FG advised to resist Morocco, Tunisia’s bid to join ECOWAS
A senior lawyer, Chief Sebastine Hon, SAN, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly to resist the membership bids of Morocco and Tunisia to be joined in the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.
In a statement signed and made available to The Daily Times, Hon questioned the motives behind the bid saying, it is a suspicious move that should be rejected.
This according to him is as a result of the unwarranted standoff it had with African Union for about 34 years, over its indefensible actions in Western Sahara.
Besides, the senior lawyer said that there is nowhere in the Revised ECOWAS Treaty where power or mandate to grant observer status or permanent membership to any country which does not fall within the ECOWAS Sub Region is donated.
He noted that any decision of that Body, including granting observer or permanent status to any country,will be null and void since it does not agree with its Treaty.
“The ECOWAS leadership should, therefore, reverse its decisions on Morocco and Tunisia” he said.
He explained that the OAU Council of Ministers, now African Union had in its Ordinary Session held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from February 23 to March 1, 1976, in Resolution No. CM/Res.464 (XXVI), divided the whole of Africa into five geo-political Regions.
The regions he said were Northern, Western, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa and that by that resolution, Morocco became a North African country and not a West African country.
“Morocco cannot, therefore, at the instance of ECOWAS alone, become a member of the West African Regional Community, except if Resolution CM/Res.464 (XXVI) is revoked or altered by the AU Council of Ministers.
“I am grounded in this submission by the provisions of the ECOWAS Treaty itself, which made reference to and even adopted the AU Resolution.
“In spite of the AU Council of Ministers not having revoked or set aside Resolution CM/Res.464 (XXVI), the President of Ivory Coast, Alasanne Quattara, told the BBC a few months ago that Morocco’s bid for membership of the ECOWAS had been agreed upon in principle and that it, together with Tunisia which is seeking observer status with the ECOWAS, will be invited to the meeting of the Regional body holding in Togo, in December, 2017.
“This is most unacceptable, to say the least” he added.
Morocco had recently expressed interest in joining the West African regional bloc, the ECOWAS. The news was received with mixed feelings across the region, and questions are being asked.
Located in North Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, the distance between Morocco and Ghana in West Africa is some 2714km.
A country that takes pride in its Arab heritage and culture, in spite of the mixture of Berber and the influence of European cultures, Morocco is more Arab than anything else.
With a population of some 35 million people, Morocco until recently wasn’t even a member of the African Union (AU).
The country left the continental organization for more than 30 years over the AU’s recognition of Western Sahara, a territory that
orocco laid claims to. Early this year, it reapplied to the AU and was readmitted. That wasn’t surprising, but Morocco’s recent expression of interest to join the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS is raising eyebrows.
ECOWAS is a regional bloc of some 15 countries close to each other, and mostly sharing borders. The countries are Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, The Gambia, Mali, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Benin and Cape Verde.
While this won’t be the first time that north African countries have joined organisations originally meant exclusively for countries in other regions of Africa, as Libya and Egypt are members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), a group of countries in East and South Africa, Morocco’s bid to join ECOWAS sounds bizarre.
Francesca Iwambe-Abuja
