Senegal’s Basilou Diomaye Faye, Africa’s youngest president, instantly faces a frightening problem: reunifying an older and weakened regional bloc.
Faye, 44, was tasked with bringing military-ruled Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso again to ECOWAS at an ECOWAS summit in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Sunday. The three international locations withdrew from ECOWAS and shaped their very own alliance after a army takeover led to the severing of ties with their West African neighbors.
As a peace envoy backed by Togolese President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, Mr. Faye is seen as the most effective head of state to hold out the mission of reintegrating the three international locations into regional cooperation.
Other than the lure of safety and financial cooperation, ECOWAS’s goodwill has additionally waned in recent times, stated Afolabi Adekia Oja, a analysis analyst on the Middle for Democracy and Growth who focuses on West Africa. However Adekeyoja stated the brand new place provided Mr Faye the chance to lastly pursue reforms to “construct a extra sustainable and self-reliant ECOWAS”.
Mr. Faye additionally represented the other view that the three army leaders claimed to oppose.
He had not but been elected when the Financial Neighborhood of West African States (ECOWAS), based in 1975, imposed robust sanctions on Niger following final July’s coup. Niger cited these sanctions as one of many causes for its withdrawal from ECOWAS. Moreover, Mr Faye’s victory on this yr’s election proved credible, in distinction to fraudulent polls within the area.
At house, Faye is re-examining outdated relationships that junta leaders say have stifled improvement in West Africa, although Senegal stays a key ally to the West. Underneath Mr Faye, Senegalese authorities are renegotiating contracts with the nation’s overseas operators, with Finance Minister Abdelrahmane Sall saying “the purpose is to wean us off public coverage dependence…”
Analysts say that is precisely what the junta needs to listen to. Since overthrowing democratic governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, generals have reduce off army and financial ties with conventional Western companions akin to america and France, arguing they’ve failed to learn their international locations. This shift has allowed Russia to broaden its presence within the area.
“Like different heads of state, he asserts sovereignty and breaks with the outdated order,” stated Sediq Abba, an knowledgeable on the Sahel and president of the Worldwide Middle for Reflection and Analysis.
For Faye, a former tax inspector, age is greater than a quantity. Though he’s Africa’s youngest president, he’s older than three of the area’s 4 present army leaders.
Mr Faye stays one of many youngest members on the ECOWAS assembly in Nigeria on Sunday. Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo sat throughout from him. Now 80, he’s solely 4 years youthful than Mr. Faye’s father.
Throughout a go to to Nigeria in Might, the Senegalese chief considered his age as an “asset” that would open a window for dialogue with neighboring international locations.
Abba, an knowledgeable on Sahel points, stated Faye’s process of contacting these three international locations just isn’t simple. He stated the three international locations had broader considerations concerning the functioning of ECOWAS, which they stated was topic to interference from overseas international locations akin to France.
There’s additionally the query of what freedoms Faye and the Togolese president can have as envoys to ECOWAS, which has simply re-elected Nigerian President Bola Tinubu as chairman.
Mr Adekyoya of the Middle for Democracy and Growth stated their success would depend upon “the diploma of coordination and settlement amongst completely different leaders on these points”.
