Addis Ababa — Mohamed Ibn Chambas is the newly-appointed executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, which has 15 member countries and is headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria. A former deputy foreign minister of Ghana, under President Jerry Rawlings, Chambas was involved in many rounds of shuttle diplomacy around the region during the 1990s, trying to end the wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. He also served as deputy education minister and as a member and first deputy speaker of Parliament. He has a PhD. from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and a law degree from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he also practiced law for several years.
Dr. Chambas has been in his new job less than a month and one of his first continental activities in the new post was to join more than a thousand delegates in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the third African Development Forum to discuss regional integration from 3-8 March 2002. Defining the Priorities of Regional Integration is the theme of ADF III and ECOWAS is considered, by many, as one of the regional organisations that is making some progress in this respect. AllAfrica.com's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton caught up with Mohamed Ibn Chambas to find out more.
What are your priorities as the new executive secretary of ECOWAS?
Frankly, my first two weeks have been quite exciting. I have found a very welcoming environment in Abuja from the secretariat, from the host government. I think we are off to a good start. I had a very smooth transition with my predecessor Ambassador Lansana Kouyate who, incidentally, worked very hard over the last four years to give ECOWAS a high profile.
The path is very clearly defined. We have to focus now on trade liberalisation within West Africa, ensure that there is greater trade, smoother trade, remove most of the impediments which are still restricting greater interaction in the commercial sector and then concentrate on some of the other projects, infrastructure projects, which will further enhance greater, freer movement of persons, goods and services within the sub-region.
But doesn't what you've outlined there come almost second to conflict? And you have walked bang into the conflict between Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Although the three leaders of the Mano River Union recently met in Morocco, there are still problems. Lives are still being lost and people are still fleeing war.
No question. Our sub-region has some of the lingering conflicts which we have to really wrap up, and quickly. But we should put a balance on things, focus more on the economic, social and commercial integration, physical integration. But at the same time we should work hard to bring finality to the conflicts.
In Sierra Leone there is good progress, and we need to ensure that this is consolidated. Hopefully the elections in May will go very well and then we'll build on national reconciliation there.
In Liberia, we have initiated a process which will culminate in a national reconciliation conference in which all Liberians -- those who are in and, especially, Liberians who are not at this time able to go to their country -- for them to be able to return and to sit down with the government and discuss ways in which an environment could be created in Liberia for all Liberians to participate politically.
But how do you get to that stage when you have a rebellion, an active rebellion, going on inside Liberia?
Well the first step is to convene a preparatory meeting in Abuja which is what we're going to do. We have the support of the Nigerian government. President Obasanjo is fully behind it. I have only last week been talking to the Liberian government, President Taylor. He is agreeable to convening this preparatory meeting in Abuja. The government will be represented, those who are outside the country will be there, so that we can find out what is preventing the groups outside from going home and laying the basis for a national conference in which all the parties -- including those who have resorted to the use of arms -- to come home and sit down and talk about their problems.
Violence cannot be the solution to the problem in Liberia. And the ECOWAS position is very clear, that we are totally opposed to the armed insurrection, the rebellion, and that any government that emerges from that kind of process will simply not be recognised.
You say that you are going to call together the government and then groups outside Liberia, but surely it's the rebels fighting -- they say inside the country, the LURD rebels, who also need to be at the negotiating table, otherwise they may not comply with any agreement that comes out of the negotiations you're hoping to host.
We have to move very cautiously on these issues. Because, first and foremost, it has to be absolutely clear that use of force, use of unconstitutional means to fight a government, is simply no longer acceptable in our sub-region. That is first and fundamental.
Beyond that, people or persons or institutions within a country, which have legitimate grievances with their government, should have an avenue to sit down with the government and talk about these problems.
So are you saying there has to be a ceasefire by the LURD rebels before they are invited to ECOWAS in Abuja?
We are inviting all groups there and, hopefully, if the LURD are going to come, it should be very clear to them that the means which they have chosen now is unacceptable and that they have to accept a political resolution of whatever grievance they may have against their government or their country.
Now you've only been in the job as ECOWAS executive secretary for less than a month, but have you heard from the LURD rebels, are they in agreement? Are they going to lay down their arms and come to the negotiating table?
Well I personally have not been in contact with them, others have been. It is my understanding that they -- at least initially -- seem to be responding positively to our suggestions that the only way out of this problem is a political, negotiated settlement. And they should appreciate that the course that they have taken will simply not lead them to any solution that is acceptable to the West African community.
Dr Chambas, we are here in Addis Ababa at the Economic Commission for Africa's third African Development Forum. What is being discussed is priorities for regional integration, obviously essential for ECOWAS. Now there is a lot of talk going on but, concretely, what comes out of such a forum that can take regional organisations, such as the one you head, forward.
You can imagine that, for me, just coming into this job, this is a very useful forum. I get to listen to all the different reviews of past activity in regional integration, experiences from outside the African continent and that helps to define things and to clarify things as I start this job.
I think it's a useful process also because, as you know, it has brought together governments, the non-governmental sector, if you will, the people, the various civic organisations for us to listen to them and to get their perspective on the whole regional integration process. Hopefully, this should help all of us to redefine and clarify what we ought to be doing to be more effective in the future.
But you have somebody from a civic group, for example, saying 'Why do our African leaders hate us, why do they despise us so much, and why is it that they don't work to get people and goods moving freely across borders?' It was quite a powerful and passionate interjection and I suppose quite a true one?
Very true and I think the more we hear this, the more we have to sit out and see what we can do to let our activities reflect the wishes and the interests of the people we are supposed to serve. After all, integration is about making things easier for ordinary people, traders, market people who simply want to move from one geographical location to another, unhindered by borders and artificial institutions that stand in their way. I think that it is useful to have these kinds of interactions so that we can focus more our policies at addressing these real concerns of the people that we are setting out to serve in the first place.
I suppose in that way ECOWAS has moved forward. 15 countries, any national from any one of those, can freely move to another nation with a passport or travel document. But when is there going to be one ECOWAS passport, what about one currency and what about harmonisation between the West African monetary union and ECOWAS?
Good progress is being made on all of these fronts. In the area of the passports, as you know, two countries as of today have already issued these passports, Benin and I believe Senegal. And also Nigeria and Ghana are geared up to issue these passports.
It has been accepted, and I think in the next year or two it will become adopted by all the countries and used in the sub-region.
In the area of monetary integration, as you know also, the West African secondary monetary zone, grouping together the non-CFA countries, is working very hard to, as I always say, catch up with the CFA countries in terms of coordinating their policies, achieving a certain convergence. And when these convergence criteria, relating to inflation and deficit and better performance, are achieved, it makes it easier for us to move towards one monetary union in our sub-region, so I think good progress is being made in that regard.
We also want to work very, very strongly in the area of physical infrastructure that will link us up in the area of dealing with trade liberalisation that will facilitate greater exchange between our countries, which will all go to creating a stronger west African integrated sub-region.
Dr Chambas, you are a former deputy foreign minister of Ghana and deputy education minister, what do you think made people choose you as the new executive secretary of ECOWAS?
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Well as you know, in my previous role as deputy foreign minister, I was very, very involved in sub-regional issues, particularly during the period of the Liberian civil war, and that exposed me to many of the leaders. They make the decisions and I believe that they saw in me somebody who could carry on and bring some continuity to all the activities in the area of west African integration.
Personally, what do you think is the greatest challenge ahead of you?
Well, the greatest challenge really is to build upon all these beautiful initiatives that have been started and to work to create a true community in west Africa and to really work to remove some of the barriers that remain. Moving from one country to another physically is still such a challenge. The flights are not reliable, there are too many hassles with customs' and immigration officials. To me these are some of the things we have to focus on, just to truly enable our people to move about freely, establish businesses freely, trade easier and this will in turn bring prosperity and create jobs and bring about a better West Africa for all of us.
Now of course any executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States is hostage to its member states, i.e. the leadership of the region. Is there the political will, are leaders paying up their dues to ECOWAS? Do you feel that you have the support of west Africa's leaders?
There is no question that there has been growing political commitment and will in west Africa. And, as you know, we have now introduced the community levy in virtually all the countries. And it is the community levy that funds the activities of our sub-regional organisation. In that regard, the funding situation will improve drastically over the next year or so, when all countries implement this community levy and create the funds needed to back up all our political expressions for integration.
What are the penalties for non compliance? Suspension from ECOWAS?
Not yet, we haven't gotten there yet, but I don't think there will be a need to do that because all of us seem to be moving along the path towards greater integration.
So you're expecting total compliance are you?
Full and total compliance!
(ADF3)
