The sun had begun to filter through the gaps between Darwin’s buildings when the first signs of normalcy returned to Smith Street Mall. The flashing red and blue lights were gone. The heavy plastic tape that had sealed off the pedestrian strip was being folded away by officers whose shoulders had finally dropped from their ears. And the eerie silence that had settled over the precinct was slowly replaced by the familiar sounds of footsteps, conversation, and the rattle of shop shutters being raised. By mid-morning, lawyers, office workers, entrepreneurs, and tourists were again moving through the paved walkway, blinking…

The sticky morning air of Makola Market, Accra’s sprawling commercial heart, carried the usual chorus—hawkers calling out prices, taxis honking through narrow lanes, traders arranging brightly coloured cloth and boxes of goods, and the endless laughter and negotiations of daily commerce. But on this particular Friday, something else joined the rhythm: the voice of the Economic Community of West African States. Ambassador Mohammed Lawan Gana, ECOWAS Resident Representative to Ghana, stood before a crowd of traders, market women, young people and curious passersby, not to read a formal communiqué but to deliver a simple message: the future of West Africa…