Regional Integration in West Africa

2012 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ikeanyibe Okechukwu Marcellus ◽  
Ezeibe Chukwuebuka Christian
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
West African ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
University System ◽  
The World ◽  
The University ◽  
Resource Diversity

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.

Regional integration from “below” in West Africa: A study of transboundary town-twinning of Idiroko (Nigeria) and Igolo (Benin)

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olukayode A. Faleye
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
West African ◽  
African Culture ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
New Development ◽  
Government Records

[Full article is in English]English: This article examines the phenomenon of town-twinning between Idiroko (Nigeria) and Igolo (Benin). While transboundary town twinning is the integration of settlements across distinct state territories—an emerging pattern of borderland urban evolution—this seems to be a new impact of the colonially determined borders in West Africa. Despite the challenges posed by the partition of West African culture areas, town twinning has more recently turned into an established form of regional integration based on a “bottom-up” rather than “top-down” approach in the region. Using qualitative methodology based on descriptive analysis of oral interviews, government records, geographical data, as well as diverse literature, this paper uncovers the role of “borderlanders” in negotiating borders through increased non-state transnational sociospatial cooperation and networking. Apart from altering the traditional state-centric territoriality, this new development may entail broader economic and socio-political implications in the region.Spanish: Este artículo examina el hermanamiento de las ciudades de Idiroko (Nigeria) e Igolo (Benin). Mientras que el hermanamiento de ciudades transfronterizas es la integración de asentamientos más allá de los distintos territorios estatales—un patrón emergente en la evolución urbana de las regiones fronterizas—esto parece ser un nuevo impacto en las fronteras colonizadas en África Occidental. A pesar de los retos de la división cultural en África Occidental, el hermanamiento de ciudades se ha convertido recientemente en una forma de integración regional con enfoque “de abajo hacia arriba” más que “de arriba hacia abajo.” Empleando una metodología cualitativa basada en un análisis de entrevistas orales, archivos gubernamentales, datos geográfi cos y una literatura diversa, este artículo revela el rol de las regiones fronterizas en negociaciones transfronterizas de cooperación y de formación de redes socio-espaciales no estatales. Además de alterar la territorialidad tradicional centrada en el estado, este nuevo desarrollo puede generar implicaciones económicas y socio-políticas más amplias en la región.French: Cet article examine le phénomène des villes jumelles d’Idiroko (Nigéria) et d’Igloo (Bénin). Alors que les villes jumelles transfrontalières sont le résultat de l’intégration d’implantations au-delà de territoires étatiques distincts -un schéma émergeant d’évolution urbaine en région frontalière-, ce cas semble être un nouvel impact des frontières déterminées par la colonisation en Afrique de l’Est. Malgré les défi s posés par la partition des aires culturelles de l’Afrique de l’Est, les villes jumelles se sont converties plus récemment en une forme établie d’intégration régionale fondée sur une approche régionale de bas en haut plutôt que de haut en bas. À partir de l’’usage d’une méthodologie qualitative basée sur une analyse descriptive d’entretiens, d’archives gouvernementales, de données géographiques ainsi que sur une littérature diverse, cet article met à jour le rôle des régions frontalières dans la négociation des frontières à travers la coopération et la formation de réseaux socio-spatiaux trans nationaux non étatiques. En plus de modifier la territorialité traditionnelle centrée sur l’État, ce fait nouveau peut entraîner des implications économiques et socio-politiques plus larges dans la région.

Nigeria and Conflict Resolution in the Sub-regional West Africa: The Quest for a Regional Hegemon?

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-53
Author(s):  
Victor Ojakorotu ◽  
Adewole Ayodeji Adeleke
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
West African ◽  
The World ◽  
Monitoring Group ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions ◽  
The Military

The role of Nigeria in conflict resolution and peacekeeping efforts in Africa and other parts of the world cannot be overemphasised. The country has contributed more than 200,000 soldiers to peacekeeping missions around the world since independence. These efforts have earned it much respect in the council of nations and the recognition as being the ‘giant of Africa’. Also, Nigeria has been regarded as a ‘regional hegemon’ by some scholars because of its population size, comparatively large economic and human resources, and a bigger and well-equipped armed forces, equal in numerical strength to the armed forces of all the other countries in West Africa combined. The country played a very important role at spearheading the formation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Ceasefire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in the 1990s. It has contributed the highest fund in defraying the costs of ECOMOG deployment to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali. This study analyses the hegemonic tendencies of Nigeria in the sub-region of West Africa. It argues that although the country is the most populous and the biggest economy in the sub-region but it does not possess the military, economic and the international support to function as a hegemonic power in West Africa.

scholarly journals Generazione Erasmus?

2008 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
University System ◽  
Inner Experiences ◽  
Community Initiatives ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Erasmus Programme ◽  
The University

The Erasmus programme is one of the outstanding Community initiatives, even if it is spoken little of outside the world of the university. This book, one of the first devoted to the subject, analyses the virtuous effects that the programme has had on the university system, the geography of student flows, and the motivations and propositions of those who have taken part in it. The reports of the students indicate the Erasmus as a 'bubble of experience' and the book explores these inner experiences through a sociological approach, illustrating the vast potential in terms of the moulding of a 'homo novus Europaeus'. The data gathered prompt a reflection on the redefinition of the role of the student when he or she directly experiences the comparison with a context different and distant from that of origin, to which he or she is nevertheless destined to return. From this perspective, the Erasmus experience assumes the significance of a sort of temporary upheaval of status open to forms of 'experimentation of identity'.

From Trinidad and Tobago to the World: Determining the role of Calypso in a new Era

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 7-11
Author(s):  
Malek Abdel-Shehid
Keyword(s):  
Trinidad And Tobago ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
West African ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
New Era ◽  
Transatlantic Slave Trade ◽  
Cultural Sovereignty ◽  
Caribbean Culture ◽  
Musical Cultures

Calypso is a popular Caribbean musical genre that originated in the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. The genre was developed primarily by enslaved West Africans brought to the region via the transatlantic slave trade during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although West-African Kaiso music was a major influence, the genre has also been shaped by other African genres, and by Indian, British, French, and Spanish musical cultures. Emerging in the early twentieth century, Calypso became a tool of resistance by Afro-Caribbean working-class Trinbagonians. Calypso flourished in Trinidad due to a combination of factors—namely, the migration of Afro-Caribbean people from across the region in search of upward social mobility. These people sought to expose the injustices perpetrated by a foreign European and a domestic elite against labourers in industries such as petroleum extraction. The genre is heavily anti-colonial, anti-imperial, and anti-elitist, and it advocated for regional integration. Although this did not occur immediately, Calypsonians sought to establish unity across the region regardless of race, nationality, and class through their songwriting and performing. Today, Calypso remains a unifying force and an important part of Caribbean culture. Considering Calypso's history and purpose, as well as its ever-changing creators and audiences, this essay will demonstrate that the goal of regional integration is not possible without cultural sovereignty.

The Indian University in a Comparative Perspective

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.R. Madhava Menon
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Knowledge Society ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
University System ◽  
Current State ◽  
The World ◽  
The University

The purpose of looking at Indian universities in a comparative perspective is obviously to locate it among higher education institutions across the world and to identify its strengths and weaknesses in the advancement of learning and research. In doing so, one can discern the directions for reform in order to put the university system in a competitive advantage for an emerging knowledge society. This chapter looks at the current state of universities in India and highlights the initiatives under way for change and proposes required policy changes.

COVID-19: implications for NHS Staff

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 193-197
Author(s):  
Alan Glasper
Keyword(s):  
World Health ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Emeritus Professor ◽  
The World ◽  
Clinical Environments ◽  
Public Health Institutions ◽  
Health Institutions ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The University

In light of the emergence in China of COVID-19, the novel corona virus, emeritus professor Alan Glasper, from the University of Southampton discusses the role of the World Health Organization and other public health institutions in responding to potential new global pandemics and deliberates on the role of NHS staff in coping with infectious disease in clinical environments.

scholarly journals Promoting research to improve maternal, neonatal, infant and adolescent health in West Africa: the role of the West African Health Organisation

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Issiaka Sombie ◽  
Aissa Bouwayé ◽  
Yves Mongbo ◽  
Namoudou Keita ◽  
Virgil Lokossou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Adolescent Health ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
African Health

Teaching in the Nigerian University System

1977 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-31
Author(s):  
Paul A. Beckett
Keyword(s):  
University System ◽  
The World ◽  
Nigerian Government ◽  
Nigerian University ◽  
The University

Fueled by oil money and the powerful belief of its people in the transforming power of education, the Nigerian university system may be expanding proportionately faster than any major system in the world. Consisting of only five universities (Ibadan, Nsukka, Ife, Lagos, and Ahmadu Bello in Zaria) during most of the first decade of independence, the 1970s have seen successive additions until the current projected number of universities is thirteen (spread among the twelve states that existed until 1976). The Nigerian government has indicated that it will try to hold the line at thirteen and not go through another round of new university creation so that each of the present nineteen states would have its own university. But even granting the leaders’ success in this resolve, the present commitments themselves mean that the university system will double in size between 1977 and the first years of the 1980s.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document