Opinion

The Oracle: Chief (Mrs) Margaret Ekpo and Hajia Gambo Sawaba in History (Pt 15)

Published

5 years ago

July 2, 2021

Eric

By Chief Mike Ozekhome

Margaret Ekpo (1914-2006), a Nigerian women’s rights activist and social mobilizer, who was a pioneering female politician in the country’s First Republic and a leading member of a class of traditional Nigerian women activists. She played major roles as a grassroot and nationalist politician in the Eastern Nigerian city of Aba, in the era of an hierarchical and male-dominated movement towards independence, with her rise not the least helped by the socialization of women’s role into that of helpmates or appendages to the careers of males.

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Margaret Ekpo was born in Creek Town, Cross River State, to the family of Okoroafor Obiasulor and Inyang Eyo Aniemewue. She reached standard six of the school leaving certificate in 1934. However, tragedy struck at home with the death of her father in 1934, her goals of further education in teachers training was as a result put on hold following her father’s death. She subsequently settled for a ‘pupil-teaching job,’ teaching at various elementary schools until she got married, in 1938, to a Yaba High School-trained medical practitioner, Dr. John Udo Ekpo. He was from the Ibibio ethnic group who are predominant in Akwa Ibom State, while she was of Igbo and Efik heritage. She later moved with her husband to Aba.

Ekpo’s determination to advance her education motivated her to obtain a diploma in Domestic Economics in 1948 at the Rathmine School of Domestic Economics in Dublin Ireland, during the period her husband was taken there for medical attention. When the couple returned to the country, Ekpo established a Domestic Science Institute (DSI), where she trained young girls in dress-making and home economics.

MARGARET’S ARRIVAL ON THE NATIONAL SCENE

Margaret Ekpo’s first direct participation in political ideas and association was in 1945. Her husband was indignant with the colonial administrator’s treatment of indigenous Nigerian doctors but as a civil servant, he could not attend meetings to discuss the matter. Margaret Ekpo then attended meetings in place of her husband, the meetings were organized to discuss the discriminatory practices of the colonial administration in the city and to fight cultural and racial imbalance in administrative promotions. She later attended a political rally and was the only woman at the rally, which saw fiery speeches from Mbonu Ojike, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Herbert Macaulay.
Not content with being the only woman at political meetings, Ekpo devised ingenious ways of encouraging the participation of the women folk in Aba, her base, during the early years of her political career in 1945. She wanted more women to become members of the Aba Market Women Association, so that she could pass on information from her meetings to them, but their husbands would not let them. Luckily, After World War II, there was a general scarcity of salt, an item no household could be without. Ekpo went round the shops and deposited money for all available bags of salt, giving her control of its sales. She ordered that any woman who was not a member of the association should not be sold to. Resultantly, all the men released their women to register.

At the end of the decade Ekpo had organized a Market Women Association (MWA), in Aba. She used the MWA to promote women solidarity as a platform to fight for the economic rights of women, economic protections and expansionary political rights of women.

Margaret’s awareness of growing movements for civil rights for women around the world prompted her into demanding the same for the women in her country and to fight the discriminatory and oppressive political and civil role played in the suppression of women. She felt that women abroad were already fighting for civil rights and had more voice in political and civil matters than their counterparts in Nigeria. She later joined the decolonization-leading National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NGNC), as a platform to represent a marginalized group.
In the 1950s, Margaret teamed up with Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti to protest killings at an Enugu coal mine. The victims were leaders protesting demeaning colonial practices at the mine. In 1953, Margaret was nominated by the NGNC to the regional House of Chiefs, and in 1954, she established the Aba Township Women’s Association (ATWA). As leader of the new market group, she was able to garner the trust of a large number of women in the township and turn it into a political pressure group. By the following year, women voters in Aba had outnumbered male voters in a city wide election. She won a seat to the Eastern Regional House of Assembly in 1961, a position that allowed her to fight for issues affecting women at the time. After a military coup ended the First Republic, she took a less prominent approach to politics.

MARGARET’S IMPERISHABLE STRIDES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Ekpo was one of three women appointed to the House of Chiefs, in the 1950s – besides Mrs. Olufunmilayo Ransome Kuti (appointed into the Western Nigeria House of Chiefs) and Janet Mokelu (appointed along with Margaret Ekpo into the Eastern Nigeria House of Chiefs). She went on to serve her nation in several other capacities; as the Nigerian representative to the Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference (1964), Nigerian representative to the World Women’s International Domestic Federation Conference (1963), Member of Parliament, Government of Nigeria (1960 – 1966), women’s interest representative to the Nigerian Constitutional Conference (1960), a delegate to the Nigerian Constitutional Conference (1959), a delegate to the Nigerian Constitutional Conference (1953 and 1957), women’s interest representative to the Eastern House of Chiefs, Nigeria (between 1954 and 1958) and member, Eastern House of Chiefs, Nigeria (between 1948 and 1966). In 2001, Calabar Airport was named after her.

MARGARET’S PAINFUL EXIT

Margaret died on 21st September, 2006, at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital. She was aged 92. There is no way the history of Nigeria can be written without including the name of this legend.

HAJIA GAMBO SAWABA

Hajia Gambo Sawaba (1933-2001), was a luminous Nigerian politician and activist, who was an important women organizer for the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), during Nigeria’s first Republic. She was one of the early members of NEPU in Zaria, a party that identified with the poor and working class, and became their major support base. Sawaba is also known for some of her charitable causes and strong views on women’s liberation in the arena of politics. Her political activities during the period earned her persecutions from both the colonial authorities and the native administration and many times, these resulted in her being incarcerated. Her biography included notes on several instances of beatings and assaults attributed to the NPC’s Yan Mahaukita. She was born in Zaria, Kaduna state, to parents Fatima and Isa Amarteifo (a Ghanaian). Her birth name was Hajaratu Amarteifo but she was born after a set of twins and so was nicknamed Gambo; the nickname stuck. A name that was supposedly given to her by Malam Gambo Sawaba, an outstanding member of NEPU in Zaria, who was twice elected to the Zaria City Council. Her father was of Ghanaian origin while her mother was from Nupeland.

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Gambo was married off at age 13 to a World War II veteran, Abubakar Garba Bello, who left and never returned after her first pregnancy. A general hospital was later named after her in Kaduna. As a child, Gambo Sawaba was often described as stubborn and forthright. By her own admission, she often went out looking for fights, although she rationalized the said fights as her way of protecting the weaker people she knew. According to her, “I could not stand by to watch a weak friend or relation being molested.” Whenever she got to the scenes of such fights,she would immediately say, “OK, I have bought the fight from you”, to the weaker person and take over the fight. She also showed a marked affection towards mentally challenged and generally less privileged members of society. She spoke with them, accommodated some and gave the ones she could, money, clothes and food. She attended the Native Authority Primary School in Tudun Wada. However, within a spate of a few years, starting in 1943, she lost her father and then her mother. She cut short her education.

POLITICAL CAREER AND ARRIVAL AT THE NATIONAL SCENE

Hajia Gambo Sawaba entered politics when she was 17. At that time, northern Nigeria was dominated by the Northern People’s Congress (NPC), which had the support of the Emirs and British Colonial Authority. Hajia Gambo Sawaba belonged to opposition group, the Northern Element Progressive Union (NEPU), which she joined in Zaria when a local branch was formed. The party held secretive meetings to hide their activities from the Police.

NEPU’s early message was to relinquish power from the elites and rally round the poor. They were anti-colonialism and anti-corruption. Gambo was made women’s leader at Kaduna’s Sabon Gari branch. At one point, she travelled to Abeokuta to meet female activist – and mother of singer Fela – Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. Gambo had read about her successful protest against the taxation of Egba women.

A few months later, Gambo made a name for herself when, at a political lecture in Zaria, she climbed on to a podium and spoke out in a room full of male contemporaries who were afraid to open their mouths. She continued to raise her profile by going door-to-door and meeting women who were not allowed to attend political activities because of their gender. She campaigned against the marriage of underage girls and the use of forced labour. She was also a great advocate of Western education in the North. She died of natural causes in October, 2001, aged 71.

LOVE, MARRIAGE AND CHILDREN

Imagine that at 13 years of age, Gambo had been married off (if we can call that marriage), to Abubakar Garba Bello, a World War II veteran. When the teenaged Gambo was pregnant with their first child, Bello suddenly disappeared, never to be heard from again. The child was Bilikisu. A few years later, Gambo got married again to Hamidu Gusau. That marriage was, to call a mountain a mole hill, tempestuous. Husband and wife often had disagreements that degenerated into violent fights (never a good idea), because Gambo could dish up a good fight and apparently, so could Hamidu. The two eventually parted ways and Gambo would try marriage twice more.

HAJIA GAMBO SAWABA’S IMPERISHABLE STRIDES

Gambo was said to have been sent to jail a staggering 16 times in her lifetime – usually on trumped-up charges – and was often brutalised by the Police. In 1953, she organised an inaugural meeting of the women’s wing in Kano city.

In July 1958, during NEPU’s second congress, the women’s wing decided to join up with the Nigerian Women’s Union, which was under the leadership of Ransome-Kuti.

During the second republic, Gambo became a member of the Great Nigeria People’s Party and served as a Deputy Chairman. In the 70s, she was involved in small-scale trading and later worked as a contractor. Hajia Gambo, Nigerians will forever honour and celebrate you.

FUN TIME

The stress is abhorrent and torturous. The fears are enormous. To ease these, we shall henceforth, week after week, share some laughter to kick-start a fresh week. Laughter is the biggest medicine for stress. It is therapeutic. Says Mary Peterbone Poole, “he who laughs, lasts!”.

“This is the first time in the history of English that a question and the answer are exactly the same!!!

Question: Who declared Coronavirus as a pandemic?

Answer: WHO declared Coronavirus as a pandemic.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

“Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved”. (Mattie Stepanek).

Opinion

Opinion: Big Brother Africa: A Case of Cain and Abel

Published

15 hours ago

May 1, 2026

Eric

By Modest Ibe

Against the backdrop of the nauseating news of attacks on immigrant Africans in South Africa by our South African brothers, whatever the grievances are. I am painfully constrained to make this plea to our human conscience.

“…While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him .” – Genesis 4:8

It is no doubt that South Africa, since her Independence in 1994, having been subjected to the official segregation policy known as Apartheid as enforced by the National Party (NP), from 1948 up to 1994, has been a Big Brother to all peoples of the world, especially those of African descent. Thus earning the most beautiful description as ”Rainbow Nation” – a term coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu to describe post-apartheid South Africa, after South Africa’s first fully democratic election in 1994.

The country having experienced first hand the monstrosity of man’s inhumanity to man, made the most forgiving and humane declaration through a foremost member of the liberation struggles for Africa and Africans and the country’s first democratic President, Nelson Mandela that:

”Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all – never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another, and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.” – From Mandela’s inaugural address as President of South Africa (Emphasis mine).

This above quote was a corroboration of Mandela’s belief that “a new society cannot be created by reproducing the repugnant past, however refined or enticingly repackaged.”

Following the death of this great African on December 5, 2013, the whole world converged on the soil of this rainbow Africa nation, in honour of Africa’s uncommon humanity as exemplified in Mandela’s life. His life was a gospel of forgiveness; this message was even stronger at his death, creating an atmosphere of reconciliation and love, even between long-sworn enemies like America and Cuba. For the first time in over fifty years, there was a handshake between both countries, over the remains of Nelson Mandela.
As such, his life was that of a Big Brother, father and king, within whose kingdom all peoples of the world were accommodated and shown the true hospitality, care and love that are intrinsic to and beautifies Africa and Africans, wherever they may find themselves.

Thus this was one legacy that Mandela bequeathed to South Africa and all who live in it, as a man’s true legacy is the life he lived, not the possessions he left behind. His was a legacy of being a Big Brother to all – friends, neighbours, strangers, whatever the relationship definition, so long they are humans, they deserves our humanity and it is wicked to deny them that. Being our brother’s keeper is the finest demonstration of that legacy.

The foregoing eulogy on Mandela is against the backdrop of the recent Afrophobic (not xenophobic, for we are African brothers and sisters and not foreigners or strangers to one another, though distance may separate us) miasma that began to rear its ugly head like an octopus on our African soil, nay Mandela’s South Africa, unleashed by the misguided South African against his brothers and sisters, putting one in a strange paradox of memories – the evil and the desirable.The former being the memories of the dark evil nights of segregation against Africans that bred fear and terror in the minds of all Africans, as painfully articulated by the South African Poet Oswald Mbuyiseinil Mtshali in his quest-for-freedom-and-safety poem:

NIGHT FALL IN SOWETO

Nightfall comes like
a dreaded disease
seeping through the pores
of a healthy body
and ravaging it beyond repair
A murderer’s hand,
lurking in the shadows,
clasping the dagger,
strikes down the helpless victim.
I am the victim.
I am slaughtered
every night in the streets.
I am cornered by the fear
gnawing at my timid heart;
in my helplessness I languish.
Man has ceased to be man
Man has become beast
Man has become prey.
I am the prey;
I am the quarry to be run down
by the marauding beast
let loose by cruel nightfall
from his cage of death.
Where is my refuge?
Where am I safe?
Not in my matchbox house
Where I barricade myself against nightfall.
I tremble at his crunching footsteps,
I quake at his deafening knock at the door.
“Open up!” he barks like a rabid dog
thirsty for my blood.
Nightfall! Nightfall!
You are my mortal enemy.
But why were you ever created?
Why can’t it be daytime?
Daytime forever more?

The latter are the memories of nostalgia and longing of the life of humanity of Mandela and the Africa of his dream and for which he boldly declared at the Rivonia Trial, 20 April 1964:

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to see realized. But if needs be, my lord, it is an ideal for which I am ready to die.”

The reality of the recent hate, murder and killing perpetuated by our African brothers against their fellow African brothers and sisters, with their concomitant destruction of property and looting of shops in heaven’s broad day light, as against the ”night fall” of our dear brother Oswald Mtshali, bespeaks of the devilry and callousness that have possessed our hearts like an evil spirit, in place of our grandest and unmatched African humanity, kindness, care, hospitality and sacrifice for our brothers and sisters.
Painfully, as it is today, we seem to have descended from the shinning mountain top of a Big Brother, for which South Africa and indeed indeed Africa has always been known to the dark valley of the Biblical Cain that kills his brother, Abel. Consequently, the society that Africa’s founding fathers dreamt of is giving way to a society that is now reproducing the repugnant past of hate, even among our African family.

This question we must answer, which is a moral one, is: What justification do we Africans have to condemn the White Apartheid regime, if our current thoughts, attitudes and actions after having attained freedom from white oppression, is turning worse than those of the days of white segregation?

The challenge before us is to refute, by the generality of our behaviour, the conclusions of the former White South African dictator,P.W. Botha on the Black Race 27 years ago, as reprinted by David G Mailu for the Sunday Times,a South African newspaper, in 1985.

“We are not obliged even the least to try to prove to anybody and to the blacks that we are superior people. We have demonstrated that to the blacks in 1001 ways. The Republic of South Africa that we know of today has not been created by wishful thinking. We have created it at the expenses of intelligence, sweat and blood……We do not pretend like other whites that we like the blacks. The fact that, blacks look like human beings and act like human beings do not necessarily make them sensible human beings. Hedgehogs are not porcupines and lizards are not crocodiles because they look alike. If God had wanted us to be equal to the blacks, he would have created us all of a uniform colour and intellect. But he created us differently: Whites, Blacks, Yellow, Rulers and the ruled. Intellectually,we are superior to the Blacks; that has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt over the years. I believe that the Afrikaner is honest, God fearing person, who has demonstrated practically the right way of being. By now every one of us has seen it practically that the Blacks cannot rule themselves. Give them guns and they will kill each other . They are good in nothing else but making noise, dancing, marrying many wives and indulging in sex. Let us all accept that the Blackman is a symbol of poverty, mental inferiority, laziness and emotional incompetence. Isn’t it plausible? Therefore that the Whiteman is created to rule the Blackman……And here is a creature (Blackman) that lacks foresight….. The average Black does not plan his life beyond a year”.

Let us all, as Africans reflect on that, and also learn to re-ignite that spirit and culture for which Africa is known, which is being our brother’s keeper and not killer, like Cain who attacked and killed his brother Abel, when he ought to guard and keep him.

Opinion

Beyond the Present Impasse: Five-Pillar Strategy for Restoring Credibility of ECOWAS

Published

7 days ago

April 25, 2026

Eric

By Tolulope A. Adegoke PhD

PREAMBLE: THE STRATEGIC MOMENT AND ITS IMPERATIVES

The Economic Community of West African States confronts a moment of institutional reckoning without precedent in its fifty-year history. The confluence of democratic recession, the fracturing of regional solidarity, the commodification of the Community’s security space by external actors, and the erosion of popular faith in the tangible benefits of integration has converged to pose a systemic threat to the organization’s foundational relevance. The established toolkit of declaratory diplomacy, automatic suspension, and sanctions escalation has demonstrably exhausted its capacity to compel compliance or to stabilize the regional order.

The way forward, therefore, cannot be a mere intensification of existing methods. It must be a strategic recalibration of ECOWAS’s institutional posture, operational doctrines, and normative architecture. The objective is not the preservation of institutional prestige for its own sake, but the patient, principled, and incentivized reconstruction of a regional political community in which sovereign member states and their citizens perceive membership as a demonstrable enhancement of their national security, economic prosperity, and democratic legitimacy. The following roadmap articulates a sequenced, non-biased, and operationally concrete way forward, structured across five interdependent strategic lines of effort.

STRATEGIC LINE OF EFFORT I: RECALIBRATE THE NORMATIVE FOUNDATION OF THE COMMUNITY

The prevailing perception that the ECOWAS normative framework on democratic governance is applied with selectivity—penalizing military seizures of power while remaining diplomatically passive in the face of civilian constitutional manipulation—has inflicted severe damage on the institution’s moral authority. Rectifying this asymmetry is an indispensable precondition for the restoration of credible institutional leadership.

Action 1.1: Convene an Extraordinary Authority Summit Dedicated Exclusively to Normative Self-Correction

The Chair of the Authority must convene, within a non-extendable 90-day period, an Extraordinary Summit with a single, undiluted agenda item: the critical review and amendment of the 2001 Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance. This Summit must not be subsumed within a broader agenda of security or economic matters. Its singular focus signals institutional seriousness and prevents diplomatic evasion.

Action 1.2: Codify and Adopt a Binding Symmetrical Sanctions Regime

The Summit must adopt a formal Supplementary Protocol that introduces, with legally binding precision, a definition of the “Constitutional Coup” or “Incumbent Entrenchment.” This shall be defined as any action by a sitting elected executive, whether through legislative manipulation, compliant judicial ruling, or tailored constitutional referendum, that modifies the fundamental law of the state for the primary purpose of abrogating or eliminating established presidential term limits in order to extend the incumbent’s tenure. The sanctions prescribed for this defined violation must be identical in their automaticity of trigger, procedural robustness, and severity of consequence to those prescribed for classical military coups d’état. This single act of symmetrical legal self-correction eliminates the charge of institutional bias and re-establishes the Community as a principled, impartial guarantor of democratic integrity.

Action 1.3: Mandate the ECOWAS Council of Ministers to Develop a Compliance Monitoring and Early Warning Matrix

The Council of Ministers must be mandated to develop, within 120 days, a transparent, indicator-based Compliance Monitoring and Early Warning Matrix. This matrix must track, on a continuous and publicly accessible basis, the compliance status of every member state against the full spectrum of democratic governance norms, including term limit provisions, electoral calendar integrity, and civil liberties protections. The matrix serves as an objective, depoliticized early warning mechanism that triggers preventive diplomatic engagement before a crisis crystallizes, removing the element of discretionary political judgment that fuels perceptions of bias.

STRATEGIC LINE OF EFFORT II: REPOSITION THE SECURITY ARCHITECTURE FROM PUNITIVE POSTURE TO ENABLING PARTNERSHIP

The region’s security space has become an unregulated, competitive marketplace for external military projection. ECOWAS must fundamentally reconceive its security offer to member states, pivoting from a posture associated with kinetic interventionism to one of technical enabling partnership that sovereign states perceive as enhancing, rather than constraining, their national security.

Action 2.1: Adopt and Promulgate a Binding External Security Partner Code of Conduct

The Mediation and Security Council must convene a high-level Strategic De-confliction and Transparency Dialogue with all external state actors conducting unilateral security operations on the territory of ECOWAS member states. The binding, legally codified outcome shall be an ECOWAS External Security Partner Code of Conduct. Its central provision mandates that all bilateral Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs), defense cooperation memoranda, and security-related basing or access pacts between any external state and any individual ECOWAS member state be formally and confidentially deposited with a centralized registry at the ECOWAS Commission within a non-extendable 90-day period. The objective is a non-prejudicial technical audit ensuring that the cumulative effect of multiple, independently negotiated bilateral arrangements does not inadvertently undermine collective regional security.

Action 2.2: Formally Reconceptualize the ECOWAS Standby Force into a Modular Technical Enabling Capability

The Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security must be directed to present, within 180 days, a comprehensive doctrinal and operational blueprint for the reconceptualization of the ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF) into a new instrument, provisionally designated the “ECOWAS Crisis Response and Resilience Capability” (ECRRC). This new capability must execute a decisive doctrinal pivot away from large-scale conventional combat power projection—a mission type assessed as operationally unviable and politically irrecoverable in the current environment—and towards the provision of high-demand, low-substitutability technical enabling functions. These core modules shall include a multi-source intelligence fusion and strategic warning cell, a specialized digital border security and management task force, and a dedicated regional counter-financing of terrorism unit operating in institutional coordination with GIABA. This recalibrated offer creates a non-coercive incentive for disengaged states to voluntarily resume security cooperation.

Action 2.3: Establish a Specialized Civilian Harm Monitoring and Accountability Mechanism

The Commission must establish, with immediate effect, an operationally independent Civilian Harm Monitoring and Accountability Mechanism (CHMAM). Its personnel shall be sourced from member states with no direct security-material interest in the Sahelian theatre. Its mandate is the impartial, transparent, and universally applied monitoring, verification, and public reporting of civilian harm perpetrated by all armed actors, including state forces and their external partners. This mechanism depoliticizes the protection agenda and positions ECOWAS as a non-partisan guarantor of humanitarian accountability.

STRATEGIC LINE OF EFFORT III: ENGINEER A CALIBRATED, INCENTIVE-ANCHORED POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

The sterile binary between “immediate unconditional constitutional restoration” and “indefinite unverifiable transition” has produced a protracted diplomatic gridlock. A new engagement framework, grounded in verified deliverables and sequenced incentives, is required.

Action 3.1: Constitute a Permanent, Empowered Panel of Eminent Persons for Silent Mediation
The Chair of the Authority must formally constitute, through a Decision of the Authority, a permanent Panel of Former Heads of State and Eminent Persons. Membership must be curated exclusively from a small cohort of former leaders whose nations possess an unassailable living legacy of peaceful, constitutional, and fully contested democratic alternation of executive power. The Panel’s mandate is to conduct a silent, continuous, indefinitely sustained shuttle diplomacy mission, operating strictly on the methodology of interest-based negotiation. No public statements, no deadlines, and no press releases are to be issued by the Panel. This permanently discontinues the counterproductive practice of “mégaphone diplomacy.”

Action 3.2: Table a Formal, Three-Tiered Transition Compact with Verified Deliverables and Sequenced Incentives

The Commission, under the political guidance of the Mediation and Security Council, must prepare and formally table a comprehensive Three-Tiered Transition Compact as the baseline framework for engagement with member states currently under transitional military administration. The tiers are sequenced as follows:

· Tier 1 (Immediate Confidence Building): Full, unimpeded humanitarian access to all conflict-affected zones, verified by operational humanitarian agencies; and the release of all political detainees not credibly charged with violent criminal offenses, verified by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Upon successful independent verification, ECOWAS commits to a formal suspension of targeted economic sanctions against the state apparatus.

· Tier 2 (Sequenced Political Roadmap): A binding 24-month, bottom-up electoral sequence—local elections first, constitutional referendum second, presidential and parliamentary elections third—with a guaranteed statutory role for ECOWAS in the technical vetting of the electoral management body. Upon verification of each phase, incremental incentives are released.

· Tier 3 (Structural Guarantee Against Self-Dealing): The constitutional entrenchment, prior to terminal elections, of a non-amendable clause prohibiting any serving member of the transitional government from contesting those elections. Upon verification and peaceful transfer of power, all remaining sanctions are lifted, and ECOWAS proactively sponsors the state’s full reintegration and development financing package.

Action 3.3: Formally Delink Humanitarian Access from Political Negotiation
The Commission must issue a binding institutional directive establishing that humanitarian access and the protection of civilian populations are non-negotiable obligations under international humanitarian law and the ECOWAS Treaty. These shall not be treated as bargaining chips within political negotiations. This directive establishes an impartial humanitarian baseline that protects the vulnerable and starves extremist narratives of their recruitment material.

STRATEGIC LINE OF EFFORT IV: CONSTRUCT AND DELIVER A TANGIBLE, VISIBLE ECONOMIC COUNTER-OFFER

Economic sanctions, while a legally mandated instrument, have inflicted disproportionate harm on vulnerable populations and have been successfully weaponized by transitional authorities as evidence of ECOWAS hostility. A serious, fully-funded, and rapidly disbursing economic offer that demonstrates the irreplaceable material value of ECOWAS membership is a strategic necessity.

Action 4.1: Capitalize and Launch the ECOWAS Community Livelihood and Border Zone Resilience Facility

The Commission, in partnership with the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) and the African Development Bank, must convene a dedicated donor pledging conference within 120 days to capitalize a substantially expanded, fast-disbursing stabilization instrument. The facility’s exclusive investment focus shall be the cross-border communities whose economic fabric has been destroyed by insecurity and political rupture. Priority projects shall include the rehabilitation of transhumance corridors with negotiated local governance structures, the construction of solar-powered border market infrastructure, and the launch of a massive Community-Based Youth Employment and Apprenticeship Program targeted at displaced youth in frontier zones. All projects must be collaboratively and transparently branded as direct dividends of ECOWAS solidarity.

Action 4.2: Adopt a Unified Institutional Position Linking Debt Relief to Verified Governance Progress

The Authority must adopt a formal Common Position directing its collective diplomatic weight towards aggressive advocacy for a comprehensive, non-punitive, and development-sensitive sovereign debt restructuring framework for all severely affected member states. This advocacy shall be executed at the G20 Common Framework, the IMF Executive Board, and the Paris Club. Critically, the ECOWAS Common Position must explicitly and publicly link a pathway to structural debt relief to the affected state’s independently verified, irreversible progress against the Tier 2 and Tier 3 benchmarks of the Transition Compact. This leverages the international financial architecture as a structurally aligned positive incentive for good-faith engagement, offering a sophisticated alternative to blunt unilateral sanctions.

Action 4.3: Reaffirm and Technically Safeguard the Free Movement Protocol as a Non-Negotiable Community Asset

The Commission must urgently establish a dedicated, technically staffed “Free Movement Safeguard and Facilitation Unit.” This unit’s mandate is to work bilaterally and discretely with all member states, including those in withdrawal processes, to identify and implement the minimal, security-justified, and technically proportionate border management procedures that can preserve the residual functional operation of the Free Movement Protocol for ordinary citizens, even during periods of political estrangement. Preserving this tangible, daily-lived benefit of ECOWAS citizenship protects the human constituency for regional integration and prevents the political fracture from metastasizing into permanent inter-community estrangement.

STRATEGIC LINE OF EFFORT V: INSTITUTIONALIZE A TRANSFORMED STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION AND DIPLOMATIC PROTOCOL

All substantive policy interventions will fail if transmitted through the existing, demonstrably counterproductive communication protocols. A binding institutional transformation of ECOWAS’s mode of public engagement is a standalone strategic priority.

Action 5.1: Institute a Mandatory Linguistic and Register Recalibration Across All Official Communications
The Commission must issue a binding editorial protocol mandating a permanent and institution-wide recalibration of the language employed in all communiqués, declarations, and public statements. The default opening frame of “condemnation, suspension, and ultimatum” must be replaced by a primary, consistent language frame that centers the “non-negotiable, legally binding obligation of ECOWAS to the sustained physical security, human dignity, and economic opportunity of the individual West African citizen.” The primary subjects of all public interventions shall be the identifiable human beings whose lives are affected: the farmer, the trader, the displaced child. This reframes the diplomatic confrontation from a contest between elites into a shared responsibility for protection.

Action 5.2: Permanently Discontinue Mégaphone Diplomacy and Institutionalize a Protocol of Public Humility

The ECOWAS Authority must formally resolve to permanently discontinue the practice of issuing public ultimatum deadlines as an instrument of political mediation. The only regular public updates permitted on the political process shall be confined to measured, independently verified progress on humanitarian deliverables. The substantive, consequential work of political resolution is to be conducted exclusively through the confidential, professional channels of the Permanent Panel of Eminent Persons. This protocol deliberately starves the political crisis of the sensationalist, polarizing public media cycle upon which spoilers and external actors depend, relocating the work of resolution to an environment where trust can be painstakingly reconstructed.

Action 5.3: Launch a Sustained, Decentralized Community-Level Public Diplomacy Campaign

The Commission must design and resource a sustained, decentralized public diplomacy campaign that operates below the level of national media and engages directly with local communities, traditional authorities, women’s associations, and youth networks in border regions. The campaign’s message must be non-polemical and focused exclusively on the tangible, practical benefits of ECOWAS citizenship—the right to travel, to trade, to access education and healthcare across borders—documented through the authentic testimonies of real citizens whose lives have been positively impacted. This ground-level, person-to-person diplomacy rebuilds the popular constituency for regional integration from the bottom up, countering the top-down, state-controlled narratives that currently dominate the information space.

Dr. Tolulope A. Adegoke, AMBP-UN is a globally recognized scholar-practitioner and thought leader at the nexus of security, governance, and strategic leadership. His mission is dedicated to advancing ethical governance, strategic human capital development, resilient nation building, and global peace. He can be reached via: tolulopeadegoke01@gmail.com, globalstageimpacts@gmail.com

Opinion

Kano Deputy Governorship: Why Murtala Sule Garo is Most Deserving

Published

2 weeks ago

April 21, 2026

Eric

By Abdullahi Sa’idu Baba (Hafizi)

One of the defining slogans of the Governor of Kano State is “Kano First,” a principle that emphasizes prioritizing the collective interest, development, and unity of Kano State above all else. In line with this vision, Hon. Murtala Sule Garo stands out as the most suitable candidate for the position of Deputy Governor. His track record reflects a history of diligent and selfless service to Kano State, marked by consistent dedication to grassroots development and people-oriented governance. Over the years, he has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to advancing the welfare of the people, making him a natural fit for a leadership role that demands loyalty, competence, and a deep understanding of Kano’s needs.

Throughout his time in office, Garo distinguished himself through people-oriented policies and impactful empowerment initiatives. He became widely known for implementing large-scale programs that directly improved the livelihoods of youth and women across Kano State. Thousands benefited from his initiatives, which included financial support, business tools, and opportunities for economic independence. These efforts not only reduced poverty at the grassroots level but also demonstrated his belief in inclusive governance ensuring that the dividends of democracy reach even the most remote communities. His approach earned him recognition as a leader who “takes government to the people,” a rare quality that continues to endear him to the masses.

Beyond empowerment, Garo’s leadership style is defined by accessibility, generosity, and responsiveness. He has consistently been described as a “man of the people,” someone who listens, engages, and responds without bias. His political strength lies in his deep-rooted connection with communities across Kano, where he has built trust over the years through direct engagement and consistent support. This grassroots network has become one of his greatest political assets, positioning him as a unifying figure capable of mobilizing support across different demographics and political divides.

In the evolving political landscape of Kano State, Murtala Sule Garo has emerged as a leading and widely endorsed candidate for the position of Deputy Governor. Recent political development shows that he enjoys overwhelming support not only from key stakeholders within the APC, but also from the generality of the grassroots Kano electorate, reflecting not only his political relevance but also the confidence party leaders and stakeholders have in his experience, loyalty, and leadership capacity.

Garo’s suitability for the role of Deputy Governor is further strengthened by his extensive experience in governance and party administration. Having served in multiple strategic positions, including organising roles, advisory capacities, and two consecutive terms as commissioner, he possesses both institutional knowledge and practical governance skills. His ability to navigate complex political structures while maintaining strong grassroots support makes him uniquely positioned to complement executive leadership and ensure stability in governance.

Looking ahead to future elections, Murtala Sule Garo’s political capacity remains one of his strongest advantages. He is widely regarded as a mobilizer who can energize the electorate, increase voter participation, and strengthen party unity. His influence at the ward and local government levels provides a strategic advantage for any administration he is part of, as he can effectively translate political goodwill into electoral success. Observers believe that his inclusion in leadership would not only consolidate party structures but also enhance governance outcomes through effective implementation of policies at the grassroots level.

Moreover, Garo represents a bridge between experience and youthful dynamism. His understanding of both traditional political structures and modern governance demands positions him as a forward-thinking leader capable of contributing meaningfully to Kano’s development agenda. His inclusive approach, engaging traditional rulers, youth groups, and stakeholders, suggests that he can foster a sense of collective ownership in governance, which is essential for sustainable development.

In conclusion, Hon. Murtala Sule Garo embodies the qualities of a competent administrator, a grassroots mobilizer, and a unifying political figure. His track record of service, empowerment, and community engagement presents a compelling case for his emergence as the next Deputy Governor of Kano State. With his proven ability to deliver results and connect with the people, he stands not only as a suitable candidate but as a strategic asset capable of driving progress, stability, and inclusive governance in Kano State’s future.

Abdullahi Sa’idu Baba (Hafizi) writes from Kano, and can be reached via Hafeeezsb@gmail.com