NIGERIA’S MILITARY ENGAGEMENTS AND LEADERSHIP ROLE IN SUB-REGIONAL SECURITY ARCHITECTURE (ECOWAS) DURING THE LIBERIAN AND SIERRA LEONEAN CIVIL WARS (1990-1998): SUCCESS OR FAILURE?

Back to Page Authors: Olukayode Bakare

Keywords: ECOWAS, Liberia, foriegn policy, Sierra Leone

Abstract: The Nigerian-led formation of ECOWAS in 1975 was to facilitate infrastructural and economic development in the West African region. Contrary to expectation, the regional economic bloc had failed to achieve its stated economic objectives due to the polarization between the Anglophone and Francophone countries at that time. In 1978, the ECOWAS devised a Protocol on Non-Aggression Treaty, followed, in 1981, by a Protocol Relating to Mutual Assistance in Defence until the Liberian civil war broke out in 1989. This paper adopts a historical and secondary method of data collection to investigate the role of the Nigerian military government during the ECOMOG intervention in the Liberian and Sierra Leonean civil wars (1989-1998). This paper argues that Nigeria’s military interventions in both Liberia and Sierra Leone in the periods between 1989-1998, were not purposely to promote peace, security, and democracy, but to secure the public sympathies and international legitimacy against the poor human right records associated with bad national economic management in the country.