Sovereignty Reconsidered: The Legal Implications of Regional Integration for Nigerian Constitutional Supremacy

This dissertation theoretically examines the implications of Nigeria's participation in regional integration arrangements, particularly ECOWAS and the African Union, for the doctrine of constitutional supremacy under the 1999 Constitution. As regional integration deepens and ECOWAS increasingly claims authority to set standards on democracy, human rights, and economic governance binding on member states, fundamental questions arise about the constitutional limits of Nigeria's treaty-making power and the domestic legal status of ECOWAS protocols and AU decisions. Drawing on constitutional pluralism theory, integration theory, and comparative constitutional law, this research develops an original theoretical model of sovereignty reconsidering that maps the relationship between international legal obligations and constitutional supremacy in the Nigerian federal system. It fills a gap in both Nigerian constitutional law scholarship and international law literature by rigorously applying constitutional pluralism frameworks to an African integration context. The dissertation empirically examines the judicial treatment of ECOWAS and AU instruments by Nigerian courts, developing an original database of decisions and identifying patterns of constitutional resistance, accommodation, and deference. It also analyses the ECOWAS Court of Justice's jurisdiction over cases involving Nigeria, examining tensions between the Court's expanding human rights docket and Nigerian constitutional processes. Findings identify a significant theoretical gap in Nigeria's constitutional architecture for managing sovereignty pooling and propose a constitutional amendment framework. Original contributions include a sovereignty reconsidering model specific to African integration dynamics. Keywords: sovereignty, ECOWAS, constitutional supremacy, regional integration, Nigeria.