An international rights envoy Musa Saidu has called for an overhaul of the treaty of the Economic Community of West Africa States, ECOWAS, for it to be substantially beneficial to member states in this contemporary age.
Speaking against the backdrop of the recent exit of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic from the body, Saidu said the body needed to revisit its documents 49 years after its creation in Lagos under the Lagos treaty which gave birth to the ECOWAS treaty.
Saidu who is president International Human rights commission, Ecology and Marine, Africa alleged that the body has largely failed to meet the aspirations of some of the member states, particularly Niger Republic, adding that it has transformed into an instrument of suppression and oppression in the hands of what he termed some “Almighty ” member states.
He said in renegotiating the treaty, members and prospective member states should encourage their citizens to be part of the process, noting that at the time ECOWAS was birthed in Lagos it was a decision made largely by military heads of state with little or no input from their citizens.
The international rights envoy stressed that the recent decision of some countries in the Sahel region to exit the body was a clear indication that the ECOWAS was no longer serving its purpose in the judgement of the members that pulled out.
