ABSTRACT

The study sought to find out the challenges to regional security cooperation in Africa with ECOWAS and SADC as case studies. The data used for this study was qualitative method of collecting and analyzing data. It found that there are both structural differences and ideological similarities between ECOWAS and SADC. Both ECOWAS and SADC were originally economic integration Organization; however, the contemporary nexus between security and development compelled them to adopt security roles. The two Organizations however differ in their approaches in managing threats to their sub-regions. ECOWAS was more predisposed to deploy its economic and political sanctions and military intervention mechanisms; while SADC is more given to using preventive diplomacy and conciliatory mechanisms to contain threats to the sub- region than deploying the threat of using military intervention. The difference is due to the type of colonialism member states of the two Organizations experienced. ECOWAS member states experienced a milder form of colonialism as compared to SADC, which had experienced more severe form of colonialism. The two regions experienced financial difficulties, lack of necessary political will, poor good governance, and corruption to varying degrees. SADC suffered lack of institutional capacity, lack of unity and nationalist rivalry while ECOWAS suffered from Anglophone and Francophone divide and volatility of conflicts. The study suggested greater collaboration between sub-regional Organizations to learn from each other’s experiences and set up funds for managing security threats to ensure their independence.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

       Background to the Research Problem

The concept of security is multifaceted and complex and has been in existence since the very first human interactions. Security is the second level in Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, after the attainment of biological and physiological needs (air, food, shelter, warmth, sleep).¹ According to Maslow, it is important that humans gain security from various elements of nature, including other humans before aspiring towards other needs. Security has evolved to be of paramount necessity to the existence of individuals and the survival of societies and states. Even though the word “security” remains a contested concept, it flirts as an idea which identifies with “the absence of threats to acquired values and the absence of fear that such values will be attacked.”² Value, as used in this context relates to assets, norms, principles, traditions, practices, ideals and acquisition and extends to include everything that humans can be deprived of. With the formation and advancement of human societies, security, as used in this paper, is in the contexts of human security and national security.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in its 1994 Human Development Report, propounded the concept of Human security with emphasis on human rights, safety from violence, and sustainable development.³ The UNDP aggregates human security into seven dimensions namely: “economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security and political security.”⁴ Whereas, the state-centric national security emphasizes the safety of a state against threats such as war, territorial disintegration, espionage and terrorism. It means the security of a state including its people, its economy, and the institutions in it is regarded as a responsibility of government.⁵ There is the need to ensure national security using

diplomacy, economic influence and political authority. To this end, states have formed alliances based on geographical contiguity and shared values, or other conditions; either on bilateral or multilateral arrangements to ensure national security, regional, and global security.

Africa’s affair with regional development and security has gone beyond regional cooperation to the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in May 1963 to ensure the economic and political security of African States.⁶ Among others, the decision of the OAU not to intervene when a member state is in crises, which led to the loss of hundreds of lives in states like Rwanda and Burundi in the 1990s, called for the realignment of its objectives to form the African Union (AU) in 2001.⁷ There were, equally, sub-regional attempts at achieving cooperation which led to the formation of sub-regional blocs such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the East African Community (EAC). The AU places much emphasis on the development and role of sub-regional integration blocs in helping the AU in achieving its development and security goals. This study examines, comparatively, the challenges ECOWAS and SADC face in the performance of their security roles. Declining growth rates in West Africa, worsened by political instability propelled to collectively resolve the economic and political challenges throughs the establishment of the ECOWAS in 1975.⁸ The aim of ECOWAS was to promote intra-regional trade to boost growth in the region.⁹