Stresses and Strains of African Regional Economic Communities (RECs): A Case Study of Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) and Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS)

Regional integration effort in Africa dates back to the 1960s. It was a deliberate attempt by African leaders to raise the living conditions of African peoples. The felt need to rebase the economies and to respond to the growing post-independent pressures informed the creation of the defunct Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The dynamic nature of the international system; the fall of the Berlin Wall and the widespread democracy wave coupled with the growing issues that worsened the economic conditions of Western and Central African states have transformed the activities of both ECOWAS and ECCAS to include other non-economic spheres. However, the study observed that the institutional structures of ECOWAS and ECCAS are being impeded by the intergovernmental nature of these economic groupings. Also, the non-observance of protocols on trade relations, deteriorating infrastructural facilities, and continual manipulation of electoral processes in ECOWAS and ECCAS militate against the realization of their set objectives. All these accounts for the low success in their activities with ECOWAS relatively outperforming ECCAS in the areas of intra-regional trade, free movement of people and goods and services, designing and implementing protocols on good governance and democracy.The study recommends that member states work assiduously for the coordination and harmonization of their domestic economic policies so as to eliminate the bottlenecks of trade facilitation and geopolitical preferences should be prioritized over national preferences in order to allay the fears of unequal benefits and polarization which could cripple the regional integration agenda.