President Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo opened the extraordinary summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) a while ago in Accra.
The meeting which is being held at the Kempinski hotel in the capital on the political situation in Guinea and Mali formed part of efforts to find a lasting solution to the stalemate resulting from military takeovers in the two countries by some renegade soldiers.
The meeting is being attended by nine Presidents including the ECOWAS Chairman and Ghanaian President Akufo-Addo.
The rest are the Presidents of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, Liberia, George Weah, Guniea Bissau, Umaru Embalo Senegal, Macky Sall, Burkina Faso, Marc Roch Kabore, Togo, Faure Gnassingbe, Cote d’Ivoire, Allasane Quattara, Niger, Mohamed Bazoum.
The Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osibanjo and three Foreign Ministers from Cape Verde, Gambia and Benin are also attending.
In his opening remarks, President Akufo-Addo said they will deliberate on a report from a high-level ECOWAS mission composed of the chairperson of the Council of states, the Ghanaian Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the President of the ECOWAS Commission Jean-Claude Brou, the Foreign Minister of Burkina, Faso, Alpha Barry and the Foreign Minister of Togo, Robert Dussey who went to Guinea to assess the situation in that country.
The delegation which went to Guinea on Friday, September 10 was said to have met the military leaders and saw the literally deposed President, Alpha Conde in his place of detention.
Leaders in the sub region will also receive a report from the Mediator in the Malian crisis, former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.
They are therefore expected to make informed decisions on these matters that will have long-term consequences for the stability and the defense of the democratic values in the sub region.
President Akufo-Addo has since charged his colleague leaders from member countries to help proffer durable solutions to the crisis in Guinea and Mali, saying “I’m confident that as in the past, we will rise to the occasion.”
Guinea
In the case of Guinea, the mutineers led by one Colonel Mahady Doumbouya who until the coup was Commander of the Special Forces unit of the Guinea army succeeded in arresting the democratically elected President Alpha Conde who has since been in detention.
They have since suspended that country’s Constitution and dissolved Parliament.
ECOWAS Chairman and President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo and his other colleague leaders in the sub region have since been meeting to device a solution to the standoff.
ECOWAS issued a statement on September 5 when the military took power, asking them to restore the country back to democratic rule, release the captured President and restore the country’s Constitution and by extension Parliament, a call which seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
Three days later, Septmber 8, leaders in the sub region held a virtual meeting after which they suspended Guinea from their fold like Mali and repeated their marching orders which again fell on rocks, with the coup leaders still holding on to their power under the pretext of preparing to form a unity government in the coming days.
It is not too clear what today’s meeting will agree on and its likely effect on the political situation in Guinea since the military continue to hold on to power like Mali where the military led by another Colonel, Asimi Goita toppled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August last year.
Mali
Col Assimi Goïta who later appointed Bah Ndaw as President and PM Moctar Ouane also removed them a few months ago saying they failed in their duties and were seeking to sabotage the country’s transition.
They were arrested hours after a government reshuffle which saw two senior army officers replaced.
Col Goïta who has since declared himself interim President said elections will still go ahead next year as planned.
But he ignored pleas from the UN chief, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the EU, and the US that the President and Prime Minister be released without any preconditions.
The two men were held at a military camp outside the capital, Bamako but were later released.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent