The ECOWAS Court and Civil Society Activists in Nigeria: An Anatomy and Analysis of a Robust Symbiosis

This article focuses on, and attempts to explain, two key aspects of the relationship between the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States or ECOWAS Court (on the one hand) and Nigerian civil society activists or CSAs (on the other hand). It begins with an analysis of the available evidence on the ways in which these CSAs have contributed – pivotally we argue – to the generation of this regional court’s impact on the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government in Nigeria (i.e. how CSAs have “catalysed” the court’s impact in this regard). It then analyses the available evidence regarding the impact that the court – through a combination of its design, orientation and decisions – has in turn had on the conception and dramatization of civil society activism in Nigeria (i.e. how CSAs harvest normative value from engaging with and deploying the court).