Since its inception, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has championed the promise of deepening integration across the subregion to stimulate shared economic prosperity. Yet, decades into this experiment, regional integration remains frustratingly subpar—even if, by some small mercy, it fares slightly better than what obtains across the wider African continent. Officially, ECOWAS citizens enjoy the right to move visa-free across member states. In practice, however, one is forced to wonder if a borderless West Africa is merely a paper-thin ideal that the regional apparatus lacks the capacity to operationalize.
Continue reading “ECOWAS Biometric Card: Retrogression, Deceit, or Plain Regional Dysfunction?”
Jilomes 