Following embarrassing and undemocratic utterances by
General Olusegun Obasanjo at yesterday’s meeting of the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS), the leadership of the commission today held a
review meeting that could end the possibility of future election observation on
its behalf by the former Nigerian leader.
As
SaharaReporters reported yesterday, Obasanjo was the figure behind the
recommendation of the ECOWAS observation team to curtail the media in election
observation that contradicts the position of ECOWAS and other international
democracy observers.
A
senior ECOWAS official said of today’s development, “Our meeting this evening
has resolved, and this will be communicated to the political leadership of
ECOWAS, that Chief Obasanjo should be saved the trouble of trying to give what
he doesn’t have.”
He
said the review was necessitated by the negative reaction generated by General
Obasanjo’s role in the observation mission and the potential for it to
undermine the credibility of ECOWAS in future observation missions.
According
to the senior officer, “You know Obasanjo is a loose cannon. He becomes
uncontrollable once bestowed with power. We regret this appointment and vowed
never to have the man invited to head missions again.
“ECOWAS
was only fortunate to have [been] at an election of an advanced and stable democracy.
Were it to be a volatile country, his disposition, recommendations and
utterances are not only capable of truncating the electoral process, they are
capable of jeopardizing the security and safety of our 250 monitors mobilized
from across the sub-region.”