Preliminary Pages
Tittle page
Approval page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Table of contents
List of Abbreviation
Abstract
Chapter one: Introduction
1.01 Background of Study
1.02 Statement of the Problem
1.03 Research Questions
1.04 Objectives of the Study
1.05 Significance of the Study
1.06 Scope of the Study
1.07 Hypotheses
Chapter Two: Literature Review
2.01 Review of Related literature
2.02 Summary of the gap in literature
Chapter Three: Theoretical Framework and Methodology
3.1Theoretical framework
3.2Research Design
3.3 Method of data collection
3.4 Method of data Analysis
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Chapter Four
4.01 Data Analysis for Hypothesis one
4.02 Data Analysis for Hypothesis two
4.03 Data Analysis for Hypothesis three
Chapter Five
5.01 Summary
5.02 Conclusion
5.03 Recommendations
Bibliography
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List of Abbreviation
ARIA: Assessing Regional Integration in Africa.
AU: African Union.
AUC: African Union Commission.
ECONEC: ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commission.
ECPF: ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework.
ECOMOG: ECOWAS Monitoring Group.
APRC: Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction.
AFPRC: Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council.
IOM: International Organization for Migration.
UDP: United Democratic Party.
GOFER: The Gambia Opposition for Electoral Reform.
UNOWAS: The UN Regional Office for West Africa and the Sahel.
WANEP: The West African Network for Peace Building.
INEC: The Independent Electoral Commission.
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Abstract
Gambia, which is the smallest country in mainland Africa, has been confronted with countless
challenges of electoral malpractices and corruption among the leaders since its independence.
These challenges have resulted in the killings of many journalists and members of the opposition
party. Yahya Jammeh, having plundered The Gambia’s state coffers through his numerous corrupt
schemes; and rigging elections has enabled him to run the country as his personal property and
estate. Thus, this has resulted in his refusal to relinquish power to the winner (Adama Barrow) of
the 2016 presidential election. In resolving the Gambian crisis, ECOWAS adopted some of its
already established mechanisms such as the ECOWAS mechanism on Conflict Management,
Resolution, Security, and Peacekeeping and ECOWAS mechanism on Good Governance and
Democracy. The study adopted Bargaining Theory of Coercion in other to understand the coercive
mechanism of ECOWAS in resolving the conflict in the Gambia. For the purpose of data collection,
the study relied on documentary method. By so doing, data were collected from secondary sources
by reviewing various newspapers, journals, textbooks and online sources. The findings of the study
reveal that ECOWAS has been very successful in its Conflict Resolution Mechanisms in West
Africa as it has resolved several conflicts with/in the region. These countries include Liberia,
Sierra-Leone, Cote d’ Ivoire, Togo and recently the country under study (The Gambia).
Consequently, this study therefore concludes and recommends that other sub regional bodies
should emulate ECOWAS in adopting their conflict resolution mechanism within their sub region.
Finally, ECOWAS should also ensure that democratic governance through free, fair and credible
elections, rule of law and respect for human rights are fully respected and implemented in her sub
region.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Africa has been the most vulnerable and most externally threatened region in the world. She has
experienced brutal, exploitative and oppressive form of colonialism; and this has left negatively
impacting legacy on the African continent. Since the 1990s, the sub region West Africa has become
home to some of the bloodiest and deadliest conflict; and represents one of the sub regions that
have the potential to become a real threat to International peace and security. Over the years, the
sub region has been affected by many cases of political instability, lack of governance and bloody
insurgencies. States like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Cote d’ivoire and Nigeria have
seen civil wars; and coup d’état have been experienced by countries like The Gambia, Niger,
Guinea as well as other ethnic and religious clashes in Benin Republic, Nigeria and Mali.
Conflict is derivable from the possession of, and pursuit of divergent ideas, goals, claims, interests
and aspirations by people in their relations (Ugokwe, 2006). Conflicts occur between individuals,
within states (civil wars), and between states (International Conflict). According to Ross Stagner
(2010) conflict is a situation in which two or more human beings desire goals which they perceive
as being obtainable by one or the other, but not both. This means that conflict has been part of
mankind since creation, and that it will continue to be so. While resolution consists of all actions
taken to sustain the resultant peace from the management of the conflict, and the prevention of a
reoccurrence of the conflict. This includes post conflict activities (peace building) such as
elections, rebuilding of government and infrastructure, rehabilitation of displaced persons and the
establishment of mechanism for conflict prevention. In 2011, Otite asserted that because there is
hardly any permanent peace or permanent resolution or transformation of conflict, it might be more
11
appropriate to speak of conflict management as a means of coping with the process of resolving
and transforming conflict. Conflict Resolution is defined as the method and processes involved in
facilitating the peaceful end of conflict and retribution.
ECOWAS has adopted some mechanisms in conflict prevention and resolution and on Good
governance and Democracy. ECOWAS is the major regional economic unit of the sub Saharan
western Africa, the region encompasses 15 nations of which one member is an island state. The
Economic Community of West Africa State was established on 28th May 1975 in Lagos, Nigeria.
The original fifteen states were Benin Republic, Burkina-Faso, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea,
Guinea Bissau, Cote d’ivoire, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone,
and Togolese Republic. In 1976 the island nation of Cape Verde joined ECOWAS as its 16th
member and Mauritania left the organization in 2002. ECOWAS brought together the 15 West
African countries, irrespective of their official language or their colonial past. The objective
assigned to the community by this initial treaty were at the beginning essentially economic: to
promote cooperation and development in all fields of economic activity, accelerated and sustained
economic development of member states through effective economic cooperation and progressive
integration of economics.
Although security issues have been a problem in sub region. Then in 1999 in Lome, the Heads of
State and Government of ECOWAS adopted the protocol on Conflict management, Resolution,
peacekeeping and security. Another similar protocol to this is the protocol on Democracy and
Good Governance which falls in line with the declaration of political principles of the Economic
Community of West African State which was adopted in Abuja in July 1999, on Freedom, People’s
right and Democratization. It is by virtue of this declaration that the revised treaty prescribed the
promotion and consolidation of a democratic system of governance in each member state as a
12
fundamental principle of the community. Concerning election the protocol also prescribes asset of
rules prohibiting any substantial modification of electoral laws in the last six months before the
election, encouraging maintenance of up-to-date and reliable voters list, mandating that election
elections be held at fixed periods, and calling for independent or neutral electoral commissions,
acceptance of election results by all parties concern, and election monitoring and ECOWAS
assistance.
The year 2015 and 2016 were crucial to the Economic Community of West African States
ECOWAS from the perspective of its efforts to ensure sustainable peace and stability in the region,
through supporting the conduct of peaceful elections and the orderly transfer of power ECOWAS
has a rich history of managing political transition and election in the past 18years following the
adoption of the 1999 protocol relating to the mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management,
Resolution, Peace-keeping and Security as well as the 2001 supplementary protocol on Democracy
and Good Governance. December 2016 to January 2017 showed indeed how effective these
mechanisms of ECOWAS were, in the intervening in its member state; The Gambia, for the 22
years of its presidency, its government was variously accused of human rights violation and the
emasculation of political opponents. Following the dispute December 2016 presidential election
in the Gambia, ECOWAS manages to restore democracy in the country by using the threat of force,
but without any use of direct physical violence. It should be noted that scholars have not really
done much work on the general applicability of the ECOWAS that Both African union and the
United Nations Security Council backed ECOWAS, which gave ECOWAS legitimacy for what
was essentially ECOWAS policy, and indeed an African solution to African problems.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
13
Since the decolonization process began in Africa in the mid-1960s several African leaders who
were elected have had serious problem with relinquishing their position or allowing an election to
take place in their unending quest for power. Such leaders include Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe,
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, Jose Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola,
Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, Paul Biya of Cameroon, General Idris Deby of Chad, Isaias Afwerki
of Eritrea and Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia. A significant debate that has not only engulfed the
academic sphere, but also the public space, is how to consolidate democracy. This is perhaps
because the attempt at consolidating democracy is a more arduous task than the effort at
establishing it (Schedler, 2001). The electoral experience of credible and flawed elections, which
have put many countries on contradictory trajectories regarding the consolidation of democracy,
further underlies the complexities of this challenge.
In some African countries where democracy have thrived, such as Senegal, Ghana and Benin,
there are worrying concerns about the manner in which political elites flagrantly and frequently
violate the principles of the rule of law, constitutionalism and liberties (Lynch and Crawford,
2011). In the absence of these principles, elections have been reduced to ‘do-or-die affairs’ or a
zero-sum game attached to winning elections. By clinging on to political power, they do not only
engage in ‘reckless manipulation, but are also engulfed with the politics of brinkmanship and
subversion of democratic rule and procedures’ (Adejumobi, 2000:59).
Within the ECOWAS framework they have observed that this is the problem and as such have
issued that all members should adopt the protocol on Good Governance and Democracy and the
protocol on Conflict Management, Security and Resolution which is in fact the reason why
ECOWAS leaders were mandated to seek resolution of the Post Election crisis in the Gambia.
14
Hence this study is expected to provide empirical facts on conflict resolution mechanism applied
in the Gambian crisis.
1.3 Research Questions
The following questions were posed as a guide to this study:
1. .Did the principle of Non Interference in the ECOWAS treaty weaken early resolution of
the Gambia’s post election crisis?
2. Did the deployment of Coercive Diplomacy during the post-election crisis contribute to
Democratic Consolidation in The Gambia?
3. Can ECOWAS tactics of Coercive Diplomacy serve as a model to other regional bodies in
the Continent?
1.4 Objectives of the Study
The general objective of this study aims at evaluating critically the Application of the ECOWAS
Conflict Resolution Mechanism. However the specific objectives of this study are as follows:
1. To examine if the Non Interference in the ECOWAS treaty weakened early resolution of
the Gambia’s post election crisis.
2. To ascertain critically the deployment of Coercive Diplomacy by ECOWAS in
consolidating Democracy in the Gambia.
15
3. To evaluate if the ECOWAS tactics of Coercive Diplomacy in the Gambia has the
possibility of General Applicability in the regional bodies in the continent.
1.5 Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were formulated in the pursuit of the set objectives:
1. The principle of Non Interference in the ECOWAS treaty weakened early resolution of
the Gambia’s post election crisis.
2. The employment of the Coercive Diplomacy by ECOWAS in resolving the postelection crisis contributed to Democracy Consolidation in the Gambia.
3. The ECOWAS tactics of Coercive Diplomacy in the Gambia has the possibility of
General Applicability in other regional bodies in the continent.
1.6 Significance of the Study
This work has both theoretical and empirical significance.
Theoretically, it will be of great importance to the existing body of knowledge on the topic
Conflict Resolution mechanism and Democratic consolidation in West Africa; it will also serve
as a basis for educating people on electoral conflict and the importance of conflict resolution
in Africa and its impact on Democratizing countries. It will also serve as a source of reference
for other researchers and for further research.
Empirically, the study of this nature is expected to improve the performance of ECOWAS in
making decisions that will enhance peace and conflict resolution in warring countries. It will
16
also pave way for other African leaders to have democratic consciousness in implementing and
executing laws which will be of utmost benefit to all.
1.7 Scope of Study
The work is on Application of the Conflict Resolution mechanism of ECOWAS in the
Management of the Gambia’s post presidential election crisis. Its content scope is focused on
the mechanism used by the ECOWAS in resolving the conflict in the Gambia.
1.8 Limitation
During the course of this study the researcher encountered a lot of constraints, prominent on
the list is fund, time and insufficient materials to carry out the research.
Another major constraint was the inability to lay hands on vital information given that the topic
is something that happened recently and most work on it are mainly in newspapers and not in
Text books. Also during the course of this study people were not too free to give me
information for security reasons in the country. Despite these obvious limitations, the
researcher was able to pull through, thanks to the information gotten from the state library. All
information obtained were carefully scrutinized and placed within proper context to avoid
ambiguity.
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