Spread the wordThe election of Senegal’s President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, as Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) comes at a defining moment in the history of the regional bloc. President Faye succeeds Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, who took over from Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in June 2025. But unlike his predecessors, Faye assumes office at a time when ECOWAS faces perhaps its greatest existential challenge since its establishment in 1975. The succession of military coups in parts of West Africa has exposed weaknesses in ECOWAS’ preventive diplomacy and conflict-management mechanisms. With one of the world’s youngest populations, West Africa cannot afford institutions that exclude the very generation whose future they seek to shape.