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SADC MUST TAKE A LEAF FROM ECOWAS

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AT the wake of the ouster of The Gambia’s former strongman Yahya Jammeh Zimbabweans must retroactively feel hard done by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in 2008 for allowing Robert Mugabe to cling on to power in Zimbabwe after losing the election to Morgan Tsvangirai.


The Gambia’s Jammeh was in fact not actually ousted from power but had lost the December 1, 2016 presidential elections to the opposition’s Adama Barrow before deciding to cling onto power after having earlier conceded defeat. But all thanks to the resolve of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which massed troops on The Gambian border ready to invade if Jammeh remained recalcitrant and refused to vacate office.


An almost similar episode unraveled in Zimbabwe in 2008 when incumbent President Mugabe lost the elections to Tsvangirai. Instead of standing firm by calling on Mugabe to relinquish power, SADC protected the leader of the ruling Zanu-PF party by painstakingly chiseling out the so-called government of national unity (GNU) in which Tsvangirai was installed as prime minister.


Not surprisingly, the GNU proved to be an unworkable arrangement as Mugabe retained unfettered powers.  But ECOWAS was not ready to tolerate another despot in its ranks as the West African region is steamrolling ahead with a process of strengthening democratic values.
ECOWAS’ resolve to intervene militarily left little room for Jammeh, except to accept a last-ditch escape to exile in the Equitorial Guinea, the remaining island of dictatorship in a sea of burgeoning democracy in that region.
As I see it, a number of dynamics were influential in the changing of the guard in The Gambia, that has been under the stranglehold of Jammeh’s iron fisted rule for 22 years.


The foundation of the second liberation of the small west-African State was the unity of the opposition parties under the leadership of the new president Barrow to contest the December presidential elections. It is inconceivable that Jammeh would have been ousted through the ballot had the opposition parties not forged unity on the eve of the elections.
The second dynamic was ECOWAS’ resolve after Jammeh challenged the legitimacy of the election results after having conceded defeat earlier on. This was also critical, given the perspective that losing long-time African rulers had been favoured with governments of national unity against the wishes of the electorate. 


Indeed SADC and the East African Economic Community have been exposed for their affinity for dictatorships. This has also been shown by the deafening silence from both regional blocks and individual member states on the crisis in The Gambia. Only Botswana from SADC had pronounced itself on the crisis by withdrawing its recognition of Jammeh. This the Kingdom of eSwatini, with a knack for befriending dictators, after having neglected to congratulate Barrow on his election victory came out after the fact to declare its support of the African Union (AU) position.


The AU itself played an insignificant role in the Gambia crisis while ECOWAS courted the United Nations Security Council which passed a resolution condemning Jammeh’s refusal to step down and further endorsed any means possible to remove him from power. But it was muted diplomacy and no action for the AU.  


Another dynamic influential in resolving The Gambia crisis and forcing the hand of Jammeh was the decision by his military not to defend him as regional troops massed on the tiny country’s borders.
Indeed ECOWAS has set a benchmark that other regional organisations and the AU must now strive to conform to. Yes, dictators and despots with a knack for trampling on human rights as well as gargantuan appetites for impoverishing their nations through looting of public funds must be confined to the dustbin of history.


But perhaps the most important dynamic was the resolve of the people of The Gambia as epitomised by the mass celebrations immediately Barrow was declared winner of the presidential elections.
The downside, however, appears to be an agreement to insulate Jammeh from prosecution for, among others, crimes against humanity and for looting public coffers. But that may be resolved by the people of The Gambia, themselves, through a truth commission that has been promised by the in-coming President Barrow.    

   

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