By Mink Jawandor
Somewhere in West Africa, political opponents are in deep despair for their lives as they go about their daily public activities, simply because they are the political hopeful of a next coming election or for their political activism in their local communities.
They are worried that they may get snatched off the street, their homes, offices, or some strange place around town by the ruling government because they are the political opponents of the current ruling regime. And it has become the norm for these oppositions in Africa to be arrested and sent to jail, most of the time without any trials, even if they get a trial, it will be a staged and unfair trial, or these oppositions will somehow get publicly humiliated and killed with no form of justification, without any outside force or international community intervention to help save the lives and incrimination of opposition leaders in West Africa.
These situations happen because these current ruling leaders know that; planting false cases, KILLING and JAILING opposition has no real consequences from the biggest body in West Africa (ECOWAS) that is serving as the only beacon of hope to democracy in the region that is supposed to protect and empower these opposition leaders, but doing practically nothing, so it encourages these West African leaders to keep on suppressing and silencing their opponents.
This is one of the main reasons why African democracies are weak and military coups are rampant across West Africa. In the last four years, seven military coups have occurred in Africa, four of which happened in West Africa. This is a result of political opposition intolerance. Condemnation from the opposition should encourage a sitting government to thrive, not otherwise. The opposition should be allowed and encouraged to speak up on issues like economic hardships, corruption, poor service delivery by the government, and even nepotism, etc.
In spite of how the sitting government feels, these are the opposition’s rights and duties if they believe the public interest is at stake, to oppose the government’s actions and policies by every legitimate parliamentary means and public advocacy. Engaging in these activities, the opposition tries to convince the electorate that they should change places with the government which is a fair game to play but seating governments in West African states perceive this advocacy, democratic behavior as a threat to their hold in power so therefor they go after the vulnerable opposition for unusual circumstances, which most time cost the opposition their lives or leave them severely ill after serving time in prison, leaving some political oppositions partially disabled and physically unfit to participate in a public affair of the state.
To aid good governance, support healthy political competition, and peaceful power transitions (political turnovers), ECOWAS should empower oppositions to prevent the unnecessary continuous killing and humiliation of political opposition. Big organizations like ECOWAS, which serves as a pillar of the African Union, must convey to the ECOWAS parliament how this behavior of suppressing opposition is destroying lives and democracy in the region. The ECOWAS must treat this situation with seriousness because this is what is leading the West African region to the constant political standoff in the ECOWAS member states.
The leaders of the West African countries know that they are not doing well, 80% of their public work is deficient as they govern the people and their nations, which is why they choose to suppress the opposition that is capable of speaking on the people’s behalf. I believe if ECOWAS cares for the people, they should create meaningful regulations to protect and empower these oppositions and ensure all members of ECOWAS uphold these rules and if any member violates these laws, should immediately suspend their ECOWAS parliament membership representation followed by a hefty cash fine to display importance in their policy.
I strongly believe ECOWAS has some regulatory rules like this and it is time to put them to work. This is 2025, and ECOWAS must support building leadership for the future by forging a path that helps the oppositions. ECOWAS should Support opposition against the ruling administration that is using the police, military, and court system to destroy the opponent in their respective country locally.
Going after the opposition unfairly is an acknowledgment of the government’s incapability to run a nation fairly. So, the question is, what happens if there is no opposition in a country, or can a democracy exist without opposition?
There are Fifteen West African countries in the ECOWAS that make up this organization and 72% are currently democratic so, therefore, ECOWAS should take a stand to protect the opposition and if not it will keep on weakening the foundation of the ECOWAS, the Current three countries that are breaking away from the ECOWAS are military rule that recently took power from a civilian government and are comfortable breaking away because ECOWAS is incapable of protecting their members inside the organization, let alone the opposition party or leader. The three nations have seen the weaknesses of ECOWAS, which is why their breakaway plan is slowly becoming successful.
This should serve as a warning to the organization’s credibility, military entities within the civil governments in West Africa see there are no credible consequences to civil leaders as they go against all the ECOWAS rules and regulations so, therefore they form military coups and overthrown governments and form a new path which hinders future national progress. For instance, take a look at some of the arbitrary arrests and detention of opposition in the region in recent years.
In Mali, Youssouf Daba Diawara and eleven others were arrested in June on charges of plotting against the ruling military after calling for a return to civilian rule. (2023 African News)
Senegal’s opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko had been charged with plotting an insurrection with 49 others and convicted and sent to prison in July 2023 (AP)
A Guinean court sentenced opposition leader Mamadou Aliou Bah to two years in prison for “verbal insult” on January 7, 2025 (Bloomberg)
In Benin, Madougou was arrested and accused of financing an operation to assassinate political figures to prevent the presidential election 2021 (Reuters)
A Sierra Leone court on Wednesday ordered the arrest of Samura Kamara, opposition leader, and runner-up in last June’s presidential election Dec 2023 (Barron’s news)
The Gambia’s opposition leader Ousainou Darboe, and 18 others have been jailed for three years for taking part in an unauthorized demonstration. (Jul 21, 2016 BBC)
BAMAKO, Mali’s ruling junta arrested one of the country’s top political oppositions Wednesday for criticizing the military rulers of neighboring Burkina Faso, Nov 2024 (AP)
Nine Togolese political opponents were arrested for running a campaign against a new constitution that could allow President Faure Gnassingbe to extend his 19-year rule. April 2024 (Reuters)
In Niger’s opposition figure, Hama Amadou was imprisoned on Monday for his alleged role in the unrest that followed the result of the presidential election. August 2024 (African News)
In Guinea Bissau, Opposition members accuse the head of state of wanting to establish a dictatorship. 2024 (DW)
Authorities in Ivory Coast have arrested opposition leader Pascal Affi N’Guessan as part of a growing crackdown on those who challenged the president’s re-election to a third term, in 2020 (Alarabiya News)
In Nigeria, secret police arrested opposition leader Aisha Yesufu, she was arrested by DSS on the order of President Tinubu for discriminatory words against the resident. 2024 (Africa Check)
In Ghana, Ofuso-Ampofo was arrested on Tuesday afternoon in Accra in June 2019 after he refused to cooperate with police investigations (Punch Newspaper). Plenty of these types of cases are looming across West Africa.
With these kinds of circumstances, the opposition is bound to be weak or remain irrelevant. All these arrests are not coincidence, it is a straight bias, crude, and unfair political behavior that is constant and deliberate with ruling political administrations in West Africa, going after and incriminating opposition, jailing, abusing, punishing, and killing the political opponents to silence them, so, therefore, they can continue to rule their countries even when their administration is not making any developmental progress in their respective nations and the ECOWAS refuses to use a blunt instrument to condemn this behavior. And realistically, empowering the vulnerable opposition in any of these nations is equivalent to empowering the local citizens because it will encourage the locals to be more involved in their country’s public affairs
The reason that the ECOWAS leadership is careless about empowering oppositions in West Africa is maybe they all have conspired to support each other rogue behavior to silence their political opponent to remain in power because they know that they are not making any significant progress in their countries.
To empower and protect the opposition and save the lives of political opponents in West Africa the ECOWAS should be able to identify political witch hunts and should not allow oppositions to be tried in their home country’s local court as long as they are the leading political opposition in that country because the ruling parties change the rules when they want to punish and muscle away their political opponents, ECOWAS should take cases like these to ECOWAS court and ECOWAS should further warrant a solemn investigation against any leader that is suspected conducting a witch hunt against their political opponents.
I strongly believe this will empower opposition across West Africa. When the opposition is empowered, this will put the country in an equal state of balance and a clear path to a peaceful political turnover of the state. And ultimately encourages locals to be politically engaged which will improve the effectiveness of a sitting government.
Despair and fear of opposition must go away!!!