ECOWAS must reclaim its history of peace efforts – Afolabi

By Nehru Odeh

Dr Babatunde Afolabi, Director, Political Affairs, ECOWAS Commission, has called for deliberate efforts by the regional organisation to tell its own stories and correct what he described as erroneous narratives surrounding its peace and security interventions in West Africa.

Afolabi made the call on Thursday, August 27, 2026, in Abuja at the official launch of publications documenting ECOWAS’ peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding interventions across the sub-region.

He said documenting the organisation’s experiences was important not only to preserve history but also to help future generations understand ECOWAS’ role in restoring peace and stability in countries affected by violent conflicts.

According to him, “we need to tell our own story” because accounts of ECOWAS’ interventions have often been written from perspectives that do not fully reflect the experiences and contributions of the regional body and its member states.

Afolabi, who is an expert in peacebuilding and international affairs, said there was a need to correct what he described as “false narratives” that had circulated for years about ECOWAS’ interventions.

“Secondly, we need to correct erroneous narratives that have been out there for a long time,” he said, noting that students and scholars of international affairs, particularly those studying West Africa, had encountered different accounts of the region’s conflicts and peace efforts.

He observed that while some accounts contained elements of truth, others were inaccurate and needed correction through authoritative documentation by ECOWAS itself.

He also stressed the importance of what he described as the intellectual ownership of the organisation’s peace efforts.

“Thirdly, we need to appropriate ECOWAS’s intellectual ownership of outcome documents from the exercises, from the various peace efforts. We need to take ownership of these efforts,” he said.

Afolabi said the publications would also enable ECOWAS and its partners to draw lessons from previous interventions and apply them to emerging peace and security challenges in the sub-region.

He urged participants at the event to use the platform to deliberate, reflect and consider how future peace interventions in West Africa could be made more effective.

The ECOWAS official also called for greater recognition of member states, community citizens, military personnel and other actors who made sacrifices during the organisation’s peacekeeping and peacemaking interventions.

He said many of those who contributed to restoring peace in the sub-region had paid the ultimate price, while others had died before seeing their efforts documented. Afolabi said their sacrifices must not be forgotten.

The documentation of ECOWAS’ peace interventions is particularly significant given the organisation’s role in responding to major conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau through diplomatic initiatives and the deployment of the ECOWAS Monitoring Group, ECOMOG.

Academic literature has described ECOWAS’ interventions as a major evolution of the organisation from an economic integration project into an important regional security actor. Its interventions in Liberia and Sierra Leone, in particular, remain among the most prominent examples of African-led peace support operations.

Afolabi said the publications would help ensure that the experiences of those interventions were not lost, particularly at a time when a large proportion of West Africa’s population was too young to have witnessed the conflicts or the regional efforts to resolve them.

He expressed concern that younger generations had increasingly encountered narratives that focused more on the negative aspects of ECOWAS while paying insufficient attention to the organisation’s contributions to peace and stability.

“We feel that this would allow us to put it out there for the youths of today and those that are unborn to know exactly what transpired in their sub-region,” he said.

He added that the documentation should be widely disseminated so that it could reach young people, researchers, policymakers and the wider public.

Afolabi further said the initiative should stimulate conversations around peace and security, particularly in light of the new threats confronting West Africa.

The region continues to face complex security challenges, including terrorism, violent extremism, political instability and unconstitutional changes of government, making lessons from previous regional interventions relevant to contemporary peace and security policy.

The publications launched at the Abuja event included the Definitive Accounts of ECOWAS Peacebuilding Interventions, After-Action Review Reports and the ECOWAS @50 Commemorative Publication. Also unveiled was Prof. Amadu Sesay’s Fighting Bushfires: ECOWAS and Peacemaking in West Africa – The Experience and Learning Curves, which examines ECOWAS’ experiences in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau and draws lessons for future interventions.

The event also featured recognition of former ECOMOG commanders and journalists who covered the conflicts and documented the organisation’s peacekeeping efforts.

Among those honoured were several former commanders, including Lt. Gen. Arnold Quainoo, Maj. Gen. Tunji Olurin, Maj. Gen. Joshua Dogonyaro, Maj. Gen. Rufus Kupolati, Maj. Gen. John Shagaya and Gen. Timothy Shelpidi. Two Frontline journalists, Mr Krees Imodibie and Mr Tayo Awotunsin, who lost their lives while reporting the crisis in Liberia, were also honoured.

Speaking at the occasion, Minister of Defence Christopher Musa commended the sacrifices of West African troops, particularly those deployed under ECOMOG, and said the publications would help preserve the lessons of the region’s peacekeeping experience. He also stressed that military intervention alone could not provide lasting solutions to contemporary insecurity.

For Afolabi, however, the documentation goes beyond remembering the past. It is also about giving West Africa greater ownership of its history, ensuring that the region’s experiences are accurately recorded and using those experiences to shape future approaches to peace and security.

He described the Abuja launch as the first in a series of activities designed to deepen engagement with the West African community and broaden conversations around ECOWAS’ peace and security role.

Afolabi expressed hope that the initiative would generate wider media coverage, clarify ECOWAS’ position on key issues and decisions, dispel misconceptions and encourage greater public discourse on the future of peace and security in the sub-region.

His call reflects his longstanding engagement with ECOWAS peace and security issues. Afolabi has published extensively on ECOWAS peacemaking and preventive diplomacy, including work examining the organisation’s role in conflict prevention and its interventions in West Africa.

At the heart of his message was a simple argument: if West Africans do not document and tell the story of their own interventions, others will continue to define the history of the region for them