Abstract
The drive towards regional integration has been on for a while in West Africa. The ECOWAS, as a sub-regional economic grouping, has championed this course through various policies introduced. Such policies include the introduction of the ECOWAS free movement protocol and the ECOWAS passport, all geared towards creating " Community Citizenship " and facilitating trade and mobility between member states, which will, in turn, fast-track integration that will culminate into widespread development in West Africa. To implement these policies, borderlands and subnational governments are crucial actors involved in the process. Sufficient literature abounds on African borders and borderlands and how different state and non-state actors view these spaces vis-à-vis traditional and human security and mobility. However, what is missing in the literature is the position of subnational governments in the borderlands towards regional integration. It, therefore, becomes imperative to delve into the role/s of subnational governments vis-à-vis the quest for integration in the ECOWAS sub-region and how far they have fulfilled this mandate through paradiplomatic measures.