Date Published: 02/06/10

Accra, 3 February 2010

Dr. Ibn Mohammed Chambas

President, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

Asokoro, Abuja

Nigeria

Your Excellency,

Open Letter to the President of the ECOWAS Commission

Save Nigeria from Looming Political Calamity; the Need for Urgent Intervention in Nigeria’s Constitution and Political Crisis.

The Secretariat of the All-Africa Students Union (AASU) presents its compliments to you and wishes to draw your attention to the current constitutional crisis in Nigeria as a result of the disappearance of President Musa Yar’Adua which has created a power vacuum in the most populous black nation.  We wish to state that the nature of the unfolding crisis demands urgent intervention; the passivity of the ECOWAS at this critical moment may spell doom for the entire West African sub-region if the impending political disaster is allowed to occur unabated.  Immediate pro-active action must be taken to determine how power will be transferred legitimately to the Vice-President with immediate effect in order to steer the course of a nation that has remained without a president for almost three months.

It is a clear fact that any political upheaval in Nigeria will have a multiplier effect on the entire continent. The West African region will be worst hit with the effect of irregular and regular migration, smuggling of light arms and disturbance of peace in the entire sub-region. This is the major reason why the ECOWAS Commission must act without further delay in order to save Nigeria from the looming political disaster. Lessons learnt from past and present crises in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Guinea compel immediate and urgent action.

There is no gainsaying that the long absence of President Yar’Adua who also doubled as the Chairman of ECOWAS has impaired the activities of ECOWAS and the commission’s activities have remained in a state of inertia since the sudden disappearance of its Chairman. There is an urgent need for the ailing president to transfer power to Nigeria’s vice president to enable him assume the chairmanship of ECOWAS in an acting capacity in order to break the current impasse in the organization’s activities/operations.

Your Excellency, the present situation in Nigeria deserves/merits an urgent extraordinary summit of the ECOWAS member states to make urgent political decisions to rescue Nigeria from the path of anarchy and also prevent military adventurists from taking advantage of/capitalizing on the present situation to stage a bloody coup against the political class which is presently toying with both the political and economic futures of over one hundred and fifty million suffering Nigerians. Posterity and generations unborn will question us on how we saw it coming but failed to prevent it from happening. The Rwandan genocide is still very fresh in our memories and we must do everything that we possibly can to prevent the recurrence of such a catastrophe on African soil.

It is important for the ECOWAS Commission to consolidate on its present achievements in restoring peace in the sub-region by compelling Nigeria’s ailing President Musa Yar’Adua to relinquish power to his deputy, Mr. Jonathan Goodluck on moral and humanitarian grounds and also in line with the Nigerian Constitution. The President should strictly adhere to the counsel of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to toe the path of honour and behave like a “servant leader” and release Nigeria from its present captivity by presenting his letter of resignation due to his failing health.

In conclusion, is the time to act is now or we will fail in our responsibility and also violate the spirit and the letter of the NEPAD peer review mechanism. The ECOWAS has the responsibility of actively engaging the Nigerian government in high level diplomacy to resolve this imbroglio. The AASU has resolved to mobilize the entire youth and students in the sub-region for a peaceful protest at the ECOWAS secretariat in Abuja to compel the ECOWAS Commission to act at this decisive moment.

Yours Faithfully,

Oludare Ogunlana

Special Ambassador/Secretary-General, AASU

Cc;

The President, African Union Commission, AU

The Secretary-General, United Nations

President, West African Bar Association, WABA

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