by By Olanrewaju Ajiboye
Sometimes, an idea sounds so audacious that one is tempted to dismiss it before asking whether it contains a grain of wisdom.
I have lately found myself wondering: What if West Africa were one country?
Before anyone accuses me of political heresy, let me confess that I am not proposing that Nigeria should disappear, nor that Ghana should surrender its flag, Senegal its identity, or any other West African nation its sovereignty tomorrow morning.
I am asking a more fundamental question:
Why should geography that has been divided by colonial boundaries remain permanently divided in our imagination?
And perhaps an even more uncomfortable question follows:
If we cannot overcome the primordial sentiments of religion, ethnicity, regionalism and historical suspicion within Nigeria, how prepared are we for the larger unity of West Africa?
That is where the irony begins.
West Africa is already connected in ways that our passports sometimes pretend do not exist.
Our peoples have traded across these territories for centuries. Ethnic groups straddle modern national borders. Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, Akan, Wolof, Mandinka, Ewe, Mende, Temne, Tuareg and many others did not wait for colonial administrators to draw lines on maps before interacting with one another.
Yet today, a line drawn on a map can turn a neighbour into a foreigner.
A trader can speak almost the same language as the person across the border and still encounter immigration, customs and regulatory barriers.
A family can have relatives on both sides of a national boundary and yet live under entirely different political jurisdictions.
Perhaps the question, therefore, is not whether West Africans are different.
Of course we are different.
The question is whether difference must necessarily prevent cooperation.
A Region Larger Than Its Borders
West Africa, in its geographical sense, consists broadly of sixteen sovereign countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
They do not speak one language.
They do not practise one religion.
They do not share one political system.
They do not have identical histories.
And they certainly do not have identical national interests.
But neither does Europe.
The European experience teaches us something worth considering: countries do not have to surrender their identities before they can pursue common interests.
West Africa already possesses the beginnings of such an experiment through the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.
Established in 1975, ECOWAS was conceived as an instrument for economic integration, cooperation and collective self-sufficiency. Its objectives have included trade, transport, agriculture, energy, infrastructure, monetary cooperation and the free movement of people.
Its Vision 2050 is even more ambitious: a peaceful, prosperous and integrated community of peoples, founded on strong institutions, rule of law, sustainable development and inclusion.
So perhaps my seemingly radical question is not entirely radical after all.
Someone has already imagined it.
The difference is that I am asking whether we should imagine it even more boldly.
Imagine the Economic Power
Consider what West Africa possesses.
Nigeria has enormous human capital, energy resources, agriculture, industry and one of the region’s largest consumer markets.
Ghana has gold, cocoa, agriculture, industry and a strategic Atlantic position.
Côte d’Ivoire is a major agricultural and commercial powerhouse.
Guinea possesses enormous mineral wealth.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have significant mineral, agricultural and pastoral resources.
Senegal has fisheries, agriculture, mineral resources and energy potential.
Sierra Leone and Liberia possess considerable mineral and agricultural resources.
Benin and Togo occupy important commercial corridors.
Mauritania possesses substantial mineral and fisheries resources.
Cabo Verde has strategic Atlantic geography and tourism potential.
The Gambia has agriculture, tourism and an important position within Senegal’s geographical surroundings.
Put all of these resources together and the proposition becomes astonishing.
The region has land, minerals, oil and gas, gold, agricultural resources, fisheries, ports, youthful human capital, markets and enormous potential for industrialisation.
ECOWAS’s own long-term planning recognises the region’s considerable mineral, ecological and agricultural resources and its large youthful population.
And the economic potential is not merely theoretical.
ECOWAS reported in 2026 that regional real GDP growth was estimated at 4.3 percent in 2024, with projections of 4.8 percent for 2025 and 5.0 percent for 2026. It also identified infrastructure, energy, extractive industries, financial and digital services and regional value chains as important areas of opportunity.
Imagine if those resources were not merely exported individually by individual countries but were strategically integrated.
Imagine West African cocoa processed in West Africa.
Gold refined in West Africa.
Bauxite transformed into aluminium in West Africa.
Cotton converted into textiles in West Africa.
Crude oil converted into petrochemicals and finished products in West Africa.
Agricultural products processed, packaged and distributed across the region.
Imagine railway networks connecting the Atlantic ports to the Sahel.
Imagine electricity moving across national boundaries to where it is most needed.
Imagine West African technology companies operating across the region without treating every neighbouring country as a completely foreign market.
That is not merely romantic idealism.
That is economic strategy.
But Then Comes Nigeria
And this is where I become uncomfortable with my own proposition.
Before we dream of one West Africa, perhaps we should look carefully at Nigeria.
Nigeria is already a laboratory of diversity.
We have Muslims and Christians.
We have traditionalists and people of other faiths.
We have hundreds of ethnic groups and languages.
We have North and South.
We have East, West, Middle Belt and countless smaller identities.
We have communities that have lived together for generations and still occasionally behave as though the other person’s identity constitutes a threat.
We argue over who owns Nigeria.
We argue over who should rule Nigeria.
We argue over religion.
We argue over ethnicity.
We argue over region.
We argue over indigene and settler.
We argue over federal character.
We argue over resource allocation.
Sometimes we even behave as though competence itself should be interpreted through ethnic and religious lenses.
And then we turn around and speak enthusiastically about African unity.
There is something fundamentally contradictory about that.
How can we build a continent without first learning the discipline of coexistence?
Perhaps Diversity Is Not the Problem
But let us not make the mistake of blaming diversity.
Diversity is not necessarily Nigeria’s problem.
Nor is it West Africa’s problem.
Indeed, diversity can be an extraordinary strength.
The problem is what human beings do with diversity.
A society can convert diversity into competition, suspicion and conflict.
Or it can convert it into creativity, trade, knowledge and strength.
The difference is institutions, leadership, justice and political maturity.
If every election is interpreted as an ethnic contest, diversity becomes dangerous.
If every government appointment becomes a religious calculation, diversity becomes divisive.
If every economic opportunity is treated as the property of one region, diversity becomes destructive.
But if institutions guarantee fairness, competence and equal citizenship, diversity becomes an asset.
That may be the lesson Nigeria has yet to master completely.
And perhaps it is the lesson West Africa must master before attempting political federation.
One Country May Be Too Soon. One Market Is Not.
This is why I would not advocate the immediate creation of a single West African country.
That may be too ambitious.
Perhaps even unnecessary.
What we need first is one West African economic imagination.
Let our borders become progressively less obstructive to legitimate commerce.
Let our roads and railways connect us.
Let our electricity systems cooperate.
Let our universities recognise qualifications across borders.
Let our young people work, study and innovate across the region.
Let our businesses think beyond national markets.
Let our security agencies cooperate against terrorism, trafficking and organised crime.
Let our governments harmonise regulations.
Let us develop common standards.
Let us process our raw materials instead of perpetually exporting them.
Let us negotiate some international economic interests collectively.
Let us make West Africa a market before we begin discussing whether it should become a state.
In fact, ECOWAS’s own current agenda continues to emphasise economic integration, interconnectivity, peace and security, governance and sustainable development. In 2025, it launched regional initiatives specifically aimed at strengthening agricultural productivity, trade and regional economic integration.
The Obstacles Are Real
There is no point romanticising this.
West Africa has serious weaknesses.
Military coups and political instability have damaged trust.
Terrorism and insecurity threaten large parts of the region.
Economic inequalities between countries are enormous.
Infrastructure remains inadequate.
Corruption weakens institutions.
National interests often overpower regional interests.
And, perhaps most painfully, the region is still burdened by the psychology of colonial boundaries and external economic dependence.
Even ECOWAS itself has suffered a major setback with the withdrawal of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which formally left the organisation in January 2025.
That development should sober anyone advocating instant federation.
Unity cannot be imposed by decree.
It must be built through trust.
And trust cannot exist without justice.
Religion Should Not Frighten Us
There is another elephant in the room.
Religion.
West Africa is predominantly Muslim and Christian, with indigenous African traditions continuing to influence many societies.
But must religious diversity make political and economic integration impossible?
I think not.
If anything, Nigeria itself has already answered that question.
Muslims and Christians trade together.
They work together.
They build businesses together.
They marry one another.
They attend the same schools.
They live in the same cities.
They share markets.
They suffer the same inflation.
They complain about the same bad roads.
They queue for the same fuel.
They desire the same security.
The ordinary citizen often understands coexistence better than the political elite gives him credit for.
It is sometimes our politics that weaponises identities that ordinary people have learned to live with.
The West African Dream
Perhaps the future is not a West African country.
Perhaps the future is a West African community so integrated that the distinction between countries becomes less economically consequential without becoming politically irrelevant.
Perhaps Nigeria should remain Nigeria.
Ghana should remain Ghana.
Senegal should remain Senegal.
And yet a Ghanaian should feel at home trading in Nigeria.
A Nigerian should be able to study in Senegal.
A Senegalese entrepreneur should establish a business in Ghana.
A Togolese trader should move goods through Benin without unnecessary barriers.
A Nigerian engineer should work in Côte d’Ivoire.
A Sierra Leonean student should access opportunities in Ghana.
And the region should increasingly think of itself as one economic neighbourhood.
Eventually, politics may follow economics.
Or perhaps it will not.
Either way, the people will have gained.
The Question We Should Really Be Asking
So, can West Africa become one country?
Perhaps one day.
Perhaps never.
But that is not the most important question.
The more important question is:
Can West Africans learn to behave as though their shared interests matter as much as their differences?
Can we build institutions stronger than personalities?
Can we choose competence over ethnicity?
Can we choose citizenship over religious suspicion?
Can we choose justice over vengeance?
Can we choose economic cooperation over petty nationalism?
Can we see our neighbour’s prosperity as an opportunity rather than a threat?
And can Nigeria, the giant of West Africa, demonstrate that diversity does not have to produce disunity?
Perhaps that is where our journey must begin.
Because before we draw a new map of West Africa, we must redraw the map in our minds.
The borders on the ground may have been drawn by colonial administrators.
But the borders in our hearts are ours.
And if we cannot remove those, no political federation, common currency, regional parliament or economic union will save us.
West Africa does not necessarily need to become one country.
But it desperately needs to become one community of shared interests, shared prosperity and shared responsibility.
And perhaps, someday, when our children look at the map of Africa, they may wonder why we ever thought that our differences were greater than our common destiny.
That, to me, is the West African dream worth discussing.
