ECOWAS AND DIALECTICS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND COLLECTIVE SECURITY IN WEST AFRICA

AN ANALYSIS IN NEO-FUNCTIONAL THEORY

Abstract

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is easily the flagship of regional economic cooperation in Africa. Over the years however, ECOWAS has through the exigency of ECOMOG also assumed the status of a defense and security instrument. This paper interrogates the dialectics of this metamorphosis or transformation. Anchored in the framework of neo-functional theory of integration, the paper relies on documentary sources as well as analytical inductive / grounded theory technique in the generation and analysis of relevant data respectively. Our findings show that besides the ambitious objectives which the founding fathers gave the regional project at take-off, that the Freetown Protocol (1981), the economic crisis that afflicted many African states in the 1980 and up to 2000 and widespread security challenges thereof were the major factors that gave rise to the emergence and burgeoning of ECOMOG. The implication of this is that the transformation of ECOWAS into a major defense and security arrangement, though not envisaged in the initial agenda of the organization, was not altogether a strange development. Against the backdrop of these economic and social developments; this paper recommends increased capacity for ECOWAS for the maintenance of collective security system in West Africa.