Suspend Senegal Over Indefinite Suspension Of Presidential Election – Shehu Sani To ECOWAS
By Chris Udochukwu
Human Rights Activist and Senator that represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the 8th Assembly, Comrade Shehu Sani has reacted to the indefinite suspension of the presidential election in Senegal, calling on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to suspend the country from its fold.
Precise Post recalls that Senegal’s President Macky Sall on Saturday announced the indefinite postponement of the presidential election that was scheduled to take place on February 25.
Macky Sall announced he had cancelled the relevant electoral law, citing a dispute over the candidate list. Sall said he signed a decree abolishing a November 2023 measure that had set the original election date.
Shehu Sani made the call against the backdrop of the suspension slammed on Niger Republic by EOWAS on the 15th of December 2023 for overthrowing a democratically elected president of Mohamed Bazoum,
The Kaduna-born politician who made the call on his X account (formerly twitter) shortly after the announcement of the indefinite suspension of the presidential election by Macky Sall said:
“I hope Ecowas will suspend Senegal for their Presidential announcement of the indefinite suspension of their elections.”
Recall that the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS/CEDEAO) officially suspended the Republic of Niger’s membership until constitutional order is restored in the country.
The ECOWAS leaders’ meeting in Abuja asked the military junta of Niger, which came to power in a coup on 26 July, to release the deposed president Mohamed Bazoum in exchange for the lifting of the sanctions imposed on the country.
Recall further that in January 2022, ECOWAS suspended Burkina Faso’s membership after a military coup led by Paul Henri Damiba, which saw the democratic government of former President Roch Kabore ousted by mutinying soldiers.
Similarly, earlier on 31 May 2021, West African leaders have suspended Mali from their regional bloc over coup thatbtook place in the previous week but stopped short of imposing new sanctions.
Leaders of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held an emergency summit in Ghana’s capital, Accra to agree to a response to the Malian military’s toppling of a president and prime minister for the second time in nine months.
However, on the 28th of January 2024, the military regimes in the three countries of Mali, Niger Republic and Burkina Faso announced their immediate withdrawal from the West African bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), asserting that it had become a threat to member states.
The move appears to have taken the regional bloc aback and it came after protracted disagreements over military takeover of government in the three countries.
The President Bola Tinubu-led ECOWAS had gone tough on the coup leaders in Niger, asking it to return power to the ousted Presiddent Bazoum, imposing economic sanctions and threatening military intervention. But the military leaders in Niamey did not budge; instead they received the backing of military juntas in fellow ECOWAS countries, Mali and Burkina Faso.
In a statement they issued, the leaders of the three Sahel nations said it was their “sovereign decision” to leave the ECOWAS “without delay”.
Precise Post recalls that Barkina Faso, Mali, Niger are founding members of the bloc in 1975 and were suspended from ECOWAS with Niger and Mali facing heavy sanctions as the bloc tried to push for the early return of civilian governments with elections.
They said the sanctions were an “irrational and unacceptable posture” at a time when the three “have decided to take their destiny in hand” — a reference to the coups that removed civilian administrations.
In the midst of the sanction, the three countries refused to shift their positions and rather joined forces in an “Alliance of Sahel States”.
The leaders’ joint statement added that the 15-member ECOWAS, “under the influence of foreign powers, betraying its founding principles, has become a threat to member states and peoples”.
They also accused the regional body of failing to help them tackle the jihadists who swept into Mali from 2012 and then on to Burkina Faso and Niger.
Under pressure from the military regimes, France has removed ambassadors and troops and watched Russia fill the void militarily and politically.
The French army’s withdrawal from the Sahel – the region along the Sahara desert across Africa – has heightened concerns over the conflicts spreading southward to Gulf of Guinea states of Ghana, Togo, Benin and Ivory Coast.
The prime minister appointed by Niger’s regime on Thursday blasted ECOWAS for “bad faith” after the bloc largely shunned a planned meeting in Niamey.
Niger had hoped for an opportunity to talk through differences with fellow states of ECOWAS which had cold-shouldered Niamey, imposing heavy economic and financial sanctions following the military coup that overthrew elected President Mohamed Bazoum.
Niger’s military leaders, wrestling with high food prices and a scarcity of medicines, have said they want up to three years for a transition back to civilian rule.
In Mali, the ruling officers under Colonel Assimi Goita had pledged to hold elections in February this year, but that has now been pushed back to an unknown date.
Burkina Faso, which has not been put under sanctions although Captain Ibrahim Traore seized power in September 2022, has set elections for this summer, but says the fight against the insurgents remains the top priority
