By Mohamed Gibril Sesay
At a time when #SierraLeone struggles to keep the lights on, fund its hospitals, and sustain its free quality education programme, we are taking on the chairmanship of ECOWAS – a high-sounding position with little strategic return. This is not just ceremonial. It’s costly.
Chairing @ecowas_cedeao means more than the usual frequent trips for the President and his entourage, obligations to host technical meetings, and a greater drain of public funds – all for a role that doesn’t come with military might, economic influence, or diplomatic leverage. We pay, we show up, and we bang the gavel. But we shape nothing.
A country with a stronger economy and military might at least leverage those assets to assert influence during its chairmanship. Sierra Leone has neither. We are shouldering leadership responsibilities without the tools to lead.
The timing couldn’t be worse. According to recent IMF reports, Sierra Leone’s economy is reeling under rising debt pressures, power sector losses, and subsidy burdens. The @WorldBank and African Development Bank @AfDB_Group have flagged persistent challenges in the Free Health Care initiative and underfunding in Free Quality Education. In April 2024, blackouts worsened as the country struggled to settle arrears with @karpowership. Hospitals ration fuel for generators. Schools often operate without basic materials. Millions in the country are reeling with hunger pangs; workers are experiencing delays in receiving salaries. Yet now we must divert scarce resources to regional leadership duties?
But it’s not just the money. The deeper cost is political: ECOWAS is more fractured now than ever. With #BurkinaFaso, #Mali, and #Niger exiting — and #Guinea drifting — the bloc is increasingly divided along linguistic and geopolitical lines. The election of a Sierra Leonean president, in a session boycotted by most Presidents of Francophone states, only deepens this rift. It risks turning ECOWAS into an Anglophone club – and that’s a dangerous thing in a region where cooperation is already fragile.
We are, in effect, spending beyond our means to chair a divided house – one whose cohesion is threatened, and whose authority is contested. Prestige without power is vanity. Leadership without leverage is theatre.
