Forum advocates decoupling of Foreign Affairs from Regional Integration

Participants at a two-day policy dialogue on regional integration issues have called on government to separate the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from Regional Integration for effective implementation of the ECOWAS Agenda.

Varied interest groups at the ongoing forum on Wednesday argued that amalgamation of the two distinct entities did not allow effective implementation of the sub-regional bloc’s integration process due to lack of professionalism.

They also named high staff attrition and lack of institutional memory as part of reasons that necessitated policymakers to let the two bodies standalone for the regional integration to be located at the presidency to coordinate activities of various ministries for effective implantation of the regional protocols.

The forum was on the topic: “Bringing West African Integration home for National Development” and was earlier attended by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday.

Professor SKB Asante, the Executive Director of Centre for Regional Integration in Africa (CRIA), called for full participation of citizens in the continental and sub-regional integration process for rapid economic growth. He expressed worry that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) integration agenda has largely been left to heads of member states without looking at how to involve people at the grassroots.

“There is insufficient participation of such key actors as civil society, private sector or the business community and the various development partners in the integration process,” he said. Prof. Asante said: “The people should be at the centre of integration,” he said, adding that; “it should not be left at the ECOWAS heads of state levels. We are not integrating heads of states, we are integrating the people.”

He urged leadership of ECOWAS to review the integration process else; “we are not going anywhere.” After more than 40 years of signing the integration protocol the West African bloc, he said, should create a special television channel that would focus on propagating messages, introduce ECOWAS games and debates in Ghanaian schools and “even have ECOWAS bread.”

Mr James Victor Gbeho, the Former President of the ECOWAS Commission, called on government to formulate a national policy that would allow the speaking of French in schools and at every level of the Ghanaian educational ladder.

He said: “French must not be optional in our community plan where we learn French up to some level, we should make an effort to learn French, English and Hausa in ECOWAS member countries.”

“We should make it a national policy to speak languages in the region. We should look at people centeredness of the ECOWAS agenda as the matter of top priority,” he said. Mr James Asare-Adjei, the President of the Association of Ghana Industries, urged Ghana to position herself and take advantage of the large market size of around 350 million inhabitants or face the risk of large imports from the sub-region.

“If Ghana does not position itself now, it faces higher risk of large imports from the sub region in the future as a result the Common External Tariff and the upcoming continent free trade agreement,” he said.