Tyson's ECOWAS Occasional Journal - Politics in West Africa

President Buhari won re-election on February 23 after a one-week delay from the scheduled election date. From  John Mukum Mbaku at Brookings : ... the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission officially declared incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari as the winner with 56 percent of the votes to opposition leader Atiku Abubakar’s 41 percent . Abubakar rejected the election results, arguing that the election was a “sham” and that the incumbent’s win was a “ statistical impossibility ” in some states. He also lamented what he referred to as the “ militarization of the election process ” and went on to say that he would take his case to the courts. Nigeria is already a country struggling to deal with election-related violence. How Abubakar and his supporters deal with the loss could have a significant impact on peace and security in the country as it moves on to deal with pressing public issues, particularly, how to end extreme poverty. Fola Adeleke raises concern that th

From Christina Golubski at Brookings : Last weekend, in Monrovia, Liberia, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held its 51st summit . During the summit, Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe was elected to serve as the chair of ECOWAS, succeeding Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson who served this past year. One of the most important decisions that came out of the summit was to admit Morocco into the economic body, “ because of [its] strong and multi-dimensional links of cooperation with West Africa .” Morocco applied to join ECOWAS in January after it rejoined the African Union. ECOWAS, in principle, approved the North African country’s application to join the West African body, despite its geographic location. However, leaders have stated that the details of the implications of Morocco’s membership must be worked out before its formal integration. Other news: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ... pledged $1 billion to ECOWAS countries for gre