By Mark Longyen, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was established by its founding fathers on May 28, 1975 with the aim of fostering regional economic integration, mutual cooperation, and political stability among its member states.

The creation of the subregional bloc was driven by the collective desire of member states to address their common challenges and harness shared opportunities.

They sought to translate their common heritage of historical, socio-cultural, political experiences and ties into regional growth and development by promoting effective cooperation and integrating their development processes.

After nearly 50 years, international affairs pundits posit that ECOWAS has not only emerged as West Africa’s most formidable powerhouse but also Africa’s most successful subregional economic community.

According to them, ECOWAS has now transitioned from being a mere international organisation to becoming a community of people, gradually emerging as “ECOWAS of Peoples”, as was encapsulated in its Vision 2020.

The subregional institution has also metamorphosed from being a mere economic bloc into both an economic and political union rolled into one, boasting an avalanche of significant successes in subregional integration, peace, and security.

ECOWAS is now regarded as a pacesetter in subregional integration in Africa, and a global trademark, entrenching the values and culture of democracy and human rights in West Africa.

Recall that it was ECOWAS that provided the bulk of the basis for the African Union’s frameworks.

ECOWAS’ laudable success story has not gone unnoticed as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), in a recent study, described the bloc as a ‘’model of advanced integration’’.

The UN body noted that ECOWAS has built a solid institutional architecture, a globally recognised organisation in the broader context of the African Union, when compared to Africa’s other subregional communities.

“ECOWAS has strived to adopt protocols and to define policies and programmes covering almost all areas of integration identified in its initial treaty, and later in the revised treaty.

“In terms of real impact, the performances of ECOWAS, since its establishment, may be deemed to be both great and average at this stage.

“ECOWAS has the potential to accelerate the integration of its member states. It has gained valuable experience in successfully grouping and sustaining countries as members,” the report said.

UNECA added that by May when it will be marking its 50th anniversary, ECOWAS could be largely celebrated for meeting the targets it set in its constitutive treaty and becoming a successful subregional economic community model in Africa.

The development is indeed a fulfilled prophecy of sorts, as the organisation boasts a myriad of legendary achievements in the past five decades.

One of the key achievements of ECOWAS is the successful implementation of its 1976 Protocol on Free Movement of persons, goods, and services within the community.

The Protocol, which permits community citizens the right of abode in any member state, has been ECOWAS’ calling card over the years, as West African citizens do not have to think about a visa when they cross borders within the subregion.

It has precipitated and strengthened economic integration and created a formidable common market of nearly 400 million people for the subregion.

Gen. Yakubu Gowon, former Nigerian Head of State and founding father of ECOWAS, while reinforcing this view recently, noted that in spite of the bloc’s shortcomings, the bloc has achieved a lot in the past 50 years.

He listed the organisation’s major accomplishments to include trade liberalisation, the right of West Africans to live legitimately in any country within the community, and the execution of successful peacekeeping operations, among others.

“ECOWAS is more than a coalition of states. It is a community established for the good of our peoples, based on shared history, culture, and tradition.

“Neither my generation, nor present or future generations will understand or forgive the breakup of our community,” he said.

Gowon, therefore, charged member states to ensure a united ECOWAS, going forward. He, particularly, urged Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to rescind their decision to exit the bloc.

Corroborating Gowon’s view, Amb. Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security, says ECOWAS has achieved a lot in terms of peace and security in the subregion.

According to him, ECOWAS is the only African subregional economic community where there is no open, high-intensity conflict in spite of the activities of violent extremist groups.

Musah says that ECOWAS has also learned from its past intraregional civil wars and implosion of states in the 1990s, adding that the bloc has no choice but to gravitate to security matters and good governance.

He also observed that if ECOWAS had not been created the whole subregion would have been engulfed in fratricidal conflicts bearing in mind the turmoil and turbulence that became common in the post-Cold War Africa.

“If you remember, a war started in Liberia towards the end of 1989. It continued throughout the 1990s, spreading to Sierra Leone and then to Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire.

“ECOWAS intervened through its multilateral armed forces – the Economic Community of West African States Ceasefire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG).

“This stabilised the situation and eventually provided a soft landing for the United Nations peacekeepers, who came in subsequently,” he said.

ECOWAS has also achieved a lot in its efforts to develop physical infrastructure across West Africa.

This comprises energy, internet connectivity, building rail and road networks, among numerous other projects within the subregion.

One of ECOWAS’ flagship projects in its 50 years of existence, that has raised many eyebrows and drawn global applause, is the ambitious, multibillion-dollar Abidjan-Lagos Highway Corridor and Railway initiative.

The 1,028-kilometre transnational coastal highway is designed to connect five West African countries – Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin Republic, and Nigeria – to create an economic corridor that will be instrumental in advancing subregional trade and development.

The project is due to begin in 2026 with its completion expected in 2030.

When complete, the project is expected to turn the corridor into a vibrant economic and industrial hub that will revolutionise connectivity throughout West Africa.

The toll-free motorway will boast four to six lanes, with up to eight lanes in Lagos. There are also plans to build 63 interchanges.

The highway will cover 82 kilometres in Nigeria, 520 kilometres in Ghana, 144 kilometres in Cote d’Ivoire, 90 kilometres in Togo, and 127 kilometres in Benin.

Construction of the road is expected to generate up to 70,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Most of the work will be carried out in the form of public-private partnerships, spearheaded by the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) and the African Development Bank(AfDB).

Chris Appoiah, ECOWAS Director of Transport, describes the initiative as an integrated project which, once implemented, will help to achieve the desires of ECOWAS’ economic union.

“Our ultimate objective is to ensure that the corridor and the economic activities to be developed along the corridor, contribute to the ECOWAS regional integration agenda,” he said.

According to projections, nearly 50 million people are expected to live within the corridor by 2035, and it could harbour half a billion inhabitants by the end of the 21st century, becoming the largest urban region in the world.

Another key achievement of ECOWAS since it was established, is the creation of the West African Power Pool (WAPP) in 2006.

WAPP is a specialised institution set up to integrate the operations of national power systems into a unified subregional electricity market.

With headquarters in Cotonou, Benin Republic, WAPP’s primary objective is to develop electric power generation and transmission facilities.

It is a network that interconnects the entire West African subregion, providing stable and reliable electricity supply at competitive cost.

The WAPP Master Plan, which contains seventy-five priority projects of which twenty-eight are transmission line projects, was prepared with the support of the European Union.

ECOWAS Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalisation, Sediko Douka, says ECOWAS has also created other specialised agencies to address electricity deficits, requiring about 5.2 billion dollars to bridge the gap.

He listed them to include the Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA) in Accra, Ghana; the Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) in Praia, Cape Verde; and the West African Gas Pipeline Authority (WAGPA) in Abuja, Nigeria.

“To date, 14 out of the 15 member states are interconnected. In fact, all 14 mainland countries of ECOWAS are interconnected.

“Only the 15th country, Cape Verde, remains unconnected, which will soon be rectified through the implementation of a high-voltage submarine cable, with feasibility studies due to start shortly,” he said.

WAGP, which later metamorphosed to West African Gas Pipeline Extension Project (WAGPEP), aims at delivering natural gas to all member states.

ECOWAS has further approved the unique merger of WAGPEP and the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project (NMGP).

The pipeline will traverse Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania, and terminate in Morocco, with a spur to Spain.

It is an infrastructure of 6,800 kilometres long, including 5,100 km offshore, with a transport capacity of 30 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year.

The project, which will be officially unveiled this year, is expected to accelerate the bloc’s industrial and socio-economic development, integrate the economies of the subregion, and improve the living conditions of West Africa’s residents.

Over the past 50 years, ECOWAS has also recorded integration successes through the promotion of economic cooperation and facilitation of subregional trade.

This was done through initiatives, such as the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) and the Common External (CET) initiatives.

Through these, ECOWAS has worked to reduce trade barriers and promote the free movement of goods and services within the region.

These initiatives have contributed to the expansion of intra-regional trade, fostering economic growth, and creating new opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs across West Africa.

ECOWAS has also made significant strides in harmonising economic policies and regulations among member states, thereby, creating a more conducive environment for investment and business development.

The bloc’s scorecard here is particularly noticeable through its deliberate policy collaborations and engagements with the private sector, like the ECOWAS Small Business Coalition and promoting the multibillion dollar tourism sector through its flagship initiative, ECOTOUR.

ECOWAS has also established regional institutions such as the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID).

This has further enhanced the subregion’s economic integration efforts, as well as provided financial support and technical assistance to member states.

As a result, West Africa has increasingly become interconnected economically, with cross-border trade and investment playing a crucial role in driving sustainable development and poverty reduction within the region.

Dr Omar Touray, President of the ECOWAS Commission, sums this up by affirming that ECOWAS remains committed to fulfilling the dreams of its founding fathers and reflecting the aspirations of its citizens.

“We have moved from ECOWAS of states to ECOWAS of peoples, where the demands for democratic governance and transparency are paramount,” Touray stated at the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council meeting in Abuja on Feb. 8, 2024.

In spite of its monumental achievements in the past 50 years, ECOWAS’ success story is not devoid of a myriad of challenges, which, though surmountable, collectively, pose as its existential threat.

The challenges range from violent extremism and terrorism to piracy, political instability, elections-related violence, drug trafficking or deadly viruses.

Security threats triggered by violent extremism and terrorism, for instance, pose significant obstacles to regional integration.

Corruption-induced poverty, member states’ economic disparities, hunger, poor funding, unconstitutional changes of government, climate change, among others, all constitute obstacles to regional integration.

Dr Mohamed Chambas, former President, ECOWAS Commission, and Chairman, ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) Task Force, for instance, advocates for a renewed political commitment to regional integration ahead the bloc’s 50th anniversary.

He says that ECOWAS must recommit to strengthening the development of regional agriculture value chains, by enhancing cross-border trade in agricultural products.

Chambas charged ECOWAS leaders to step up the protocols on trade facilitation and free movement of persons and goods to realise ETLS’ core aim of a “Borderless West Africa and ECOWAS of peoples.”

“As we gear up to mark 50 years of our existence as ECOWAS, it is a moment that obliges us to recommit charting a common path forward, towards a peaceful, prosperous and progressive future for our community.

“I would like to emphasise once again that, where people move, trade moves, and where trade moves, economic development follows and settles in,” he said.

Experts agree that although significant challenges still remain in ECOWAS’ path to achieving full economic integration, addressing them requires a concerted effort from member states, institutions, and international partners.

50 years of ECOWAS’ existence is, therefore, a mixed bag of model, milestone achievements in regional economic integration amid formidable, though surmountable challenges, like terrorism and the recent exit of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger from the bloc.

As the bloc’s leaders roll out the drums to celebrate ECOWAS’ Golden Jubilee in a couple of weeks’ time, there is no doubt that the epochal event is a worthwhile celebration. (NANFeatures)

***If used, please credit the writer and the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)