The #ECOWAS@40Podcast is a segment of the erstwhile “Africa in the
News” segment in the weekly Tuesday Africa magazine show on Radio XYZ93.1FM.
Divided into four parts, we start off with an overview of what stories are
trending under ECOWAS. We then move on to what ECOWAS and/or AU accounts are
tweeting. Third, we give listeners an ECOWAS and AU Fact; and, finally, “What’s
my ECOWAS Beef?” where I offer candid views on a trending topic.
Welcome to another edition of the Ecowas@40Podcast, where we give
you insights into all that is ECOWAS.
In the 10 February edition, ECOWAS resumed pride of place over the
African Union, what with the postponement of Nigerian elections to March 28;
meetings over donor conference for Guinea Bissau; and President Mahama’s visit
to Niger Monday to meet his counterpart President Issoufou, where they reviewed
the activities of the task force on the ECOWAS Monetary Programme.
First, it was over the weekend before Valentine and Chocolate day
that both Nigerian and international sources started hinting of a postponement
of the 14 February Nigeria elections. On twitter, there was a long-established
hashtag under #NigeriaDecides. Typically, none of the ECOWAS accounts tweeted
anything at all during this auspicious time when the #NigeriaDecides was
trending.
As usual, what was perhaps most interesting about these tweets was
the fact that all of them were coming from non-ECOWAS accounts. Let’s take a
look at some of them.
1.
One @MrAyeDee (profile: Africa & Middle East Public Policy and Security Expert.
Editor-In-Chief) with 39 RTS on the tweet: “It is shameful that the United States
has chosen to blatantly involve itself in Nigeria's partisan politics, #NigeriaDecides #Obama”
2.
@FemiOke (Al Jazeera
journalist, moderator and @Upworthycontributing curator, tweeting about the world with a British accent.)
tweeted: “Nigeria have you seen the #MuhammaduBuhari interview @AJEnglish yet? Check it out here). That attracted 18 RTs
3.
@Omojuwa (Columnist for national
dailies@MobilePunch & @LeadershipNGA + @MetropoleMag| International Public Speaker | African Ambassador with 18K
followers) tweeted: “Before 7th February, we were preparing to have elections.
Now, we are preparing to save Democracy in Nigeria”. Number of RTs? 81!
Still on AU-related matters, Mugabe was trending under the
#MugabeFalls.
We know now 27 guards have been
suspended, but what is perhaps even more interesting were the tweets that
trailed along the mini-drama of a 90-yr-old AU Chairman tripping and falling:
1. 1. @Smith_RFKennedy tweeted: “Per @thestandardzim, #MugabeFalls has cost folks their jobs. Further
evidence that dictators have no sense of humor” – 57 RTs
2. 2. @TheSunNewspaper, UK tweeted: “Robert
Mugabe fell over and the internet came up with these hilarious gems. sunpl.us/6013LP2b #MugabeFalls”
– 47 RTs
Closely trailing behind was still the headache of #BokoHaram:
1. 1. @ClancyReports
(Jim Clancy) tweets: From Dept. of
Skepticism: Security adviser says#Nigeria to 'take out' all #BokoHaram camps by March 28 @AJEnglish aje.io/cbmc. 23 RTs
2.
2. @ReutersAfrica
tweeted: #BokoHaram launches twin attacks in #Niger and #Cameroon af.reuters.com/article/topNew…11 RTs
3.
@FRANCE24 tweets “Fight against #BokoHaram turns into “regional war” with 21RTs. (bit of
an exaggeration…how about assumes regional dimensions?)
4.
@BBCAfrica tweeted “Niger has imposed a dusk to dawn curfew and
banned the use of motorcycle in Diffa state following attacks by #BokoHaram
militants” (hr ago: 17 RTS)
On ECOWAS:
1.
@MobilePunch: “Respect INEC’s decision, ECOWAS urges Nigerians” –
14RTS
2.
@AU_PSD:
“l’UA en contact avec la CEDEAO et les Nations Unies sur la situation au
Burkina Faso” – 6 RTS…5 days ago. Why no tweet on this in English?
3.
@KORABroadcasting (koraafricanews.com): “#ECOWAS Chair…@JDMahama
Pushes Single Currency Agenda” – 21 RTs
ECOWAS FACT
Did you know that:
1.
ECOWAS has a Monetary Cooperation Programme that seeks to take
ECOWAS down the line of a common currency that would merge the UEMOA countries using
CFA with the five Anglophone countries of ECOWAS using the ECO by 2020, for
which reason ECOWAS Chair Mahama and Niger President met Monday in Niger to
discuss Third Meeting of the Presidential Task Force on EMCP
2.
President of the ECOWAS Community Court Justice Silva Monteiro,
based in Abuja, is calling for the establishment of an ECOWAS Human Rights
Charter for Citizens. The Charter is supposed to contain a catalogue of rights
for the region’s 300 million citizens. You can visit their website at www.courtecowas.org for more details.
What’s my ECOWAS Beef?
Apart from the very important fact that ECOWAS needs to get very
serious on social media is the fact that there is not enough discussion in
Africa’s media around the ECOWAS common currency. Merging the francophone and
Anglophone countries’ currency together will be no mean feat, and it certainly
cannot only rest on the shoulders of Ghana and Niger to push through a common
currency. It must rest on ALL aspects of the media that must go beyond
reporting ad-hoc meetings about the ECMP. And I also like to believe that a lot
of the onus MUST rest on ECOWAS Communicating and informing the sub-region
across francophone and Anglophone media!
ENDs
Emmanuel, an
ECOWAS Policy Analyst, is Host & Executive Producer of “Africa in Focus”
Show on Radio XYZ93.1FM. It is airborne every Tuesday from 13h00 to 15h00. You
can download podcasts of all 30 editions on www.africainfocusradioshow.org.
Download the #ECOWAS@40Podcasts from soundcloud.com
