Omar Touray, the president of the Economic Community of West African States Commission, has highlighted the necessity of taking concrete steps to fulfil long-standing international agreements on peace and development.

The ECOWAS Commission made this announcement on Monday as Touray delivered a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York during the Summit of the Future.

Touray praised UN Secretary-General António Guterres for calling the meeting and emphasised its significance during a period when the globe must make critical decisions.

“The timing of the summit is particularly significant coming, as it does, at a time when our world stands at a crossroads,” Touray stated, highlighting the need to choose between a chaotic past and a more just, collaborative future.

He questioned the Pact for the Future’s uniqueness, claiming that many of its promises had already been made public under other UN frameworks.

“The fact that we have come back to the same old commitments suggests that we still need greater political will to deliver on the good promises,” he remarked.

Touray emphasised that for ECOWAS, real implementation is what will determine how meaningful the Pact is.

On matters like youth empowerment, climate justice, sustainable development, and peace and security, he demanded immediate action.

He cautioned against the perils of division and strife, especially in West Africa, and urged leaders to concentrate on promoting regional unity and integration.

“If we fail to deliver once again, history will look back to this summit not as the summit of the future but a Summit of the Past. This is the choice before us,” he added.

The son of Uganda’s long-serving president, Yoweri Museveni, announced on Saturday that he had given up on his ambition to seek the presidency in the upcoming 2026 election, and urged his followers to back his father instead of him.

Despite not officially announcing his candidature, President Museveni, who has served as the nation’s leader for 38 years, is generally anticipated to seek reelection.

“I would like to announce that I will not be on the ballot paper in 2026,” said Muhoozi Kainerugaba in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

“I fully endorse President Yoweri Museveni in the next elections,” he said, urging his supporters to back his father for a seventh term.

Although he is currently in charge of the nation’s armed forces, Kainerugaba is also well-known for his divisive remarks and is anticipated to succeed his father as head of state in the future. In 2022, Museveni expressed regret to Kenya following his son’s threat to invade the neighbouring country via Twitter.

The opposition has long charged Museveni with trying to install a monarchy on the country; the president disputes this.

The 80-year-old Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986, and to prolong his reign, he twice amended the constitution.

Human rights advocates and those who oppose him politically, such as pop singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine, have long charged Museveni with abusing security forces to imprison, threaten, or torture opponents. Museveni refutes these allegations.

In the most recent presidential election (2021), wine finished second. He protested the results, claiming that his supporters had been kidnapped, intimidated, and ballots stuffed. It was Uganda’s fairest vote ever, according to Museveni.

A tendency towards the “sit-tight” phenomenon in African political leadership has been pronounced with Yoweri Museveni having spent 38 years in power. Togo, Rwanda, Congo, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Djibouti, Zimbabwe, and Cameroon. Guinea and Cote D’Ivoire also have a recent history of long-serving presidents while in Eritrea has been no presidential election since independence in 1993.