Delegates at the ongoing ECOWAS Parliamentary session in Abuja as lawmakers debate the possible return of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to the regional bloc amid rising concerns over insecurity, xenophobic attacks and regional integration. [X, formerly Twitter/ECOWAS Parliament]
The question of whether Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger will ever return to the Economic Community of West African States hung heavily over the bloc’s First Ordinary Parliamentary Session of 2026 in Abuja this week, as lawmakers grappled with some of the most consequential challenges facing regional integration in a generation.
Nigerian legislator Dr Sulaiman Gumi argued that a return to the ECOWAS fold remains in the strategic interest of the three Sahel nations, now grouped under the Alliance of Sahel States — even as their formal withdrawal, which took effect in January 2025, continues to reverberate across the region. The exit has strained trade ties, complicated border management, disrupted counterterrorism coordination, and cast a long shadow over the future of free movement across West Africa.
The session, opened by Speaker Memounatou Ibrahima, is expected to consider country reports, swear in new parliamentarians, and lay the groundwork for a Special Summit on the Future of Regional Integration. Ibrahima set an ambitious tone from the outset, urging West African leaders to defend democracy and deepen practical integration. “The task before us is immense, but our determination is unwavering,” she told delegates.
But determination alone came under scrutiny as lawmakers shifted attention to the safety of ECOWAS citizens — both within the region and beyond its borders. The Parliament directed its Committee on Political Affairs to investigate terrorist attacks in Mali and Burkina Faso, as well as xenophobic violence in South Africa targeting West African nationals. Ghanaian MP and Third Deputy Speaker Alexander Afenyo-Markin delivered perhaps the session’s sharpest rebuke on the matter, drawing on concrete examples to demand more from the bloc. He cited the killing of Ghanaian tomato traders in Burkina Faso and attacks on African migrants in South Africa, warning that “words delivered from a ceremonial platform do not arrest a single perpetrator.”
“A regional community that cannot protect its own citizens in transit has not yet earned its name,” Afenyo-Markin told the plenary — a statement that captured the frustration of many in the chamber.
The debate also reignited long-standing concerns over the ECOWAS Free Movement Protocol. Gumi warned separately that many citizens remain unaware of their rights under the protocol, a gap that continues to obstruct free movement in practice. Lawmakers added that border harassment and weak implementation of regional commitments are quietly hollowing out one of ECOWAS’s founding promises.
Against this backdrop, Ghana’s reaffirmation of its commitment to regional integration carried symbolic weight. Accra paid $82.5 million in ECOWAS levy obligations, according to the News Agency of Nigeria — a move likely to strengthen its standing in parliamentary deliberations at a moment when the bloc is under mounting pressure to demonstrate its relevance.
Accountability inside the chamber proved equally contentious. Nigerian delegate Awaji-Inombek Abiante launched a broadside against what he described as sanitised country presentations, insisting that member states owe the Parliament — and the region — more candour. “People can’t come here to whitewash the situations in their countries,” he stated pointedly. Abiante singled out the Senegalese delegation for reports he said lacked clarity and failed to adequately document arbitrary arrests — an omission he argued placed human rights at risk. He also turned on the Liberian and Sierra Leonean delegations for failing to update the House on their unresolved border dispute with Guinea, despite the matter having previously been debated at length on the floor. A member of Sierra Leone’s delegation pushed back, suggesting that not raising the dispute was itself a sign of the maturity and integration that ECOWAS exists to promote. Abiante was unmoved. “Of what use is it to shield the reality,” he shot back. “What are you clapping for? This is not a church. I don’t belong to this class.”
Elsewhere in the session, Senegalese MPs highlighted agricultural modernisation as a lever for economic growth, pointing to ongoing efforts to raise productivity and strengthen food systems across the country. The departure of Ivorian lawmakers from the regional parliament at the close of their term also marked the session, a reminder of the institutional transitions continuously reshaping ECOWAS’s legislative arm.
Taken together, the Abuja proceedings painted a picture of a Parliament acutely aware of its moment — straining to hold the door open to estranged Sahel members, shield its citizens, reinforce free movement, demand honest governance, and restore confidence in a project that its critics say is drifting, and its defenders insist is indispensable.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah