By Caleb Ayansina
ABUJA – The West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF) has decried the lackadaisical attitude of West African leaders towards the domestication of international legal and policy frameworks to guarantee right-based, pro-poor and good governance in the sub region.

The Acting General Secretary of WACSOF, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani said it was not enough for a country in the sub region to ratify the international instrument, calling on the leadership to domesticate the law.

Rafsanjani was speaking at a 2-Day Regional Partners Meeting Project on Promoting the Ratification and Domestication of International Legal and Policy frameworks to guarantee Right-Based, Pro-Poor and Governance in West Africa, organized by WACSOF with the support of OXFAM, in Abuja.

He attributed the increase in gender based violence to the failure of the authorities in the 15 member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to domesticate and implement the laws that guarantee protection of vulnerable in the society.

“It is common place to find states signing on to international conventions, and some even taking a step further to ratify them; however, domesticating these same instruments takes decades.

“This is more realistic in developing countries with poorly developed political, institutional and policy processes and systems, which pose huge developmental challenges such as discrimination, human rights abuses, gender inequality, poverty, bad governance, among others in West Africa.

“This is in all ramifications negates the essence of the ECOWAS vision 2020 of facilitating the transition from an ECOWAS of states to ECOWAS of people, where citizens will enjoy the benefits of a borderless, peaceful, prosperous and cohesive region, built on governance and the can better harness and access its enormous resources through the creation of opportunities for sustainable development and environmental preservation.”

The West Africa Regional Programme Coordinator, OXFAM, Enrico Muratore maintained that to have a secured West Africa that is devoid of conflicts, the leaders must place a high premium on protection of rights of the people, while urging citizens to demand good governance from their leaders.

“I believe citizens in the West Africa have their roles to play too, to demand government to strengthening the institution that suppose to enforce the law, and make them compatible with the international human right legislation, even in terrorism, human rights continue to apply,” he said.