Restructuring Nigeria's Urban-Industrial Sector within the West African Region: the Interplay of Crisis, Linkages and Popular Resistance.

Not only have the processes associated with crisis and restructuring transforms Nigeria's economy, polity and popular movements but they also promise to restructure the relationships among states within the region of West Africa. Here, economic, political relationships among states within the region of West Africa. Here, economic, political and strategic factors combine to offer an opportunity for Nigeria to deepen its hegemony through Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Possessing easily twice as large an economy and population base as the remainder of the states combined, Nigerian political elites have long made claims to leading the region and to dominating the common market proposed by the ECOWAS states. Historically, since the formation of ECOWAS under Nigerian sponsorship, the main obstacle to economic integration has been French political and economic interests and their client elites led by Houphoet-Boiny of the Ivory Coast, who is perhaps most widely known for building the largest Catholic cathedral in the world.