CONTRIBUTION TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A REGIONAL ORGANIZATION IN NIGERIA

1.1 Introduction

ECOWAS is the brain child of Nigeria and Togo. Nigeria has remained the driving force of the regional organization aimed as regional self-reliance, self-preservation and all round security. Over the years various activities across the borders of ECOWAS member states have hindered sustainable economic growth and development in the Union (Orji, 2008). Activities such as bunkering, terrorism, smuggling of banned items, drug trafficking, human trafficking and prostitution do not encourage socio-economic growth in developing nations. The desire to build a vibrant and sound economy is the desire of every patriotic ECOWAS member. This desire can be demonstrated through total elimination or reduction of cross border crimes, and other activities that may hamper the success of free trade policies currently formulated by the economic union.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

Regional organizations are a subcategory of international organization; they can be financial and nonfinancial institutions. They consist of those supranational institutions whose members are governments or monetary authorities of economies that are located in a specific region of the world. Regional organizations, for instance, Currency Union Central Banks (CUCB), are created for many purposes include supporting, guiding, and even governing aspects of the economic relationships or integration processes among the regions’ economies. As with other international organizations, regional organizations such as Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) are established by political agreement among organization members that has the status of international treaties, and are accorded appropriate privileges and immunities and are not subject to the laws and regulations of the economies in which they are located.

In practice also, the UN has begun to work with regional and intergovernmental organizations. Some of these organizations, like OSCE, AU, ECOWAS and NATO, have made conflict prevention part of their core mandates and have assumed active roles in selected conflicts. NATO and the UN have been involved jointly in conflicts in the Balkans, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

ECOWAS and the UN have played a significant role in Liberia where ECOWAS created a military observer group (ECOMOG) in 1990. It has also deployed forces to Sierra Leone (1998), Guinea Bissau (1998), Côte d‘Ivoire (2002). The UN Operation in Liberia (UNOMIL), set up in 1993, became the first operation to be undertaken in cooperation with a peacekeeping operation established by another organisation, in this case ECOWAS. More recently, the AU has been involved in Chad, Côte d‘Ivoire and most importantly in Darfur. In this regard resolution 1706 which mandated innovative and substantial UN assistance to AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) is a possible benchmark for the future (Abba, 2000).

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional organization of a group of fifteen West African countries in November 1975.It has its secretariat and headquarters in Abuja. Nigeria. The original objectives of the organization as contained in the ECOWAS treaty are among other things to promote co-operation and regional integration leading to the establishment of an economic union in West Africa in order to raise the standards of living of its people and to maintain economic stability. Established in 1975 originally as a regional organization to essentially promote the economic integration of the fifteen Member States, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been gradually transformed, under the pressure of political events, into an organization also responsible for finding solutions to armed conflicts and other political crisis which were undermining peace and security within the community space (Adebayo, 2007).

According to Olakounle, (2010) it was several years of ECOMOG‘s military presence under extremely difficult material and security conditions and at the instigation of the regional military power; Nigeria that Sierra Leone and Liberia received United Nations Peacekeeping operation. ECOMOG was indeed accused of behaving as a warring party to the fighting conflict in Liberia and Sierra Leone or as an occupation force. However, its presence at the height of the fighting and chaos in these two countries, when there was no peace to be maintained played a major role in the stabilization of the Mano River basin region. ECOWAS was led to intervene vigorously in the management of conflict in the 1990s before establishing the institutional and operational basis of a regional mechanism for peace and security supported by the texts of the organization.

Nigeria acts in her capacity as an individual state and as a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Nigeria‘s roles towards ECOWAS can be traced as far back as 1960 and even before then. The motivation for this inquiry stems from a need to understand the dynamics of regional peacekeeping particularly in relation to West African peacekeeping missions. It is against this backdrop that this study critically examines the roles and contribution of Nigeria in the development of regional organization with focus on Economic Community of West Africa States based on challenges and coping strategies resorted to as means of survival in the society.

Therefore, in ECOWAS where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Contribution to the Establishment of a Regional Organization in Nigeria.

1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that Nigeria as a country has contributed in the development of regional organization. The weaker states in the West African region had difficulty mobilizing the resources required to deal decisively with the Liberian crisis, becoming overwhelmingly dependent upon one regional power to sustain the operation (Offiong and Idise, 2000).

The ECOMOG operation occurred at a difficult time for the states in the region, when they themselves were involved in painful economic reforms and their own legitimacy, in most cases, was subject to internal criticism and pressures. The intervention was also complicated by linguistic and geopolitical rivalries and by cleavages within ECOWAS itself, and undermined by debilitating arguments about its legitimacy and organisation.

Coetzee, (2008) observed that these difficulties were partially due to the fact that ECOWAS and its member countries, like the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), had been notoriously slow to take issues of regional security seriously. Long standing mutual security protocols that should have allowed ECOWAS to anticipate crises were not implemented.

Regionalism also proved as much a source of weakness as of strength in the operation: its advantages were genuine interest (as well as self-interest) in the issues and intimate knowledge of the local political terrain (both necessary for sustained and meaningful engagement); its disadvantages were the danger of partisanship and the lack of neutrality and, in the ECOWAS case, the militarisation of existing regional conflicts and cleavages (Belmakhi, 2005).

In other words, regional (or sub-regional) actors are liable to be both too close to the issues and too interested in the outcomes. International intervention was ultimately required to break the deadlock.

Despite the fact that many studies have been conducted in areas pertaining ECOWAS roles in regional development but little have been done on the contributory roles of Nigeria in developing the regional organization as expected. However, an array of articles and research can be found on the influence of ECOWAS on regional security. Most of these discourses and researches (Adebayo 2007; Oche, 1999; Ate and Akinterinwa, 1992) usually focus on the roles of Nigeria to ECOWAS as a regional organization. Hence, little is still known and understood about the determinants of ECOWAS structure as a regional organization and its development to West Africa and Africa at large. This research therefore seeks to focus on the Contribution to the Establishment of a Regional Organization in Nigeria using ECOWAS as a case study.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to examine the Contribution to the Establishment of a Regional Organization in Nigeria. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To examine the contributions of Nigeria Regional Organizations towards the development of ECOWAS since its formation;
2. To assess the roles Nigeria played in the establishment of ECOWAS; and
3. To analyze the challenges faced by Nigeria in maintaining and fostering the development of ECOWAS.

1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• What are the roles Nigeria played in the formation of ECOWAS?
• What are the challenges Nigeria faced in the development of ECOWAS?
• What are the contributions of Nigeria in the development of ECOWAS and what are the ways it is using to solve the challenges being face?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant relationship between Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) and Regional Organizations in Nigeria
• H1: There is significant relationship between Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) and Regional Organizations in Nigeria

Hypothesis Two

• H0: There is no significant factor inhibiting the contribution of regional Organizations in Nigeria towards the development of ECOWAS
• H1: There is significant factor inhibiting the contribution of regional Organizations in Nigeria towards the development of ECOWAS

1.7 Significance of Study

The study will contribute to the existing literature on the roles and contributions of Nigeria‘s development of ECOWAS in West Africa, and help bring additional academic focus on economic cooperation of regional development. More importantly, the study hopes that subsequent discussions on the subject of inquiry, will yield focused attention by scholars of African politics, and stimulate further debate among social science scholars and other political observers alike, about, not only Nigeria‘s peacekeeping roles, but Nigeria‘s commitments and contributions to regional development of ECOWAS in the western region and indeed, in the continent of Africa.

This study will also be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Contribution to the Establishment of a Regional Organization in Nigeria using ECOWAS as a case study.

1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

1.10 Definition of Terms

Organization: an organized group of people with a particular purpose, such as a business or government department.

Formation: the action of creating or process of being formed

Economy: the state of a country or region in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services and the supply of money

Security: the state of being free from danger or threat.

Treaty: a formally concluded and ratified agreement between states.

Integration: the act of combining two or more things together to produce a unique and better one.