The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar said on Monday that the 50th anniversary celebration of the Economic Community of West African States is being celebrated in Lagos been the birthplace of the regional body.
The Treaty establishing the regional body was signed in Lagos in 1975.
The Minister briefed newsmen on the planned programme of activities to mark the milestone
He said ECOWAS has achieved so much despite the recent withdrawal of the Alliance of States of Sahel countries- Burkina-Faso, Mali and Niger.
Given a run down of activities for the celebration, Tuggar said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu alongside other Heads of governments of other member states will be gathering in Lagos for the occasion.
Nigeria’s former Military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd) who is the only surviving founding father of ECOWAS is expected to grace the occasion.
The Minister said the occasion will be held at the popular National Institute of International Affairs, Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, where the region was born.
He said: “The President, by virtue of being the Chairman of the Authority of the Heads of State and Government of the ECOWAS will be present, and so will other leaders from the countries, the states that constitute ECOWAS. And, of course, the event is in two parts. One, first and foremost, to take place at the National Institute of International Affairs, which is where ECOWAS itself was born, and one of the august participants will be the only surviving founding leader, founding head of state of ECOWAS, and the person of the former head of state, General Yakubu Gawan, will be present.
Thereafter the celebration will move to the Eko hotel and suites.
Other activities outlined include panel discussions, youth forum
The Minister explained that the celebration is “essentially, an exercise for the revalidation of the commitment that the member countries have to ECOWAS after 50 years.”
He also noted that the celebration also aimed at showcasing “the achievements of ECOWAS, because unfortunately we have been distracted in recent times by the exit of three member countries, so more attention is paid to that as to some of the remarkable achievements of ECOWAS.”
He listed some of the achievements of ECOWAS to include the trade liberalisation scheme that has proven to be very successful, that has allowed for an increase in the volume of trade amongst the states so intra-regional trade. “We’re talking about the Abidjan-Lagos corridor. We’re talking about the Abidjan-Dakar corridor.
These are trade and transport corridors. We’re talking about SIGMAT, which has digitised the tracking of goods and containers within the region. We are talking about the common external tariff.”
The Minister posited that ECOWAS remains a reference bloc within the continent.
“And we also forget that other regional economic communities and even continental organisations look towards ECOWAS as an exemplar of successful funding, because you have the ECOWAS community levy, which is a novel idea where a levy is placed on goods that come from outside into the region. So it has its own funding mechanism that other organisations struggle to maintain or to even establish.
“So there are a lot of remarkable achievements, and suffice it to say that ECOWAS has also achieved so much in terms of standardising the regulation of the activities of governments and people in different sectors.
“So when you talk about the West Africa Power Pool, for instance, which is looking to harmonise what all the states, all the countries are generating in terms of power and how to redistribute it within the region.
“ When you talk about our waterways and water systems, when you talk about livestock, vaccination, when you talk about health, what has been achieved. And this is what the entire planet is aspiring towards, that convergence, if you will, so that countries can benefit and can develop.”
He stressed that low volume of trade still remains a major impediment to development of the region.
He said: “One of the major impediments to development is the low volume of trade among countries within Africa, on the African continent. So you cannot have an African continental free trade area without the regional economic communities working and without them establishing free trade amongst themselves. That’s when you’ll be able to establish or create the largest market in the world, because that is what the African continental free trade area would be.”
The minister also said that under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s leadership, ECOWAS has been able to achieve a lot of the things that I have outlined, and ECOWAS continues to achieve much more.
