 You're welcome back to the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. On this day in history, in the year 1975, May 28th, the economy community of West African states was formed via the Treaty of Lagos. So 15 members of West African states came together to form this community to say, we want to create self-sufficiency for our states. They want to create sort of like a borderless West Africa where all the states can come together and advance their economy goals and aims. And it was in this day in history that the economy community of West African states was formed. So they say they're going to ensure integration for economy, industry, transport, telecoms, energy, agriculture, natural resources, and all of this. So there were very high expectations of economic integration as well, saying that this regional group, they had a focus to basically make sure that they're having a borderless region exploiting their abundant resources amongst each other. So we know that in January 2007, it transformed their ECOA secretariat to a commission. And they formed a single trade bloc and we know that the economy community of West African states have been clamoring for a single currency that was going to be called ECOA. That really hasn't really kicked off yet, but it's in the works and basically on this day in history, 15 states of West Africa came together to say, let's form ECOA for all the reasons to integrate economically and otherwise. Yes, 1975, long, long, long ago. And every now and then, people would always ask what has been the relevance of ECOA since then. Every now and then, of course, they sent in troops peacekeeping troops mostly to certain countries that are at war to save lives and all of that. The economic value of ECOA has also been questioned every now and then. How much business and how much partnership, how much has the ECOA's bloc itself been able to benefit each member state and all of that, which of course, are genuine concerns. But it's still a good thing that it does exist. Still a good thing that there is that body that unites all the West African states, 15 states. There is that figurehead basically that has also played its role one way or the other. Could do better. Same way, they also questioned the United Nations and all of that, how relevant have you been? How loud is your voice? How powerful is your voice? So how powerful is the voice of ECOA's also with these things? Mali currently is in some sort of crisis. And we hope that there is some peace and we hope that there is some in the next couple of days, some of all of that is settled. We can be having coups every two weeks in Mali. And regarding ECOA's and the intention to have a borderless region, I personally feel that we could do a lot regarding tourism, for instance. So what we're talking about, Nigerians going on vacation, going to Dubai. How many Nigerians have been to Ghana? How many Nigerians have been to neighboring republics, neighboring countries, Togo, Bene. How many Nigerians have really explored these areas? So how many citizens of those countries have come, visited other countries in the West African region? So I feel it to be a great idea if in addition to all the many things that the ECOA should be clamoring for, should be the creation of all, advancement of tourism and integration, travel, schooling, exchange programs. I have lots of these abroad. Like, a Nigerian could spend two semesters here, one semester taking your same course in the University of Ghana, taking your same course in another university. At a reduced price. I think this thing should. It shouldn't be as expensive as it is sometimes. Yes, yes. You need to go to that. It's more expensive than going to the UK or going to Dubai. True. My friends who schooled in Togo told me how we expect. In fact, they charge Nigerian students way, way higher. So these are the things that we should even consider, you know. But I feel that there's a lot of potential for the ECOAs. Just like the NYC, I don't think it should be scrapped. I feel their reviews should be made. But there's a lot of potential for ECOAs and I feel it's still relevant today. Yeah. All right. On this day in history in the year 2020, a couple of days ago, well, on this day in 2020, the George Floyd incident happened. And we had spoken about that. I think sometime earlier this week. The protests across the United States were becoming wider and more violent. And in Minnesota on this day, there was a state of emergency declared following the protest about George Floyd's death. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz declared a state of emergency and activated Minnesota's National Guard to restore order after the protests over the death of George Floyd turned violent night before. Everyone, I believe, knows the story of George Floyd, who died after police officers arrested him before allegedly giving out a fake $20 bill. And one of the officers put his knee on his neck for almost nine minutes, which eventually led to his death. It started another protest in the United States to protect black lives and to express the fact that black lives do matter. It also started another conversation in the United States on racial segregation and racial injustice that has been going on for many, many, many years. Yesterday, I think Nancy Pelosi, I saw her in the video with George Floyd's daughters and all of that. But for me, the question really would be how much has changed? What new laws have come into play since his death? What has changed about policing, about racism in the United States? What has changed about the criminal justice system and racial injustice in the United States since his death? It cannot just be photo ops here and there. There has to be a difference. There has to be new laws and acceptance of all races and equality, basically. A couple of weeks ago, we heard about new laws by Joe Biden to protect Asian Americans from being assaulted after the COVID-19 issue. After Trump said it was a Chinese flu. Yeah, but what has been done to protect blacks also in the United States? So sadly, George Floyd had to die for these conversations to spring up, but I feel like there's a lot more that needs to be done to completely raise a level of racism or at least minimize the level of racism that still does exist in the United States and across the world. But on this day, basically, Tim Walz declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard to help reduce and protect property in Minnesota after the riots were going totally wild. And that's it on Today in History. We'll take a break here to return to discuss what the agenda ahead is for the new chief of Amnesty staff who have been appointed by President Mohamed Buhari to stay with us.