Every ECOWAS citizen should be deeply conscious of the necessity to have an overall cultural vision likely to bring suitable conditions for tolerance among people and respect of the right to differ as against the concept of a common national outlook.

Without a social-cultural cohesion among the people, globalization cannot bring about true peace and development, especially as far as the development strategy of the Community’s member and countries is concerned. Under this new globalization context which compels nations to regroup, thanks to the vision of our heads of State, ECOWAS has gone beyond the decisive steps and should, in spite of the daily hardships encountered by the populace, be considered as a model of regional integration in Africa. The setting-up of the Community, on 28 May 1975, by the Heads of State was largely hailed by the people of the Region whose major aspiration is to live together in peace within a West African (or even African) geographic space without frontiers.

The purpose of ECOWAS is to promote cooperation and integration towards the realization of an Economic Union of West African States in order to raise the living standards of the people belonging to the region; reinforce relationships between Member states and contribute to progress and development in Africa.

Despite the efforts made and the structural measures taken by our leaders during the past fifteen years, the West African Sub-Region had suffered from a range of armed conflicts amongst which is the sadly notorious conflicts of Liberia and Sierra Leone. Innocent civilian populations paid dearly for these civil wars. They introduced atrocities and inhuman practices the kinds of which had, hitherto, never been contrived of in our lands, such as amputating the arms and legs of young persons, the enrolment of kid-soldiers, sexual slavery, etc. All kinds of bestialities that is repulsive to human conscience.

While integration has become unavoidable for development, the separatist movement of Casamance in Southern Senegal, the socio-political situation in Togo and the armed rebellion of September 2002 in Cote d’Ivoire keep making victims among the innocent civilian populations of the Sub-Region. The citizens of the Community who are victims of armed conflicts and social upheavals linked to religious intolerance, ethnic rivalry and xenophobia, are displaced from their own homelands and compelled to go into exile and take refuge in “peaceful” neighboring countries. Owing to the conflicts reacted hardships being encountered by the populations, the existence of Mechanisms for Conflicts Prevention, Management and Resolution, peace keeping and Security should be welcomed as a healthy development. But these Mechanisms should be free from the partial leaning and tendencies of Heads of State so that the ECOWAS’ Executive Secretariat and the appropriate bodies could carry out their assignments with objectiveness and efficiency in collaboration with the grassroots Civil Society Organizations.

Moreover, as at today, thirty years after the birth of ECOWAS, the level of implementation of the Community’s decisions and legal instruments pertaining to the free movement of persons and goods, rights of residence and business undertaking is rather discouraging. Nonetheless, our political leaders are fully aware of the fact that the steadfast implementation of these decisions and legal instruments constitute the core basis for the edification of ECOWAS and a key factor for the harmonious development of all the economic, social and cultural endeavours within the Sub-Region, towards ensuring the well-being of the people.

Now, it is quite revolting to observe happenings at the borders, on the highways and even at some airports and within some major cities of Member States. Citizens are extorted, persecuted and humiliated by law enforcement agents in charge of security on the highways, at the borders and customs checking points. Traders, men and women alike, pay undue “charges” to costom officers on products originating from the Region while transporters are subjected to harassment at the borders, on the highways and at the countless number of check points set up just for the purpose of extortion.

The corrupt practices governing the issuance of residence permits, the discrimination applied by some countries between their own citizens and those of the Community in the payment of school and medical fees, and the provisions incorporated by others into their national legislation just to prevent resident citizens of other Community member countries from legally carrying out their business or trading activities, all of these negative factors highlight the gap that exists between adopted decisions, legal instruments, political speeches and the daily realities.

Inspite of the above-listed constraints, ECOWAS citizens from different nationalities live in member countries, carry out their productive activities and get married among themselves. These resident colonies constitute the links making up the Sub-Regional integration process and participate in the economic and social development of the Community. However, the obstacles inhibiting the implementation of the Community’s decisions and legal instruments have a serious and rather worrying impact on the behaviour of ECOWAS citizens. At the entry point of each country, the citizens face two types of frontiers.

Furthermore, the existence of resident cards and some discriminatory acts mentioned farther above and which persist in some countries, instill in the mind of citizens belonging to the ECOWAS geographic space a deep feeling of their exclusion from the Community while sharpening intellectual nationalistic reactions.

Our studies and investigations showed that, every month, the number of citizens plying the highways and frontiers of the Community’s territory, vary between four (4) and five (5) million. These studies reveal how the highways and frontiers have become powerful sources of division of the populations, even the violation of human rights. A phenomenon which indicts all the organizations claiming to defend human rights. According to our investigations, the financial implications of all these trans-border population movements are estimated at a minimum of between Sixteen (16) and Seventeen (17) billion CFA francs per year, within the Community’s territory.

The citizens who are victims of these exactions suspect and consider the guilty silence and lack of concern on the part of the appropriate authorities as an evidence of complicity on their part. That is why ECOWAS is perceived by the populations as a club of Heads of State whose decisions are executed in letter by the Executive Secretariat, assisted by intellectual functionaries who are only concerned by their mission traveling allowances and bonuses. What then should be done, considering the increasing the impoverishment of the people, the hardships and insecurity they face daily? We must act together. West Africa must integrate with itself by taking into consideration its socio-cultural and religious diversity.

The Sub-Region would grow stronger provided that its economic and financial policies and relevant laws are harmonized. Then, treaties, conventions and related agreements would no longer be viewed as a body of intellectual achievements, a simple laboratory of great thoughts produced within Conference Halls. They should be translated into concrete and constructive acts. The grassroots civil society, the silent giant, which is never consulted, nor involved in any decision-making process or action designed to promote integration, is rightly indignant. It is made to play the role of both an onlooker and victim at a time. To reverse this unhealthy trend, it is imperative:

Source: Mr. CISSE LAMINE, Chairman of the NGO: UR-ECOWAS