Cost-Benefit Analysis of Nigeria’s Continued Role in ECOWAS

This study attempts to discuss the cost-benefit analysis of Nigeria’s continued membership in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The study identifies the issues belabouring the relationship between Nigeria and ECOWAS and it concludes that Nigeria can only remain in ECOWAS if the relationship promotes the national interest of the Nigerian populace. This article studied the structure, organisation, function, aims, and objectives of ECOWAS alongside Nigeria’s achievement and contributions to ECOWAS. The paper discussed the cost and benefit of Nigeria’s continued membership of ECOWAS and recommended a revision of the relationship that presently exists between Nigeria and ECOWAS. The paper posited that the principles of quid pro quo must be adopted in Nigeria’s relationship with ECOWAS.


Introduction
With the triumph of capitalism during the cold war, the discovery of internet technology in the early 2000s, the formation of international institutions, corporations and organisations, the world became set to herald a new wave of interdependence, interconnectedness, and integration. This, however, did not begin with what is now known as the globalised world. After Egypt, there are records of numerous political, economic, religious and social integration that occurred between empires and dynasties.
The idea of the China Silk Road and Rome's imperialist approach to domination and integration are vivid examples. The difference, however, can be understood with Ritva Kivikkokangas-Sandgre's distinction to the emergence of globalisation. He categorised globalisation into old and new; the former, he explained was a medium used by big empires to enlarge their authority as superpowers, and the latter he identified as been accelerated by the rise of internet technology (Kivikkokangas-Sandgren, 2005). With the 1648 treaty of Westphalia correspondingly, the idea of integration and cooperation as we know it was born. The treaty marked the end of integration by conquest. The failure however to follow the dictates of such treaties and other similar agreements such as the Treaty of Paris (1783), Congress of Vienna (1814), Treaty of Versailles (1920), Geneva Convention (1929) Paris Peace Treaty (1947) led to more carnage and destruction including the world wars.
As a result, the United Nations, which was established in 1945, strengthened the use of diplomacy in the international system. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Treaty of Rome of 1958 (now the European Union), the Bretton Woods Organizations: World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monitoring Fund (IMF), African Union (AU), and a slew of others were born as a result of this. Since then, other international organisations, both governmental and non-governmental, have emerged, all with the goal of preserving peace and stability, as well as economic growth and progress. This paper will focus on one of these organisations. We will look at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is a form of economic integration that takes place in the western section of Africa. We shall attempt an evaluation on the origins of ECOWAS, the internal structure, organs and organisation, its mission, vision and core values, its achievements all in an effort to carry out a cost benefit analysis of Nigeria's continuous membership in the organisation. This paper will adopt the theory of intergovernmentalism which simply is the process where national governments acts as primary actors in regional or intergovernmental systems. Intergovernmentalism involves institutionalism and regional integration.
Institutionalisation has to do with the impact of domestic politics upon governmental preferences and regional integration has to do with a principle of a union of equals within a particular region for the betterment of all from the region (Moga, 2009).

History of Integration in Africa
Most African states gained independence around the 1960s. Before this time, both economic and political conclusions were duties of colonial masters as in the case of Nigeria and Great Britain or Cameroon and France. "The process of political integration in Africa is progressing slowly, even though it was a priority stated by the African leaders ever since the early days of independence in the mid-20th century. In the field of economic integration, which has a much shorter history, the achievements, albeit insufficient compared to the stated objectives, are significantly more" (Marinov, 2014).
With independence, African leaders assumed the mantle of leadership. One of such leaders, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, advocated the formation of an intergovernmental organisation to solve the issues of the continent and enhance economic integration. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) was formed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by 32 African states on May 25 th , 1963. Its main objectives were to co-ordinate and intensify co-operation among African states to achieve liberation for the people of Africa, to defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of African states, and to eradicate all forms of colonialism and white minority rule (DIRCO, 2021). The OAU was successful in certain areas, especially with eradicating colonialism and white minority rule, which led to the defeat of Apartheid in South Africa but fell short in salvaging the civil wars in Angola and Nigeria. The Organization of African Unity, now African Union is important body in Africa because it brought a sense of identity to the continent that was once ravaged by the colonial powers. A speech delivered by Alieu Ebrima, a Gambian historian and pan Africanist best explains the state of affairs before the formation of the OAU. He noted: "It is barely 75 years when the European Powers sat round the table in Germany each holding a dagger to carve up Africa for its own benefit.… Your success will inspire and speed up the freedom and total independence of the African continent and eradicate imperialism and colonialism from the continent and eventually neo-colonialism from the globe… Your failure, which no true African in Africa is praying for, will prolong our struggle with bitterness and disappointment. I therefore adjure that you ignore any suggestion outside Africa and holding that the present civilisation, which some of the big powered are boasting of, sprang up from Africa, and realising that the entire world has something earthly to learn from Africa, you would endeavour your utmost to come to agreement, save Africa from the clutches of neo-colonialism and resurrect African dignity, manhood and national stability (The Point, 2006).
Such motivation has brought about the establishment of the many intergovernmental organisation that exist in Africa today. Some of such organisations include but not limited to: As a sub-regional economic option for development and growth (Davies, 1983), ECOWAS is the focus of this paper. We shall now address the meaning, structure, operations, achievements of ECOWAS.
According to Ibrahim and Ahmad, Nigeria is the arrowhead of ECOWAS (Ibrahim & Ahmad, 2020). On the other hand, it shouldn't be undermined that unity and integration in Africa is not an easy process. As Langhammer stated "Integration in Africa can only be a long-term attempt to solve economic problems, because of its high absorption of scarce and therefore expensive factors of production. In contrast to integration, cooperation seems to be a more useful approach to tackle the urgent employment and growth problems" (Langhammer, 1977). ECOWAS grew from a customs union to a supranational organisation with complex governance systems throughout time (Bado, 2019).

Structure and Organization of ECOWAS
Primary purpose of ECOWAS is to promote economic integration among its members (Agbonkhese & Adekola, 2014). The Lagos Treaty founded ECOWAS in 1975, and it was updated on July24, 1993 in Cotonou. The core objectives of ECOWAS are promotion of cooperation and development, harmonisation of agricultural, economic, monetary and industrial policies, abolition of trade restrictions and customs duties, establishment of common fund and implementation of infrastructural schemes (Ogwu, 2008). These goals support the vision of ECOWAS, which has led to the formation of an economic union in West Africa with the goal of raising people's living standards, maintaining and enhancing economic stability, fostering relations among member states, and contributing to the continent's progress and development. The structure of ECOWAS includes; the Authority of Heads of State and Government, the Council of Ministers, the Community Parliament, the Community Court of Justice.

Economic Integration
ECOWAS has made great strides in its efforts to carry out its basic and most important objective. ECOWAS regional integration is centred on the free movement of trade, people, capital and services. This freedom of movement was provided for in Chapter IV, Article 27 of the ECOWAS treaty and further reinforced by Protocol/A/P1/5/59 on the free movement of persons, the right of residence and establishment, signed in Dakar on 29 May 1979. ECOWAS established the FTA, free trade area that reduced tariff restrictions for the distribution of local good and services within the West African region. The creation of FTA involves a compensation the loss of revenue incurred by Member States due to the removal of tariffs on intra-community trade (ECOWAS & UNECA, 2015). This was done by the community to reduce the burden of the loss of custom duties. This did not however affect external trade policy as the community has as Economic Partnership (EPA) with the European Union (EU) and constantly in communication with other trade areas as it concerns the influx of trade within the region. The community in an attempt to easy the art of doing business within the region has created infrastructure, this they called the programme for Infrastructure development in Africa.

Praia-Dakar Abidjan Multimodal Corridor
Improve marine transport and the connection between island and mainland countries by creating a new maritime service between regional ports and a modern information system to link the maritime service with the ports and roads in the Dakar-Abidjan corridor. Would also modernise one of the most heavily travelled ARTIN corridors in West Africa. Address future capacity problems in West African ports with two components: (a) a regional hub port and rail linkage master plan and (b) port expansion 2140 15 countries PMAWCA

West Africa Air Transport
Increase air transport service levels in West Africa, which are currently limited by the lack of a regional air hub 420 15 countries Source: African Union, 2010;Akpan, 2014;Efobi, & Osabuohien, 2016.

Other Achievements
ECOWAS has also assisted in the sustenance of democratic institution in the sub-region by ensuring credible, transparent, free, and fair elections despite the volatile nature of Western Africa. This includes the Nigerian election (2015), Burkina Faso, Togo, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire.
To support this, ECOWAS engage in trainings through African institutions to teach their staff and other volunteers the methodologies to curb and fight electoral malpractices. One of such centres is located in Ghana: Kofi Anan Peace keeping institute. Also, ECOWAS attempts to keep the fight in the preservation of human Rights by setting up committees with international partners to address the issues surrounding the respect for human rights. This fight brought to the fore the proliferation, trafficking, and abuse of drugs in the region ECOWAS is working with the UN Drug Control regional office in Dakar to address this issue. ECOWAS is also key on the issue of migration in the sub-region and see it as a key factor to the economic development of member states in the region. 23. The regional peace and security architecture provide for conflict prevention, management and resolution, as well as early warning System. The latter allows ECOWAS to analyse human security issues and anticipate political crises, food shortages, health problems and disasters; 24. ECOWAS is now poised in the coming years to intensify efforts aimed at sustaining peace and political stability already achieved, in order to create the best conditions for the development of the region.
Security is a significant issue in ECOWAS region and still seems to be there isn't any strong tool for the security. Most of the ECOWAS countries suffer from continuous fights and insecurity. One of the suggestions is that ECOWAS should revive her military authority (Omojolaibi, Oladipupo & Okudo, 2019). Moreover, for a stronger security in ECOWAS, she needs to improve the industrial capacity and create jobs for and teeming population, and) interregional transfer of military and other technologies should be attained (Okon, 2020).
Internal security of the countries also needs more attention. Because, internal security is quite an important aspect of national security/development, including the development of an even larger geopolitical region (Ojukwu, Chukwuma & Nwagbo, 2020).

Nigeria and ECOWAS
The pre-eminence of Nigeria in the West African region cannot be overemphasised. In his message to the president of Nigeria on the 26 th of May 2016, the ECOWAS President noted, we refer rightly to Nigeria as the locomotive engine of West Africa and problems cannot be solved without the locomotive being involved. So, there is a leadership role Nigeria has to play" (ECOWAS, 2002). The estimated population of the West African sub-region is slated at 320 million people and Nigeria has a population of 200 million, it is only reasonable that Nigeria takes a central role.
Right from the inception of the community in 1975, Nigeria's commitment to the ECOWAS ideals has never been unwavering and as a result shouldered most of the responsibilities of the ECOWAS commission through economic and military support. Despite Nigeria's leading role in the creation of ECOWAS, there exists many Nigerians who consider Nigeria membership in the community as an unnecessary liability to the country. Such schools argue that the evidence of Nigeria's sustained financial contributions is almost absent or nonexistent. Table 2 shows the level of contribution by states in ECOWAS.

The Achievements of Nigeria in ECOWAS
The hegemonic stability theory argues for the sustainability of a hegemon in any commutation of states because governing sovereign nations especially in intergovernmental organisation rests in the powers and capabilities of the defining state. NATO for example: the strength of the United States or the USSR during the Warsaw pact. This is exact case for Nigeria in ECOWAS. The impact of the Nigerian project within the ECOWAS community has been considerable. Nigeria has been one of the driving forces behind ECOWAS, accounting for more than half of the region's population and an equivalent share of its GDP (Dinka & Kennes, 2007).
"Nigeria in the 1970s carried out the construction of roads to link member states in order to facilitate trade and boost contact among states. For example, the Lagos-Cotonou highway was constructed at a highly subsidised rate by the Nigerian government (ECOWAS, 2015.)". "On March 6, 2006, the Nigeria-Niger joint commission met in Abuja. At the meeting, the ministers of transport for Nigeria and Niger discussed the building of a rail link from Kaura Namoda through Sokoto to Birnin-n'Konni in Niger Republic (ECOWAS, 2015)" Another example can be seen in the substantial contributions made by Nigeria "to the generation of hydro-electric power to Niger and also supplied gas to Benin, Togo, Ghana" as inter ECOWAS pipeline gas project. (ECOWAS, 2015.) Perhaps, the most laudable interventions and obvious contributions of Nigeria to ECOWAS is the project of ECOMOG which represents ECOWAS attempt to maintain and restore peace within the West African sub-region. It is worthy to note that maintaining peace and stability was not the goal of ECOWAS as at inception. The call to act began in the 1980s when wars and dictatorships became a constant in the region. ECOWAS saw that a successful economic integration cannot occur in a jungle of wars. Nigeria played a very important role in the curbing of war and the maintaining of peace and stability within the West African region. Both military and civilian leaders never back down from what is now referred to as Nigeria's big brother role in Africa. The leadership of Ibrahim Babangida regime for example helped ECOWAS interest in the discord that occurred between Ghana and Togo about the border division of the Ewes in 1989. The Liberian crisis, the Sierra Leone war are very good examples where the Nigerian government took particular interest to solving the problems of these areas. To this end, there was a revision of the ECOWAS objectives. In the history of ECOMOG, Nigeria has enlisted "eight field commanders and contributed about 70% of the troops in the peacekeeping operations in Liberia. According to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria spent eight billion Dollars and lost about five hundred men in the Liberia and Sierra Leone crisis" (ECOWAS, 2015). In the end, the formation of the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) has in concrete terms upheld to be a pivotal and successful arm of the ECOWAS project and Nigeria's interventions and contributions can never be over emphasised.

The Benefits of ECOWAS to Nigeria
No doubt, Nigeria remains a crucial part of ECOWAS. (ECOWAS population: 320 million, Nigeria's Population 200 million). As outlined in the above table, its contribution to ECOWAS is at least double the closest competitor and its GDP is larger than the combined GDP of other member states put together. The above raises the question of the continuous membership of Nigeria in ECOWAS. It is part of the focus of this paper to outline some benefits of ECOWAS to the Nigerian Populace. We shall explore this in the following:

Free movement
ECOWAS sees free moment of goods and services amongst member states as an important tool to promote trade in the sub-region. For example, many nationals from ECOWAS member states are highly represented in the construction industry where they are used for odd jobs (Opanike, Aduloju & Adenipekun, 2016). Some come in as industrialists businesspeople and other professional activities.

Trade
The ECOWAS plan for the Common External Tariff (CET) and Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) will reduce costs in Nigeria. After decade-long negotiations, the ECOWAS CET and EPA with the EU recently reached decisive milestones. (Aribisala, 2013). Also, the share of manufacturing in Nigeria's total exports to the ECOWAS region climbed from 1 percent in 2001 to 5.4 percent in 2010. ECOWAS promotes greater efficiency in Nigerian industries through the creation of an enlarged market. "Within this ECOWAS framework, Nigeria has profited from investments in economic ventures in neighbouring states. Some of these include iron-ore mining in Benin, uranium in Niger, petro-chemicals in Senegal and cement and sugar projects in Benin. There are also a number of joint economic commissions set up between Nigeria and several ECOWAS member-states" (Aribisala, 2013).
Nigeria also stands to gain from the harmonisation of agriculture among members of ECOWAS (for example: cattle raring), telecommunication and even finances. However, many of aforementioned benefits are yet to be realised. A better commitment from member states can help the community achieve these plans.

Evaluating Nigeria's Continued Membership of ECOWAS: A Cost Benefit Analysis
In this section, we will attempt to justify Nigeria's continued membership of ECOWAS by carrying out a cost benefit analysis which involves identifying the benefits and determining the cost so as to ascertain the viability of such membership. It is important to note that this paper believes that the cost of Nigeria's membership in ECOWAS greatly outshines the benefits. Some schools within the African community however attributes this not as a construct of ECOWAS policies, but the failure of Nigerian leaders. It is no news that Nigeria and her leaders have in them the idea that the sustainability of the African continent is a God given duty and as such economic or political gains may not be accrued. On the 22nd of June 1966, for example, "Major General Aguiyi in his maiden broadcast to the nation said: .... because of our population and potentials, the majority of opinion in the civilised world looks up to us to provide responsible leadership in Africa... we are convinced that whether in the political, economic or cultural sphere, our destiny lies our role in the continent of Africa" (Bamidele, 1993). This statement simply sees Nigeria as saviour of the African race. The issue however with this big brother display is that it comes with little or no benefits. Take for example the Marshal Plan that was given to the United Kingdom and by the United States after the second world war, has the united states not benefited from the proceeding interactions? Or is the problem from our foreign policy which is Afrocentric? Decision making in the international system is a pivotal role and any state must consider its national interests while interacting with other states. We can say up to this point that Nigeria's role in ECOWAS has added little or nothing to the economic life of the Nigerian people. Moreover, ECOMOG sponsored by Nigeria has curbed the war in Sierra Leone in 1997 and the civil war in the Guinea Bissau region. It is recorded that over 1700 men were deployed to the bothers of Guinea and Liberia. The point that must be noted here consequently is the fruitlessness of the above onslaughts. In as must as Nigeria's role in the continent through ECOMOG must be applauded, nothing as it concerns economic benefits has been occurred to Nigeria. During Babagindas regime, for example, Nigeria's GDP was on a low.
Poverty existed, and life generally was not pleasant for the Nigerian people. Yet, the Babaginda regime disbursed monies to assist ECOWAS. Besides the absence fruitlessness of Nigeria's mission in these countries, the level of disregard that exists for the Nigerian peoples is alarming. This mad evident in the appointments and selection of positions in ECOWAS and the killings in South Africa and other parts of Africa.
At the very core of any economic integration is the potential for financial gain. Economic integration is the fundamental objective of the ECOWAS community and such, promotes this the most. However, ECOWAS financial capacity is largely crested on the inputs from Nigeria.
From the hosting of meetings to emergency bail-out schemes, Nigeria has remained the benefactors of the ECOWAS organisation.

Conclusion and Recommendations
Regarding its relations with ECOWAS, Nigeria should choose one of two options: Leave the ECOWAS commission or redefine its place in the community. Nigeria must learn to benefit from the consequences of its actions and must stop the philanthropic purposeless big brother roles. She must strive towards integration as a bit to further promote the interest of the nation and its people. Nigeria should adopt the Quid pro quo method of relationship and ensure that nothing goes for nothing.
Nigeria must take advantage of the gigantic and over-reliant role of ECOWAS. While promoting integration and peace within the sub-region, she must take advantage of the economic possibilities therein.
Nigeria must support policies within the community that would and promote its economic capabilities. For example, the issue around the single currency ECO. Nigeria must carry a costbenefit analysis to see the viability and how beneficial such a move would affect the economic potentials of Nigeria. Moreover, if by chance the policy is not favourable, she should not out of share solidarity adopt the policy. The growth and sustainability of her economy must be paramount.