Abstract

Intervention in terms of international law is the term for the use of force by one country or sovereign state in the internal or external affairs of another In most cases intervention is considered to be an unlawful Oppenheim 1992 defines intervention as a forcible or dictorial interference by a State in the affairs of another State calculated to impose certain conduct or consequences on that other State The military intervention by ECOWAS has not been totally successful in quelling conflicts crisis of regime change and political succession and military intervention into politics in the West African sub-region and the Africa generally Intervention can be done by various means e g military subversive economic or diplomatic The latest of these conflicts in the sub-region which ECOWAS has intervened are Mali and Guinea Bissau in 2012 The objective has been to restore democracy by forcing the military back to the barracks or restricting it to the constitutional role of protecting the territorial integrity from internal insurrection and external aggression But the root causes of military intervention into politics and crisis of regime change or political succession are yet to be adequately addressed by the ECOWAS for example issues of legitimacy crisis poor governance bad leadership political leadership failure political corruption electoral crisis and political violence have been largely left unattended or ignored The political conditions in most of the countries in the sub-region and indeed Africa as a whole are not democracy friendly or unsuitable for democratization and flourishing of democracy or demilitarization Aning and Bah 2010 Sperling 2011 Most scholars like Nowrot and Schabacker 1998 focus on the legality of ECOWAS intervention while the likes of Olonisakan 2010 concentrates on the eff