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Prospect And Challenges Of Regional Integration In West Africa (a Qualitative Study)
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The formation of
regional blocs and groupings has progressively become a prominent
feature of world politics since the end of the World War II (Olubomehin
and Kawonishe, 2004). Regional integration generally involves a complex
web of cooperation between countries within a given geographical area,
to harmonize policies in such sectors as trade, investment,
infrastructural, as well as monetary and fiscal policies of member
states. There has been much support for the economic integration of
African states since independence. This received a great deal of impetus
following severe economic instability of the 1970s (Asante, 1999).
According to Hartzenberg (2011), the ambition of African leaders to
integrate Africa provided the rationale for the Lagos Plan of Action
(LPA). Both the LPA (1980) and the Abuja Treaty of 1991 became the
agenda for an integration based on solidarity and self-reliance. The
treaties also called for the creation of regional integration
arrangements as starting points for the continent’s integration.
According to Asante (2000), ECOWAS is the most concrete African
initiative in this direction. ECOWAS is a regional group of 15 West
African countries established on 28th May, 1975 under the Treaty of
Lagos. It represents a regional institutional framework for the
coordination and promotion of economic cooperation in West Africa. Since
its inception, ECOWAS has done remarkably well, especially in the areas
of peace and security, trade and the free movement of people and goods
in the region. However, the community is faced with a number of
challenges which are likely to impede the effective exercise of its
functions and the fulfillment of its purpose. Considering the growing
importance of regional integration in the world, it is important
therefore, to identify the challenges and prospects for regional
integration in West Africa
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Over the
last thirty years, Regional Integration Agreements (also referred to as
Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) or Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs)
to underline that these agreements almost always involve preferential
access) have been spreading everywhere including across Africa where
they have also been called Regional Economic Communities (RECs). During
the period, the landscape of PTAs has changed drastically. The early
phase of integration started during the first decades of independence,
and was enshrined in the Lagos Plan of Action, an initiative of the
Organization for African Unity now known as African union AU, adopted by
the heads of states in 1980. It is in view of this that the researcher
intend to investigate the challenges of regional integration in West
Africa.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this
study is to the prospect and challenges of regional integration in West
Africa. To aid the completion of the study, the researcher intends to
achieve the following sub-objective;
i) To ascertain the effect of regional integration in the unity of Africa
ii) To ascertain the challenges and impediment to regional integration in west Africa
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