THE CHALLENGES OF THE ECOWAS REGION (1)

The challenges of nation-building and regional efforts within the ECOWAS region : the citizen's role in managing diversity at national level and regional integration

The ability to live with his fellow citizens, taking into account their differences and expressing a desire to live together is an important quality for a citizen. It involves a sociological understanding of the concept of nation.

When addressing the issue of nation-building in sub-Saharan Africa and, in particular, within the ECOWAS region, we always refer to the State in the form in which it was inherited from the colonial masters.

As a result of setting the territorial framework of modern-day States, their borders that were inherited from the colonial era, have in many cases divided the same « ethnic group », the same « people », the same « tribe », the same « nation » between several States...

Having been artificially created by foreign powers, African « Nations » of today are not derived from the ancient African civilization and do not reflect the exchange habits or the African way of life. This raises the issue of building a new basis of nationalism in the ECOWAS region, both within Member States and at regional level.

This is why new modes of operation must necessarily take into account the ethnic diversities as well as the sustainable and constant interactions needed for a common political and economic life, in almost all African States, particularly in the ECOWAS region.

There is the need to resolve the differences and contradictions between the way of thinking and cultural behaviour and harmonize them.