Member of Parliament for the North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has stated that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is only looking at the signs of the uprising in the region and not the root causes.

He thinks attention must be given to what is triggering the several coup d’états in the francophone countries in recent years.

Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana on Friday, August 11, Mr. Ablakwa said in as much as ECOWAS condemns the military takeovers, more pragmatic measures must be taken to stop the situation from escalating.

“I think that we must take a step back and look at what is creating this new wave, an era of destabilization what are the Francophone Africans want? How do we quickly address the real fundamental matters?” Okudzeto Ablakwa said.

The North Tongu legislator reiterated the position of the main opposition party National Democratic Congress (NDC), stating that ECOWAS should resort to diplomacy.

“Now on ECOWAS, I must be very frank the new leadership, the new Nigerian leadership by Ahmed Bola Tinubu took some very outrageous stands and our party the NDC issued a statement on this a couple of days ago and we are very clear that the diplomatic reproach is the way forward in these matters”

Mr. Ablakwa insists that declaring war and threatening to use military force to uproot the junta is certainly not the best solution and the NDC is of the view that the ECOWAS erred.

“We saw that already after its 30th July meeting they gave the junta a seven-day ultimatum to hand over power or face the full force of the ECOWAS standby force that hasn’t worked, this has only entrenched the people and I listened to the address by the new military ruler and all that the ECOWAS position did only made him popular in order to really galvanize the Nigeriens and alert them to be ready to protect and defend themselves,” he noted.

“Now, if you read the latest communique of 10th August, they have asked the joint committee of the ECOWAS Chief of Staff to put the standby forces on alert and also in readiness. It’s not a direct declaration or order to get them into Niger to understand the situation going on there, this is a violate region right taking a look around their neighboring countries which are no man’s land with different rulers that raise questions,” Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa concluded.

By: Edem Etsa Dorvlo | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana