Should Nigeria join the European Union’s Economic Partnership Agreement with the other ECOWAS states?

SUMMARY

This debate piece explores the possible consequences for Nigeria in the event that she signs up to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and the other Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member states. It argues that in a global firmament driven by economic conflict, the struggle for resources and realist economic nationalism – and with cut-throat competition as the norm in international political economy – it will amount to folly for the nation to embrace a partnership whose ramifications are at best murky. The author thus questions whether the EPA signed by ECOWAS with the EU will be favourable to the Nigerian people.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Jörg Wiegratz for his support; and Peter Lawrence’s invaluable intervention with subsequent edits was appreciated. I am grateful too to Clare Smedley for her support and interest.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 ECOWAS is composed of the following member states: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

2 See also the EPA as negotiated with CARIFORUM (Montoute 2016).

3 For an extensive discussion, see Krapohl and Van Huut (2020), especially section 2.3.

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Notes on contributors

Gabriel Ozekhome Igechi

Ozekhome Igechi (MSc in International Relations, University of Benin) is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Political Science, University of Benin, Nigeria. His research interests are in comparative politics and development studies. He is also a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Political Science, Edo State University Uzairue, Nigeria.