Africa (Commonwealth Union) _ West African leaders gathered in Abuja on Sunday, June 22, 2025, for an urgent ECOWAS summit as the regional bloc is grappling with one of its worst crises in decades. On the top agenda: managing the looming formal exit of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso and electing new leaders to lead a broken community towards stability.
ECOWAS Commission Chairman Omar Alieu Touray will be informing the leaders of the progress of negotiations with the three Sahel nations that, following military coups, decided to exit the bloc. Their exit would divide ECOWAS politically and destabilize its economic cohesion, further destabilizing a region already insecure.
The summit also marks the end of Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu‘s tenure as ECOWAS chairman. Tinubu, who took over the job in 2023 with promises to reinvigorate and integrate the organization, leaves with a mixed legacy. His strong anti-coup speech and push for regional integration had initial backing, but flagship projects, most notably a planned military intervention in Niger, collapsed. His bigger ambitions to strengthen ECOWAS institutions largely remained on paper.
In a final act of diplomacy, Tinubu hosted a subregional economic conference on Saturday and invited the militaries of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. The trio declined to attend, highlighting the widening divide between ECOWAS and the secessionist Alliance of Sahel States.
The focus shifts to succession. Potential chairmen-in-waiting include Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, whose recent election has reawakened democratic hopes in Francophone West Africa, and Ghana‘s former President John Dramani Mahama, a seasoned statesman with close ECOWAS ties. Rotating leadership between the bloc’s groups is an old tradition that could determine the course.
Whomever occupies the post will be left with a bloc at a critical juncture. Along with mending internal cracks, the new chairperson will need to navigate an area with growing anti-Western inclinations, governance instability, and insurgent dangers. The exit of the Sahelian trio provided it is official would be more than just a political shift; it would be an unfortunate blow to ECOWAS’s original dream of a unifying unity and shared prosperity.
In Abudu, there is some hope that fresh leadership will take a stronger direction. But the hurdles are enormous, and the future of West Africa’s top regional institution is uncertain. Bottom of Form
