That's such a good question because West Africa is super diverse, right? From what I’ve read, ECOWAS makes decisions mainly with something called the Authority of Heads of State and Government, where the top leaders all meet up. They have this rule that big decisions are made by a consensus, or at least a two-thirds majority, so not just one person controls everything. If everyone disagrees, they'll talk it out until they can all live with the final call.

I've found that sometimes this means stuff gets decided pretty slowly because, let’s be real, every country wants what’s best for it. But the fact that the chairmanship changes every year makes it so one country can't totally dominate. It even reminds me of trying to convince my friends to agree on a movie—takes forever, but usually we compromise. ECOWAS is like that but way more serious!

It's not perfect and people do complain about things dragging on, but it's probably better than each country just doing their own thing and ending up fighting about it later.