Abuja - Nigeria — ECOWAS has launched on appeal to its European Union partners to help limit the influx into West Africa of small arms and light weapons West Africa which had contributed to more than a decade of instability in the region and has the potential to undermine ECOWAS efforts to promote democracy and good governance. "We believe the governments of the European Union are also in a position to influence trade in such arms which should not be left to the dictates of market forces, particularly the clandestine trade in small arms and light weapons, "the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Ambassador James Victor Gheho told the Belgian Ambassador to Nigeria. In order to regulate the flow of such arms into the region, Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS Member States in 2006 signed a regional instrument to control its proliferation in the region.
The ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms, Light Weapons, their ammunition and other related materials with enhanced mechanisms to check the influx of arms into the region replaced the regional Moratorium on the Exportation, Importation and Manufacture of Small Arms and Light Weapons prepared with the support of the UNDP. The President told the ambassador that developing and developed countries share a responsibility for the control of such arms as they could not only be used for insurgency as experienced in Liberia and Sierra Leone but could also become a tool for terrorism. He described the proliferation of such arms as a legacy of the end of the cold war especially in Afghanistan, and reassured Ambassador Michel Dewez that the region was committed to regulating and ultimately eliminating the influx of such arms into the region. He also spoke about the recent Coup in Niger and admitted that the region was "embarrassed" by the incident which forced it to temporarily suspend its mediation efforts in that country through the former Nigerian Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar.
He said the region has however "renewed the mandate of General Abubakar to continue his dialogue with the stakeholders and was coordinating with the African Union in order to ensure the rapid restoration of democracy in the country," adding: "we will continue to put the military government under pressure to put a time frame to their pledge to return the country to democratic rule." Such "errant" development, the President said, did not diminish the "remarkable progress achieved by West Africa with democratization and good governance in the last decade" after a period of instability occasioned mostly by military interventions. On the issue of the signing of an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between ECOWAS and the European Union, Ambassador Gheho said it was the "wish" of the region to sign the agreement which is being negotiated by officials of both sides but said that it should not be restricted to a trade relationship only but should be linked to development in order to enable the region avail itself of the full benefits of the arrangement. He also spoke on the increasing challenge posed by drugs in the region and dubbed as "worrying," the transformation of the region from "an important nodal point for trafficking in drugs between Europe and Latin America" into a destination citing the case of a psychiatric hospital in one of the member states where nine out of 10 admissions are drug related.
In another evidence of the abuse, he said that drugs were even being retailed to school children in elementary schools. In the wide ranging discussions, Ambassador Gbeho spoke of a "new era of productive relationship between Brazil and West Africa" following the visit by the country's President last year, saying that both parties were working towards a summit later in the year. He also said the region was working to restore economic growth which was stunted by the global recession and frustrated its effort to maintain a growth rate of 7 per cent. Earlier, the Belgian envoy spoke of his country's interest in the region and its bilateral projects in Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal, adding that the country was also finalizing plans to participate in the regional effort to control the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. He applauded the role of ECOWAS in various domains including its role in promoting regional peace and security, adding that his country was watching with keen interest the strides being recorded by the organization.
