The 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has criticised the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for what he described as double standards in its response to the recent disruption of the electoral process in Guinea-Bissau.
Obi, in a statement shared on his verified X handle on Sunday and titled “Reflecting on the ‘Coup Glitches in Guinea-Bissau’,” faulted the regional bloc for swiftly condemning the military-arranged interruption in Guinea-Bissau while allegedly ignoring similar “glitches” in other West African elections.
According to Obi, glitches of any kind—technical or political—undermine democracy and should attract equal concern from regional institutions. He recounted listening to former President Goodluck Jonathan’s briefing after returning from a meeting at the European Parliament on November 27. Jonathan, who served as an election monitor in Guinea-Bissau, had described the so-called coup as suspicious, noting that it was the incumbent president who first announced and publicised the incident.
“What makes the situation even more striking is that the election was reportedly peaceful, with the only remaining step being the formal announcement of the results,” Obi said.
He questioned whether ECOWAS would impose sanctions on countries where election results were affected by unexplained or “convenient” technological failures.
“Do we only condemn coups that are visible with guns and ignore those carried out through a designed technological failure?” he asked.
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Obi argued that both military coups and technical disruptions ultimately produce the same result: the subversion of the people’s mandate. He added that democracy thrives only in conditions of transparency and accountability, where citizens can freely choose their leaders without interference from glitches or political manoeuvres.
“The Guinea-Bissau scenarios represent two faces of the same crisis: one where ballots are discarded by force and another where ballots are obstructed by convenient technical issues. In both cases, the people suffer, democracy is undermined, and the region sinks deeper into instability,” he said.
He urged ECOWAS and African leaders to confront these challenges constructively in order to strengthen democratic institutions and uphold the will of the people across West Africa.