REVIEWING NIGERIA’S STAKE AND THE STRATEGIC IMPLICATION OF MOROCCO’S PROPOSED MEMBERSHIP OF THE ECOWAS
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Date
2019-12-05
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Studies in Politics and Society
Abstract
International relations remain one of the surviving platforms for negotiation,
consent, exploitation and domination of nations by nation. Cooperation and
integration are two of the mechanisms used in the articulation of regional
arrangements. The Kingdom of Morocco, a Maghreb nation in North Africa’s
bid for ECOWAS membership has attracted recurrent intellectual
engagements by the ECOWAS member states and the academia. This study
relies on qualitative research methods of data collection and analysis. The
respondents were purposively selected based on their cognate experience and
practice of the international relation and regional organizations. The Critical
theory was used to gird the study, this allows the researcher to critically
examine data collected from publications and triangulation which resulted in
the discovery of the following: Regionalism is a complex phenomenon that
may not be easily captured in one international relations theory; Regional
arrangement of ECOWAS is threatened by external ‘interests’ like that of
Morocco-ECOWAS membership. That given the antecedent of Morocco in the
Maghreb Union, her interests in ECOWAS might be beyond economic alliance
and there is still much to know about Morocco’s intentions. Therefore, the
study recommended among others that Nigeria and other West African states
should go back to the drawing board to re-examine their position on
Morocco’s ECOWAS membership. Furthermore, ECOWAS members,
especially Nigeria should guide her strategic position in ECOWAS by
diplomatically weighing the short term and the long-term benefits of allowing
Morocco to become ECOWAS member.