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CHAPTER ONE

 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

As a result of the ambition for economic growth and regional integration among African nations, the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West Africa), the SADC (Southern Africa Development Community), the EAC (East African Community), and the ECCAS (East African Community) were established (Economic Community of Central African States). In the African Union, these sub-regional organizations are all officially recognized, and their different activities have contributed to the growth and development of the continent.

Before the formation of the Economic Community of West African Nations (ECOWAS), West Africa was made up of a number of states with a variety of cultures, customs, and indigenous languages that had developed as a result of various colonial experiences and administrations. In the centuries before colonialism, the West African region was home to numerous famous empires, including the Oyo Empire, the Sokoto caliphate, the Wolof, the Kanem Bornu, and the Mali Songhai. However, these empires lacked integration among themselves, which arose as a result of the diversity of ethnic groups, each with its own language, culture, and tradition (Onwuka, 2012).

The drive to promote regional integration and collaboration among these governments resulted in the formation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). To take advantage of this opportunity, one of the first measures made towards the integration of ECOWAS was taken in 1945, when all of the French-speaking nations in the area agreed to establish a common currency, known as the CFA Franc, as a means of promoting economic cooperation. After President William Tubman proposed an economic union for West African states in 1964, Guinea, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, and Sierra Leone signed a single currency agreement in 1985, but nothing tangible came of it until the Nigerian and Togolese heads of state, General Yakubu Gowon and GnassingbeEyadema, embarked on a regional tour in 1972 to campaign for and show support for the idea of regional integration, which ended in failure (Davidson, 1999).

Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, and Togo signed the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Treaty on May 28, 1975, in Lagos. ECOWAS has as one of its key aims, as stated in Article 27 of the treaty, the creation of an ECOWAS citizenship for all of its member nations, which has contributed to the improvement of the level of life in all of its member countries. By establishing ECOMOG, the organization has contributed to the construction of a framework for security monitoring and control, which has helped to promote peace in the area. Due to the fact that commercial relations between member states are properly coordinated with the Protocol on Free Movement, the economic interests of member states have benefited as a result of this. Nigeria, for example, offers natural gas and power to member nations like as Benin, Ghana, and Togo, among others. These advancements have allowed the members to have a single purpose and objective despite their differences, despite the fact that various attempts have been made to establish a common currency with official languages being English and French in order to facilitate communication amongst the members. Due to the organization's pursuit of free movement of people, commodities, and money, the ECOWAS Protocol on the Free Movement, Residence, and Establishment of West African Citizens was drafted in 1997 to address this issue (Goodwin-Gill,2002).

The Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons, Residence, and Establishment was formed in May 1979, and it provided ECOWAS people the freedom to freely enter and depart any ECOWAS member state for a period of up to 90 days. The Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Residence, and Establishment was established with a 15-year implementation and establishment period. Within the first five years of the protocol on free movement, the use of visas into ECOWAS member states was abolished, and ECOWAS citizens with valid travel certificates and international health certificates were allowed to freely enter and exit within an ECOWAS state for a maximum of 90 days. The Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Residence, and Establishment was established with a 15- (Comfort,2013).

Under the terms of their individual national laws, ECOWAS nations may still reject entrance to an inadmissible immigrant into their country. After being deported from a nation, an immigrant's life, prosperity, and family should be ensured by the country in which he or she was deported (Adepoju, 2007). The delayed right of residence came into effect in July 1986 when all member states accepted it, despite the fact that the right of establishment has not yet been established. Member states are required to remove all forms of obstacles that prevent the Protocol on Free Movement from being implemented in order to achieve the objectives set forth in Article 2(2) of the Treaty of Rome, with the removal serving as a foundation for regional cooperation and integration in West Africa (Ojo, 1999).

In 1999, the ECOWAS commissioner for trade claimed that the region's objective of a borderless area, integrating, and forming one single currency union may be realized by regional collaboration and integration among member nations, according to Ike (1999). He, on the other hand, stated that inter-state boundaries continue to be barriers to free movement, noting that ECOWAS citizens experience stress and pain when crossing borders, and that, despite the abolishment of visa entry, travellers are still harassed illegally by customs and police forces, resulting in a variety of economic losses (Ike,1999).

The ECOWAS protocol on freedom of movement, residence, and establishment, which was established in 1979, has not been completely implemented by the member nations to date. While moving, ECOWAS individuals continue to be subjected to intense and severe examination by member state security services, resulting in the protocol's ineffectiveness.

Some of the issues affecting the application of the protocol, according to Esekumemu (2014), are as a result of political instability in member states; terrorism; transnational crime; poverty; underdevelopment; proliferation of small and light weapons; and other issues. These issues, among others, have prevented the full application of the protocol (Esekumemu, 2014). When speaking during the ECOWAS 40th anniversary celebration, Major General Akwa contributed to the above-mentioned concerns by stating that the bulk of ECOWAS accomplishments are not known to the majority of persons living in the community (Akwa,2015).

Panike (2015) said that there is no protection for life and property, and that the protocol was more concerned with security than with economic progress. That means that the protocol is simply a draft protocol and is not relevant in practice, as the connotation suggests. The focus of research by different researchers has mostly been on identifying the obstacles that the protocol faces and the achievements that the protocol has achieved, while leaving out the many efforts made by member nations to ensure the protocol's long-term viability.

Nigeria's most specialized function in the world community is that of peacekeeper, piece builder, and de-escalation of guerrilla warlords, particularly in Africa, and other parts of Africa. Since Nigeria's independence in 1960, she has participated in a number of United Nations peacekeeping missions in Africa and the West Africa Region (WAR), as part of the combined United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in the region. For example, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Liberia, South Africa, Togo, Gambia, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone, among other places. Nigeria was a major contributor to the Economic Monitory Group (ECOMOG), which supplied military and civilian troops as well as logistical assistance to Liberia and Sierra Leone at the height of their respective civil crises in the late 1990s. This included a deployment of 1,500 soldiers to the ECOWAS Mission in Liberia (ECOMIL) in 2003 and a medical and signals team to the ECOWAS Mission in Cote d'Ivoire in the same year (ECOMICI). In 2004, as part of the African Union Mission in Sudan, 1,500 Nigerian soldiers were stationed in Darfur (AMIS). Nigeria has also recently deployed 1,200 soldiers to the African-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA) and 200 police officers to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Nigeria deployed the first group of Individual Police Officers (IPOs) in Africa during the United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC) in 1960, and the first Formed Police Unit (FPU) of 120 officers was deployed in Liberia in 2004. Both units were pioneers in their fields.

Nigeria was the first country to send United Nations soldiers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between 1960 and 1964. Since then, Nigeria has been an active participant in United Nations peacekeeping operations, sending military contingents, unarmed military observers, military staff officers, established police units, police consultants, and civilian specialists to more than 25 UN peacekeeping missions throughout the world. Currently, Nigeria is one of the most significant contributors to the United Nations, with military and civilian troops serving in eleven UN peacekeeping missions as well as the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Nigeria has also played important roles in missions throughout Africa that are not part of the United Nations system. Nigeria, as the preeminent power in West Africa, has been the primary donor of military and other resources for ECOWAS peace operations, contributing more than US$8 billion to the total (Dokubo, 2005). However, since the mid-2000s, Nigeria's internal security issues have had an impact on the country's capacity to continue its soldier commitment to peace operations in the international community. Troops are progressively being sent to danger regions around Nigeria, with the majority of them being concentrated in the northeast, which has been severely damaged by the Boko Haram insurgency.

Nigeria, like other countries, has expanded her position in the international community by establishing an observation mission. It was codenamed Operation Restore Democracy. The ECOWAS military intervention in the Gambia, also known as the ECOWAS Mission in the Gambia, abbreviated ECOMIG, was a military intervention by several West African nations to restore internal order in the government of the Gambia people. In a historic move to defend democracy, West African troops entered the tiny West African nation of Gambia to oust a president who had refused to relinquish power following an election defeat. President Yahya Jammeh was forced to resign and flee the country two days after the initial military incursion and has since gone into exile. Following Barrow's absence from the country, state military stayed in the country to ensure law and order in preparation for Barrow's return and consolidation of power as President of the Gambia. Senegalese military, on the other hand, arrived in Gambia only hours after the country's new president took office. Despite the fact that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) had not approved military action, Senegalese armed troops invaded the Gambia on the same day, along with some soldiers from Ghana, and with air and maritime backing from the Nigerian Air Force and Navy (Wikipedia, 2019). Specifically, foreign policy studies the pattern of interactions through which international actors, mostly, but not entirely, governments create decisions and strategies for interacting with other members of the international community (Idisi and Idise, 1996).

Moreover, the African Union (AU) is a continental organization comprised of 55 member nations all of which are situated in the African continent The foundation of the African Union was declared in the Sirte Declaration, which was signed in Sirte, Libya, on September 9, 1999, and which called for the establishment of an African Union. The bloc was established on May 26, 2001, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and officially inaugurated on July 9, 2002, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Aiming to replace the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was created on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa by 32 signatory states, the African Union was established on 9 July 2002 in Addis Ababa with the purpose of replacing the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The Assembly of the African Union, which meets twice a year and brings together the heads of state and government of the African Union's member countries, makes the majority of the organization's most significant decisions. The African Union Commission, which serves as the secretariat of the African Union, is situated in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. Since the establishment of the African Union (AU) in 2002, which succeeded the defunct Organization of African Unity (OAU), the legal and political environment on the continent of Africa has changed, and it is expected to alter much more in the future.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

In the immediate post-independence era, economic growth similar to that which existed in the Western industrialized countries was the desire of all the new African countries. Regional integration and cooperation was one of the strategies considered expedient in reaching this goal of economic development .On 28 May 1975, sixteen West African counties signed a treaty in Lagos, Nigeria, establishing the ECOWAS. This treaty was intended to strengthen cooperation among nation within the sub regions of the West Africa States. The strategy was to promote intraregional trade and move goods and services as well as capital and persons freely within the member countries as well the privilege to reside and establish within the member countries. Few years following the birth of the ECOWAS in1979 a Protocol was introduced to consolidate the freedom of movement of people. The first phase of the Protocol which came into effect somewhere in the 1980 assured citizens entering freely into member countries without visa for ninety days. The second stage of the Protocol which covers the privilege to reside in member country came into effect somewhere in July 1986 which all members accepted in good faith. Despite this effort the right to establishment is yet to be made effective. (Ghana News Agency, 2011).

With the coming into force of both the 1979 treaty and the revised treaty of 1993, countries who were members stopped the demand for visa and other travelling documents necessary for travelling to other countries. The implication of this is that citizens of countries who are members of ECOWAS and have the necessary documents for travelling  and at the same  time have accurate health certificate which merit international standard can live in other West Africa states up to 90 days (Lamy, 2011). Article 4 is the only legal basis for restricting movement under the free movement Protocol. Article 4 basically gives member states the right to deny entry to community citizens if in their estimation, such citizens would create problems in their hoststates.

Agyei and Clottey (2007) have cited various reasons that hinder the free movement Protocol. Some of these reasons include xenophobia, ignorance of the Protocol and extortion at the various borders. These problems identified by Agyei and Clottey (2007) gives a hint that the intended objectives of the Protocol have not been met or that the Protocol is facing some challenges. Article 4 was developed to secure the economies of the national as well as control migration. Article 4 therefore remains a threshold which members reserved to themselves under the Protocol. For instance, in countries like that of Togo, Benin, Niger and Burkina Faso are nations who formally enjoys a total liberty to refuse potential foreigners who happens to be migrants without reasons or need explanations.

In Togo, under Law on 87-12 which relates to the policy on migration, entry into the country could be restricted at the liberty officials in charge of the law. In Niger, under Decree no 87- 076, migrants must present a national travelling document or passport and must as far as possible be valid by international standard. Regardless of the above migrants can amongother things be rejected or sacked from or deny the privilege to reside in Niger. In Burkina Faso however, per the basis of the ordinance number 84- 049, migrants must possess standardize and acknowledgeable travelling document which must be valid and up to date as well as international health certificate and a completion on the necessary application process (Ayamga, 2014). In Ghana, under the Immigration Act 573 of 2002, migrants are expected to be in possession of valid travelling documents. People’s restricted permission of entry comprise individuals facing deportation issues, those having criminal issues and the rest. (Pavlov &Grečić, 2008).

Quakers (2014) indicated that the ECOWAS Protocol that involve the movement of individuals and goods and services freely within and among the sub regions was aimed at eliminating or reducing the bottlenecks associated with movement from one place to another. However, the inadmissible laws under Article 4 have been interpreted differently by some countries within the sub-region. There appear to be no clear guideline on the application of the law by various countries. The law continues to pose serious challenges to the Protocol that involve the movement of individuals freely as well as goods and services and the liberty to reside and establish in other countries. This is so because Article 4 is opened to varied interpretation by member countries and this leaves the implementation of the Protocol at the discretion of member countries. This study therefore seeks to assess the ECOWAS Free Movement Protocol; Implications For Security And Cooperation Within The West African Sub-Regiion.

As Nigeria became a sovereign nation in 1960, the country has engaged in ambitious foreign mission that has seen her part away with large numbers of human resources and huge amount of economic resources, with little or nothing to show for this expensive diplomatic generosity. Ade-Ibijola (2013)⁴ noting the words of retired Brigadier Olagunsoye Oyinlola on the amount expended by Nigeria on extending largesse to the external context, which underscores the problem associated with indefinite and unintelligible national interest, affirms that “Nigeria has spent 10 billion dollars since independence on peace-building around the world. It would have been more profitable to humanity if such funds were channeled to human and societal development.” Flowing from this standpoint is that it is obvious that Nigeria has suffered misplaced priorities owing to non-codified and documented national interest. Otherwise, how explicable is it that a country with numerous social and infrastructural laybacks and without internal peace or stability could spend such amount of money on the peacekeeping and peacemaking of other nations? Nigeria is a country where more than two-third of its population live in abject poverty. The irony here, is, Nigeria’s foreign expenditure should reflect on her roles and foreign policy direction.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study focuses on the roles of Nigeria in the international community, a case of the Africa Union. The specific objectives are to

1.    Determine the specific roles of Nigeria in the international community

2.    Know if Nigeria play any role in the Africa Union

3.    Know if there exist any distinctive relationship between the role played by Nigeria in the Africa Union and the International Community.

1.4 Research Questions

1.    What specific roles has Nigeria in the international community?

2.    Does Nigeria play any role in the Africa Union?

3.    Are there any distinctive relationship between the role played by Nigeria in the Africa Union and the International Community?

1.5 Hypothesis

1.    Nigeria has no specific role in the international community

2.    Nigeria play certain roles in the Africa Union

3.    Nigeria has no distinctive role in the Africa Union and the international Community.

1.6 Significance of the Study

The study is unique; it enables us to understand Nigeria roles in the international community. The study also help government authorities, especially those in the foreign affairs department to champion a foreign policies that will be of importance to Nigerian and the Nigeria state.

The information that often arise from the traders and travellers of the West Africa sub region is often terrible most especially those who travel by road. Most of the narration carry experiences that are so horrible in comparison with the Mediterranean Sea saga where most Africans try to cross to the European countries using the Sahara desert who untimely perish miserably. In actual fact the differences that exist between the two scenario is the fact whiles the later travellers pay the result of their journey with their lives, the traders and travellers within the sub African sub regions pay with their money and time. The outcome of this research is going to demonstrate that the current bilateral and multilateral economic alliances will as far as possible strengthen existing economic cooperation as well as open the opportunity for other good fortunes as far as economic alliances is concern. Identification of challenges and devising strategies to solve those problems will help increase bilateral cooperation in the sub region and increase trade activities among ECOWAS countries. It will also bring about integration which helps member countries develop effectively. It will also benefit the academia by adding up to the little literature and documentation on the challenges and frustrations border officials and travellers go through at the borders.

Again, the results from this study will also help the various regional and sub-regional machinery which aims to assist in searching for effective and efficient sustainable results to the challenges that are militating against the well-intended policy which aims among other things to liberate the movement of persons freely as well as the free movement of goods and services within the ECOWAS and its sub regions. It will also aid existing policies and procedures to ensure and improve the safety of individuals travelling, the free flow of interstate buses in the sub regions and its fraternity to assist transporters and passengers