ABSTRACT
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has no doubt played notable roles in promoting peace and security in the West African region, from its first intervention in the Liberian crisis to the present date. However, because ECOWAS was not originally equipped to deliver on regional security, mainly because of its weak resource base, it is therefore almost inevitable that Nigeria has had to shoulder many responsibilities in providing the leadership, as well as the human and material resources, needed for ECOWAS’s intervention in the many conflicts in the sub-region. Nigeria’s regional leadership is also defined and determined by its demography and possession of many critical elements of power, including a strong military, moral imperatives, and the political will to take on the challenge.
