Back
in October 2011, my piece “Hot Issues on the AU needing popular
advocacy (I) – or Travelling Cheaply in Africa, & Southern Sudan”
touched briefly on CENSAD. I started off with a history of CENSAD, going
on to ask the way forward.
The Community of Sahel-Saharan States was
established in 1998 by the late Colonel Qaddafi. After the
rationalization of the regional economic communities in 2006, it became
an AU-REC – that is one of the eight RECs mandated and recognized by the
African Union. It has twenty-eight members, and Ghana is a member.
Despite
many meetings that had taken place and a then-fully-functioning website
on http://www.censad.org, the uprising that started in Libya in March
threw a huge spanner in the works of the organisation, effectively
throwing the regional grouping out of sync with the other RECs at its
base in Tripoli. Regrettably, the conspicuous absence of the African
Union itself on the future of CENSAD has not helped dispel the notion
that the AU is nothing more than a “toothless” bulldog.
The
passing of Qaddafi, I intoned, has effectively taken the wind out of the
sails of CENSAD, probably throwing all the good work – including the
Great Green Wall being built along the sub-region to protect the region
from climate change; as well as the establishment of a free-trade area
of ECOWAS-UEMOA-CENSAD/ECOWAS-CENSAD/ECCAS along the likes of the
SADC-COMESA-EAC tripartite free trade area, which was mooted in 2008.
Going
forward, I would expect to see the AU taking serious the need to engage
the National Transitional Council in Libya on their commitments to the
African Union. This would include discussions on Libya and where it
stands on the establishment of the AU-mandated and Tripoli-hosted
African Investment Bank, as well as the state of play of CEN-SAD, and
how it can be factored into discussions of Africa’s ongoing discussions
over Africa’s integration.
In January 2013, an organisation by
the name of Centre 4S, which is based in Morocco, and which researches
defence and security in the Sahelo-Saharian band /strip; armed violence
and terrorism, among other subjects, released a paper in French entitled
“Revitaliser le CENSAD”, or reinvigorating CENSAD.
The main idea
of the paper is to look at the critical role CENSAD can play in the
Sahel; ways in which cooperation and synergy can be created around the
zone, and ways in which there can be strengthened cross-border
cooperation.
Truth be told, the uniqueness of CENSAD is in its
ability to merge ECOWAS; Arab Maghreb Union and ECCASS countries
together. The article maintains that the contribution that CENSAD offers
its member states ought to be re-examined. Furthermore, the crisis in
Mali has set an important precedent for the member states to really get
serious on what can be done to use the body as a tool for securing the
region politically and diplomatically.
The paper states that
“CENSAD should present itself as an institutional and diplomatic
framework, of unity and action, capable of formulating a pertinent
response, inclusive and varied, to current security challenges.” Even
more important for a reinvigorated and re-launched CENSAD should be the
aspiration to complement ECOWAS and the Arab Maghreb Union, especially
as they are two RECs most-familiar with the security deficits of the
Sahel region. These efforts will “equally allow for a better coherence
and coordination of different initiatives on the Sahel”, such as
Algeria’s Joint Military Command with Mali; Niger; and Mauritania.
Chad rising, Chad in ECOWAS?
Chad is a Central African country and a member of the Economic
Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Some wonder why it should
not also become a member of the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) According to one Elvis Kodjo, writing in fratmat.info,
'although the idea has not been officially announced, the spokesman of
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Moussa Mahamat Dago indicated on 19
January 2012 in Abidjan during a celebration of Chad's 50th anniversary
that the issue was currently being considered.”
The idea for joining
rests with the fact that Chad has emerged from several decades of
unrest, and understands “more than any other African country that
“African integration is necessary for its development”.
The fact is
that since the start of oil production in 2005, “Chad has become the
ninth largest African oil producer and has improved its network of
roads, which has expanded from 200 to more than 3 000 km. Plans for a
new, ultramodern airport are underway, and a railroad linking the
country to Cameroon will soon be constructed”. Kodjo maintains that
“while being a veritable construction site, Chad also has forty million
hectors of arable land”.
In order to encourage the effective use of
this land, the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs spokesman Mahamat has said
that the country “has equipped itself with a particularly attractive
investment code” and is looking to secure the best opportunities for
itself by diversifying its economic partners in both Central and West
Africa.
In March 2011, Chad was, in fact, granted observer status of
ECOWAS and my monitoring of Chad's wooing suggests that Chadian
President Idris Deby is still keen on sweet-talking Jonathon—in his
capacity as leader of the regional hegemon, Nigeria—to accept Chad as a
full member of ECOWAS. In April 2012, I was quick to speculate that it
is unlikely to happen soon, given the instability in the Sahel region
and the headaches of Mali and Guinea-Bissau. All that can be said for
now is for observers to keep a keen eye on Chad making “incursions” into
ECOWAS sooner than later.
Then Mali happens. And suddenly, we are
confronted with a Chad that is offering support to the Africa-led
support mission in Mali (AFISMA) to the tune of around 3000 troops,
which is around a third of what all ECOWAS troops have offered.
One
of the reasons why Chad is an important country to look out for is for
what happened on Saturday 16 February when Chad’s president Idris Deby
hosted some eleven leaders of the CENSAD regional economic community
that was established in 1998. The capital N’djamena played host to what
should have been 20 members of the populous grouping. Even if a little
over a third of the Heads of State showed up, it was encouraging to see
that the 17 other member states dispatched representatives. Furthermore,
it has shown that the raison d’être for the establishment of the
grouping might still be relevant.
Some of the major outcomes
include a revision of the Charter, to reflect the fact that the
organisation is interested in two major things: peace and security; and
sustainable development. Two permanent organs will be established to
this end, and Egypt is likely to host the peace and security organ.
As
this is a developing story, with much of the material in French, watch
this space over the next couple of weeks when the implications of a
rising Chad will begin to unfold. For what it is worth, CENSAD’s next
meeting will be in Morocco, which is itself making overtures to re-join
the African Union.
In April 2012, I wrote of how there is talk of
an ECCAS-ECOWAS-CENSAD free trade area along the likes of the
Tripartite FTA (T-FTA) of SADC-COMESA-EAC that was mooted in 2008. With
Central Africa only last week meeting and seeking concretely to
rationalise its programmes for ECCAS and CEMAC to harmonise and merge,
it is really exciting times for African integration!
In 2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42nd
Generation—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel
gave a series of lectures on the role of ECOWAS and the AU in
facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuel owns "Critiquing
Regionalism" (http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org).
Established in 2004 as an initiative to respond to the dearth of
knowledge on global regional integration initiatives worldwide, this
non-profit blog features regional integration initiatives on
MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on
ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: +233.268.687.653.
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Ghana,
over the last two decades, has succeeded in providing a marginal
solution to the problem of unemployment and poverty. The impact of
implementation of stabilization and structural adjustment policies are
being used as a vehicle to enhance economic growth and development.
