GHANA’S President Nana Akufo-Addo has urged his visiting Senegalese counterpart Bassirou Diomaye Faye to leverage his goodwill within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to help resolve disputes with Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali.
President Faye arrived in Accra on Friday following his meeting with Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
‘We are lucky to have a new leader in place because I think he is also going to help us to try and resolve the big problem that we have in the ECOWAS community,’ President Nana Akufo-Addo said after their meeting.
‘President Faye is very committed to seeing what he and the rest of us can do to reach out and revive the dialogue,’ he added.
President Akufo-Addo emphasised Faye’s demonstrated commitment to ECOWAS efforts in bringing the three countries to the negotiation table for further talks and to restore them to the bloc.
President Faye, aged 44, won a significant victory as an anti-establishment candidate promising substantial reforms, becoming Senegal’s youngest-ever president. His election symbolises a new era of change, contrasting with some of the continent’s long-standing leaders and countries currently under military rule.
Addressing reporters after bilateral talks, President Faye reaffirmed his commitment to ECOWAS unity and regional integration. ‘ECOWAS is going through difficult times, but we are going to do all we can to consolidate the gains made in integration, in a spirit of common, fraternal solidarity,’ he stated.
He stressed the importance of unity in the region, describing it as ‘primordial.’
In his earlier visit to Nigeria, President Faye, alongside Nigeria, which currently chairs ECOWAS, expressed hope to persuade the countries to ‘come back and share our common democratic values and what we stand for.’
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