The call comes ahead of ECOWAS Summit of the Authority of Heads of State and Government scheduled to hold in Abuja on 10 December.
The call was made at a roundtable on civic mobilisation campaign initiated by WADEMOS, in collaboration with the International Citizens Movement Tournons La Page (TLP) in Abuja.
Some WADEMOS members interviewed on the sidelines of the roundtable, stated that the call was imperative to strengthen democracy in the region and curtail crisis coming with tenure elongation of heads of state exerting long rules in their countries.
Afrobarometer revealed that 75 per cent of citizens in 34 African countries favor limiting presidential mandates to two terms, Network Coordinator, Paul Osei-Kuffour disclosed.
Mr Osei-Kuffour stated that in West Africa, efforts to extend presidential terms had been more successful than unsuccessful, with the resulting elections won by the incumbent, especially within francophone countries.
According to him, the event is aimed to mobilise relevant pro-democratic actors ahead of the Heads-of-State conference to promote and emphasise CSOs’ position on the third-term, share and harmonise plans of action.
“It is also aimed at raising public awareness on the issue of the third term, its effect, impact, challenges and opportunities and engage ECOWAS on the necessity to adopt a provision in the protocol on democracy and good governance.”
Kojo Asante, director of Programmes and Policy Engagement, Centre for Democracy and Development Ghana (CDD-Ghana) and WADEMOS, noted that the roundtable was an effort to bring together prodemocracy forces in the sub region.
“It will also discuss some of the democratic declines we have experienced in the sub region over the last 10 years, because people are frustrated by unconstitutional coups, people attempting term elongations.”
This he added, triggers instability and violence, leading to military coups.
“These have always been a trigger for retrogression. We think it’s time for civil society itself and citizens to voice their support for these rules to be adopted by ECOWAS,’’ he said.
The WADEMOS project co-ordinator Francophone, Marie Josiane-Ngah, explains that the meeting was part of the civic campaign to mobilisse civic actors from West Africa to discuss and find strategies for a way forward to influence tenure elongation.
Ms Josiane-Ngah said issues of political reforms were raised as well as how CSOs could collaborate to have a bigger impact with ECOWAS.
