By agency reports
Prof. Khalifa Dikwa, a language and linguistics professor from the university of Maiduguri has described ECOWAS’s response to recent coups as “obsolete” and driven by “double standards.”
He argued that the regional bloc protects sitting leaders rather than citizens.
Dikwa was speaking on Sahel Watch with host John Coster on S24 TV.
“ECOWAS became a club of sitting heads of state, protecting one another against their own people, not protecting the region against bad governance,” Prof Dikwa said.
He questioned why the bloc stayed silent when Alpha Condé and Alassane Ouattara sought third terms, but moved swiftly against military takeovers in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
He also pointed to Chad, where Mahamat Déby’s “dynastic coup” was “even supported by France,” while Paris condemned coups in the Sahel.
“The same France that is condemning the coup in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, was there in N’Djamena to inaugurate a dynastic coup. Double standards,” he told S24 TV.
Dikwa called sanctions on Niger “not only inhuman but also illegal according to the ECOWAS protocol itself.”
“You cannot cut off electricity, you cannot stop medication, you cannot stop food from going to landlocked countries,” he stressed.
He argued that Nigeria’s push for military intervention “failed before it even started” after the Senate, northern elders, and citizens rejected it.
“Because we share a 1,500-kilometer border with Niger. They are our brothers, our sisters.
“We share the same culture, the same religion, the same language… you cannot expect us to go to war with ourselves to satisfy Paris or Washington,” he said.
He added that the exit of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) is “a heavy blow to the integration of the sub-region” caused by “clumsy leadership.”
