Femi Falana, a senior advocate for Nigerian human rights, has accused African leaders of failing to uphold the rule of law, which is a part of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Falana also accused them of disdainfully applying the Community Court of Justice’s (ECOWAS Court) decisions.
The attorney claimed in a statement under the heading “End Disobedience of ECOWAS Courts” that the court’s record demonstrated that 154 ECOWAS member states had not been enforcing any laws as of December 2024. He claims that Nigeria has the highest number of judgments, followed by Togo and Guinea, which have 27 and 15, respectively.
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Mali (10), Sierra Leone (9), Niger (eight), Senegal (eight), Ghana (six), Benin (five), The Gambia (three), Liberia (four), Burkinabe (five), Cabo Verde (one), and Guinea Bissau (one).
The ECOWAS leaders have violated democratic principles and the rule of law without being treated with respect. Thus, there hasn’t been a constitutional change in government in the area. The leaders have disregarded the decisions of the Community Court of Justice (ECOWAS Court) without any legal or political justification, according to Falana.
We feel compelled to remind the ECOWAS leaders that some of their predecessors who did not uphold the court’s decisions have contacted the same court after they have left office to demand the protection of their human rights.
“These figures include Burkinabe Charles Taylor of Liberia, Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d’Ivoire, Boni Yayi of Benin, Mamadou Tanja of Niger, and Blaise Campaore of Burkinabe. A judgment has been issued in the court, according to Mr. Doe, the widow of Samuel Doe, the late Liberian warlord.
According to the SAN, who was also the former president of the West African Bar Association, each member state is required to designate a competent national authority to handle the processing of the court’s decisions.
Therefore, he demanded that President Bola Tinubu direct Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), the attorney-general, to put an end to what he termed the “unwarranted embarrassment,” and direct the Attorney-General to immediately ensure that Nigeria adheres to the Court’s decisions.
The Attorney-General and the Minister of Justice were given the task of upholding the ECOWAS Court’s decisions in 2014 as the nation’s authority.
The fact that Nigeria is at the top of the list with the most stringent unforced judgments comes at a time when the ECOWAS’s highest body, the Authority of Heads of State and Government, is at its height.
We urge President Tinubu to direct Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), the attorney-general and minister of justice, to ensure that Nigeria adheres to the ECOWAS Court’s decisions without further delay. Nigeria should be leading by example now.
President Tinubu claimed that the regional bloc had lived up to the expectations of the founders in many ways during his speech at the ECOWAS Golden Jubilee.
