Argument for Improved Security in Local Governments Within the Economic Community of West African States

Introduction

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen countries that was created in 1975. These countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’ Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Togo (See Figure 1.). ECOWAS’ fundamental Principles are a vital component of its survival. Principles such as equality and interdependence of its Member States, solidarity and collective self-reliance, non-aggression between the Member States, maintenance of regional peace, and accountability, economic and social justice are the driving force behind ECOWAS’ success.

The main purpose of creating ECOWAS was to create a region where West African citizens could have access to the resources from the member countries without difficulties for all Member States to grow individually and collectively. It is important to note that both the countries and their population would benefit from this vision. However, there is a major setback associated with such freedom as the knowledge of cyber fraud gets easily spread among these fifteen countries.

Figure 1.

ECOWAS Region

Reprinted from the Member States, by ECOWAS, n.d., retrieved from https://www.ecowas.int/member-states/.

Africa’S Giant

Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and largest economy. Nigeria is a country in the western part of Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, between Benin and Cameroon (See Figure 1.). It has an estimated population of over 190 million people, with the largest black population in the world. It is one of the major oil-producing counties in the world and has a lot of natural resources. The land area of Nigeria is approximately 900,000 square kilometers and has had Abuja as its capital since 1991. Nigeria has more than 250 ethnic groups, with Hausa and the Fulani tribes making up 29% of the population. The Yoruba tribes have about 21%, Igbo or Ibo has 18%, Ijaw has a little over 10%, Kanuri has over 4%, Ibibio has about 3.5%, and the Tiv with about 2.5%. The major religions in Nigeria are Christianity and Islam. The Northern part of Nigeria is majority Muslim while the southern part of Nigeria is made of mostly Christians and Muslims. In the north of Nigeria, where the population is mostly Muslims, there is a lot of unrest today due to the presence of a group called Boko Haram.

Nigeria is a significant maker of oil and is an individual from the Organization of Petroleum Producing Countries (OPEC). Nigeria is one of the main oil and gas makers in Africa and is the seventh most elevated maker of oil and gas on the planet (Taiwo, 2010). The oil areas represent over 70% of government income and over 90% of fares. Nigeria has a tremendous store of oil and gas inside the nation. The abuse of the stores of oil and gas has improved the monetary status of the nation anyway Nigeria's economy is reliant on oil and gas, which is the essential wellspring of subsidizing for the economy. A large portion of Nigeria's oil is in the Niger Delta district of the nation. The investigation of the oil in Nigeria is completed on a joint endeavor among Nigeria and some unfamiliar worldwide associations, for example, Shell, Exxon-Mobil, Agip, Chevron, Total, Texaco, among others. There are major rustic metropolitan and provincial pressures because of normal asset enrichments, inconsistent admittance to political forces, helpless government administrations to different gatherings, and lopsided portions of public riches (AfDB, OECD, UNDP, and ECA, 2013).