West African leaders are preparing for an important summit on Sunday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, where they will focus on the demoralizing exit of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger from their 15-member Ecowas bloc.
Few think that the military rulers of the three opposing countries can be persuaded to pause or reverse their decision.
While dealing with this attack on regional unity, West Africa is also ready to start work on a 1,028km (689 miles) highway from the Ivory Coast’s capital Abidjan – through Ghana, Togo and Benin – to Nigeria’s largest city Lagos.
Construction is due to start in 2026 and pledges of $15.6bn (£12.3bn) have already been raised from financiers and investors.
Just as Western Europe contrasted the Soviet-led Communist bloc with the “Common Market” that later evolved into today’s trading hub, the European Union (EU), so Ecowas may find that promoting prosperity and growth is its most effective response. in the wave of military and nationalist coups that have hit the region since 2020.
The plan to build a modern transport corridor along the West African coast was originally approved eight years ago – long before the coups that overthrew the people’s rule in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
A preparatory course, led by the African Development Bank, was commissioned.
But when it was launched last month, the time could not have come at a better time to revive the lost confidence of Ecowas (Economic Community of West African States).
Neither traditional communication, nor sanctions, nor the threat of military intervention in Niger, has been able to push the juntas to organize elections and restore civilian government, as required by the rules of governance of Ecowas.
Defiant states have announced they will leave the 15-member bloc entirely.
After that, they rejected the efforts of the remaining members to persuade them to stay, although the Ecowas delegate, the new President of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who shares their nationalist views, still tried.
Until this crisis, Ecowas was Africa’s most united and politically coordinated regional group, with a credible record of crisis management and the deployment of peacekeepers in troubled member states.
With the departure of Mali, Burkina and Niger, this bloc will lose 76 million of its 446 million people and more than half of its total area, with the loss of large tracts of the Sahara – a painful blow to prestige and self-confidence. .
Supporters of the three states leaving Ecowas have compared it to Brexit, the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in 2020. [AFP]
The shock of the withdrawal of these three countries may increase those who want strong governance and democratic rules.
Meanwhile, the long-awaited coastal transport corridor project, designed to support economic development, will also serve a political purpose – to demonstrate the capacity of the remaining members to work together and accelerate trade growth and attract investment in the West African coastal areas, which are already very successful. part of this great region.
And just as the EU’s wealth and power have proved a powerful attraction for former communist states, perhaps the growing prosperity of the rest of Ecowas will eventually attract northern states that are now reluctant to join the bloc.
The construction of the proposed four to six lanes is expected to create 70,000 jobs, with a target of completion by 2030.
And the plan is to find a wide enough area along the route to later install a new railway, connecting the major port cities along the Gulf of Guinea. Existing railway lines extend inland, but there is no railway along the coast.
This road will connect many large cities in West Africa – Abidjan, with 8.3 million people, Accra (4 million), Lomé (2 million), Cotonou (2.6 million) and Lagos, estimated at 20 million or maybe more.
Several cities are important gateway ports for trade within and outside the region.
Already the worries and dangers of serious corruption that often complicate the lives of drivers from one country to another are beginning to diminish.
At many border crossings, modern one-stop border posts, where officials from both countries work together to check passports and travel documents, have replaced separate houses where drivers and passengers queue at counters in succession while a single set of border police patrols. tax officials follow each other diligently following the rituals.
And now the proposed highway and rail line promises to further accelerate trade and mobility between coastal economies, increase competition and integration and transform the region’s attractiveness for investors – just as the EU transformed trade and development across the European continent.
And that process of economic and administrative integration had great political consequences.
It has served as a powerful incentive for countries outside the organization to improve economic governance, strengthen democracy and tackle corruption, in the hope of qualifying for membership.
Perhaps Ecowas can emulate this example, and attract dissident countries to rejoin, especially if flagship projects such as the transport corridor lead to real growth.
Because Mali, Niger and Burkina are not only facing serious development and security challenges, but they are all landlocked, and highly dependent on their coastal neighbors, for transport, trade and labor migration.
Massive trade, both formal and informal, flows across borders.
Livestock from the three Sahel countries are exported by hooves to feed urban dwellers in Dakar, Abidjan and Lagos.
Onions and potatoes grown in the dry region of Niger are valued by coastal buyers, while Ivorian, Ghanaian and Nigerian produce is exported in the opposite direction.
Millions of Burkinabès and Malians live in the Ivory Coast, which is the backbone of its cocoa plantation workforce.
In addition, the rebel leaders do not withdraw from the West African CFA franc, the currency of eight countries, backed by France, which stifles competition but provides strong protection against inflation and financial instability.
However, this deep relationship between the Sahelian countries and the West African coast was not enough to stop the military regimes of Mali, Burkina and Niger from announcing their withdrawal from Ecowas.
Hatred of the organization, which they portrayed as bullying and arrogant, had good political results, increasing its popularity at home. And Morocco is talking about opening another trade route to its Atlantic ports, which could expand options.
But if the remaining Ecowas countries can accelerate their prosperity drive, roll back trade barriers and move forward with successful projects such as the coastal highway and railway, they may gradually end the current political frictions and mistrust and bring the Sahel states back. a unified West African regional identity.
Paul Melly is the coordinator of the Africa Program at Chatham House in London.
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