAS and to uphold and respect the protocols of the organization”.
“Therefore it is important to enlighten ourselves and be united as ECOWAS member states so that the necessary respect is given to anyone from West African country that comes to Ghana,” he said.
He also applauded the president for the bold steps he has taken to partner with the Francophone countries, this he said will enhance and deepen trading activities and break the language barrier between Ghana and these French-speaking countries.
The main objective of ECOWA is to promote Economic Corporation among member states to improve living standards among member states and improve economic development.
ECOWAS focuses its attention on 4 main pillars namely: Peace and Security, development and infrastructure, policy harmonization to facilitate integration and development, growth and consolidation of Democracy, and good governance.
Military coups and violent extremism are gradually coming back to the continent, particularly in West Africa and Central African countries.
It continues to pose challenges to peace and stability despite the effort of international and local organizations such as the UN, ECOWAS, and AU which impose sanctions on these countries.
The purpose of these two workshops is to explore among others issues relating to the evolution of violent conflict, reversal of Democratic gains, and the ECOWAS role in mitigating these challenges.
It is expected that the workshop will educate participants on ECOWAS protocols, particularly on democracy and good governance, free movement of goods and services to enable them to derive maximum benefit from ECOWAS.
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Obed Ansah
