ADMISSION OF MOROCCO INTO ECOWAS: IMPLICATIONS FOR NIGERIA’S NATIONAL INTERESTS, ECOWAS, AND EU

Back to Page Authors: Olukayode Bakare

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Keywords: ECOWAS, EU, Morocco, national interests

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Abstract: This paper examines the theoretical and practical implications of Moroccan membership in ECOWAS and how this could impact on Nigerian national interests and the European Union (EU). This paper adopts the neo-realist and liberal institutionalist theories to investigate the power politics which underscored the Moroccan membership in ECOWAS. The main method adopted in this study has been through the secondary sources of data collection. However, the ECOWAS Treaty of 1975 specified that the membership of the regional organisation should be limited to the fifteen West African states that endorsed its establishment at that time. The Moroccan ascension into ECOWAS in February 24, 2017, would lay a legitimate ground and precedent to other countries membership that are not from within the West African region, and which might be willing to join the regional organisation in the future. Given this background, Nigeria, a regional power in West African region could be confronted with a Northern African regional power – Morocco – within its traditional area of influence, and particularly, in areas of vital strategic interests to Nigeria in the region. Similarly, the Moroccan ascension into ECOWAS lends credence to the dichotomy of its relationship between the European Union, particularly in areas of immigration. The Moroccan membership in ECOWAS would further heighten the illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea, and which could warrant the EU reconsidering its foreign policy potions with Morocco. In this regard, this paper concludes that the admission of Morocco in ECOWAS would jeopardise and curtail Nigeria’s sub-regional influence, power, and national interests towards the entrenchment of democracy, peace, and security in West Africa.

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