THE ECOWAS PARLIAMENT AS A TOOL FOR CONFLICT PREVENTION IN WEST AFRICA Nansata Saliah Yakubu A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the University of East Anglia School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies. Norwich, December 2015 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. Abstract This thesis seeks to examine the effectiveness of the ECOWAS Parliament in conflict prevention in West Africa. From a holistic perspective, it also discusses the emergence of regional parliaments and specifically analyses their contribution to conflict prevention. This thesis is the first to assess how the ECOWAS Parliament attempts to prevent conflict in West Africa and how effective this has been. It presents the argument that, bodies such as the ECOWAS-P which are mandated as the legislative organs in a region otherwise noted for protracted conflicts play a crucial role in preventing conflict. The study employed participant observation (specifically in the ECOWAS-P), case study methods, elite interviews, parliamentary and archival research. The thesis greatest contribution lie in undertaking an institutionalist approach to conflict prevention and drawing from public administration developed and applied a performance management tool to help assess how the ECOWAs-P has succeeded at this task. It finds that with no provision made for the parliament in the regional conflict prevention mechanism, it has had to employ normative initiatives to be relevant in conflict prevention. The research exposes that the lack of a universal suffrage mode of election of EMPs emphasises its democratic deficit. The thesis concludes that, the ECOWAS-P as a new institution provided under the revised treaty of 1993 is increasingly gaining more responsibility as a body for conflict prevention and prospectively the enhancement of its powers by the draft supplementary act passed in December 2014 will help it in making binding laws. i Declaration This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing, which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated in the text. It has not been previously submitted, in part or whole, to any university of institution for any degree, diploma, or other qualification. In accordance with the School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication guidelines, this thesis does not exceed 100,000 words, and it contains less than 150 figures. Signed: ______________________________________________________________ Date: _________________________________________________________________ Nansata Yakubu (PPL) ii Table of Contents ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................... I DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................................. II LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................................... VII LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................... VIII LIST OF APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................................IX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ..................................................................................................X ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................... XIII 1. CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 BACKGROUND .......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION ........................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 RESEARCH AIMS AND PROBLEM ................................................................................................................... 3 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................................... 5 1.5 CENTRAL ARGUMENT ................................................................................................................................ 7 1.6 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY ........................................................................................................................ 9 1.7 THESIS STRUCTURE .................................................................................................................................. 10 1.8 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................... 10 2. CHAPTER TWO: REGIONAL PARLIAMENTS AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN WEST AFRICA ............... 11 2.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 11 2.2 DEFINING PARLIAMENTS (FORMS, TYPES, CATEGORIES) ................................................................................. 12 2.2.1 National Parliaments ................................................................................................................ 12 2.2.2 Parliaments within the International System ........................................................................... 15 2.3 THE STRUCTURE FOR INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL PARLIAMENTS IN AFRICA .................................................. 23 2.3.1 Pan-African Parliament (PAP)................................................................................................... 24 2.3.2 East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) ................................................................................. 24 2.3.3 Parliament of UEMOA (P-UEMOA) ........................................................................................... 25 2.3.4 SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF) ..................................................................................... 25 2.3.5 The Inter-Parliamentary Union of IGAD Member States (IPU-IGAD) ........................................ 26 2.3.6 Network of Parliamentarians of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) 26 2.3.7 ECOWAS Parliament (ECOWAS-P) ............................................................................................ 27 2.4 FEATURES AND CHARACTERISTICS ............................................................................................................... 27 2.4.1 Legitimacy and Mandates for law-making ............................................................................... 28 2.4.2 Representation ......................................................................................................................... 30 2.4.3 Oversight and accountability .................................................................................................... 32 2.4.4 Conflict Prevention Frameworks ............................................................................................... 33 2.4.5 Subsidiarity and the Institutions ............................................................................................... 42 2.5 THE EU PARLIAMENT AS SUI GENERIS IN THE EMERGENCE OF SUPRANATIONAL LEGISLATIVE ORDER ......................... 44 2.6 DEFINING REGIONAL PARLIAMENTS IN CONTEXT TO THIS RESEARCH ................................................................... 48 2.7 PARLIAMENTS AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN WEST AFRICA ........................................................................... 50 2.7.1 Causes of Conflicts .................................................................................................................... 51 2.7.2 Major Actors on Conflict prevention ......................................................................................... 57 2.8 THE CASE OF THE ECOWAS PARLIAMENT: THE EXISTING KNOWLEDGE BASE ....................................................... 58 2.9 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................... 60 3. CHAPTER THREE: CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................... 62 3.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 62 3.2 DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONALISM ......................................................................................................... 62 3.2.1 Forms of New Institutionalism.................................................................................................. 69 3.3 DEFINING INSTITUTIONS ........................................................................................................................... 71 3.3.1 What are institutions? .............................................................................................................