Legal Limits and Enforcement Challenges of ECOWAS in Addressing Military Coups in West Africa

Military coups d’état occurring repeatedly in West Africa are a great setback to the regional efforts to consolidate democracy and good governance. This paper examines the legal and political dimensions of the recent military seizures of power in member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It evaluates the interaction between internal governance failures and regional security crises that have created a fertile ground for the erosion of constitutional order. Although ECOWAS has established a strong normative framework through the Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, reliance on punitive enforcement mechanisms and economic sanctions has revealed significant legal and practical constraints. The paper shows that the ECOWAS Authority's enforcement mandate is limited by the principle of state sovereignty, ambiguities in Community law on the use of force, and a legitimacy crisis stemming from its inability to address so-called constitutional coups by civilian elites. A comparative analysis of the African Union’s zero tolerance policy and the European Union’s Article 7 Treaty of European Union (TEU) procedure underscores the need for ECOWAS to adopt clearer legal tools, apply targeted sanctions, and strengthen institutional and judicial capacity. The paper concludes that restoring civilian rule over the long term requires not only condemning military interventions but also proactively promoting democratic accountability, judicial independence, and effective governance at the national level.