Regional Integration in West Africa: Exploring the Option of Leveraging Workforce Diversity in the Academia and University System

Chapter 1
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-1812-1.ch001
Ikeanyibe Okechukwu Marcellus
University of Nigeria, Nigeria
Ezeibe Chukwuebuka Christian
University of Nigeria, Nigeria
Regional Integration in West Africa:
Exploring the Option of Leveraging
Workforce Diversity in the Academia and University System
ABSTRACT
Since its establishment in 1975, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has faced the task of regional integration and cooperation in West Africa mainly through economic policies and treaties, and has substantially failed to achieve the desired goals. The sub-region is probably one of the most outstanding regional enclaves of human diversity in the world. However, ethnicity and other differences remain critical phenomena of politics and life in the sub-region. More often than not, these differences are exploited for negative purposes rather than leveraging them for the objectives of cooperation, integration, and development. The university system and its academic membership offer an opportunity for harnessing some of the diversity in the region for more fruitful integration and development. This chapter examines this expected role of academia and the university system towards leveraging human resource diversity for improved cooperation, integration, and development in West Africa.
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Regional Integration in West Africa
INTRODUCTION
The challenge of regional integration remains the primary objective of the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS) since its formation in 1975. The academia is one group that has the propensity to participate in policy making in most countries especially in Africa where a distinctive political class cannot be distinguished from other power centers. A good number of members of the academia find their way to appointments in governments; they act as resource persons at various levels and they produce a large chunk of personnel for both the government and the private sector. In

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