Joint issue to mark 40th anniversary of West African Community

On Thursday December 17th 2015, the presidents of the Economic Community of the West African States (ECOWAS or CÉDÉAO in French) debated on new decisions to increase their common relations during a summit in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city.

Two West African leaders presenting the common illustration of the 40 year stamps (@bidj@n.net, 18 December 2015).

Some communautary projects reach physical realisations and thus were presented to the presidents: the common biometric passport, with the ECOWAS name on cover like the European Union passports, and identity card.

In the context of the anniversary, they were satisfied of the best economic growth compared to other African communities thank to the new Common Exterior Tarriffs and the democratic elections of the past year (yes, some critics would have been welcomed). One talk reached the French media: they wondered a ban on some conceiling veil in the context of djihadist terrorism south of the Sahara.

So it was normal to issue an anniversary stamp with the celebration logotype in which the zero is the emblem of ECOWAS. A joint issue that reminds that an actual philately and a daily postal history exist in every country, perhaps not the daily right on the clock service one can know in Europe or North America.

Yes, it is difficult to follow what's happening in these countries on the postal service side, but some philatelists managed to inform fellow collectors thank to such publications like Gibbons Stamp Monthly whose last article on the contemporary cancels of Benin is dated this very month.