Nigeria and ECOWAS: Moving Towards Actualizing Economic Integration?

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Date
2018
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Nigerian Journal of International Affairs
Abstract
This paper critically analyses Nigeria’s participation in ensuring the materialization of the economic integration objective of the ECOWAS against the backdrop of its hegemonic stance within the region. Nigeria championed the realization of the regional economic body in 1975; however, its political activities in the areas of conflict resolution, counter-terrorism and good governance in recent years have gained huge scholarly attention whereas the knowledge of the pursuance of its 1975 ECOWAS goals is quite scanty. This paper argues, based on both primary and secondary data that despite its significant shift to humanitarian and governance issues, Nigeria has been active in fulfilling the tenets of the 1975 ECOWAS treaty, though several challenges, both external and internal, hinder the fulfilment of such economic integration and development in the region. This paper reveals that these challenges, to a great extent, undermine Nigeria’s hegemonic role and its economic initiatives. It concludes that Nigeria’s role in ECOWAS is critical to the economic stability of the region and thus should be consolidated regardless her internal limitations
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