China's Golden 'Palace Diplomacy' in West Africa

In 2018, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China to fund the building of a new headquarters for the West African bloc with a grant of $31.6 million. Initial talks to build the headquarters began in 2012 but the commitment was made official six years later with the MoU. The new permanent headquarters will be located along the Airport Road in Lugbe, Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city. It is expected to consolidate the ECOWAS Secretariat, the Community Court of Justice and the ECOWAS Parliament, which were originally located in separate buildings in Abuja; the Secretariat in Asokoro and the Court of Justice and Parliament in Central District. Though different, these two districts are within close range—about five kilometres or only 20 minutes apart by road.

According to the bloc, this separation had contributed to coordination issues among departments, impeding productivity and efficiency—hence the necessity to unite them into a single architecture. Official construction of the building began in November 2022 and has been dubbed the ‘Eye of West Africa’ after the late former Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, first used the descriptor during a foundation-laying event for the headquarters with other African heads of state. Although initially reported by most media outlets as being expected to be completed in February 2025, an ECOWAS official noted in a remote interview with The Republic that it would be delayed until November 2025 due to the impacts of Israel’s genocide against Palestine, including disruptions to imported materials and longer shipping routes. Regardless, the project serves as a fitting gift to mark the bloc’s 50th anniversary earlier in May. The new permanent ECOWAS headquarters will be the first African regional economic community (REC) facility funded by Beijing, but the most recent in a string of foreign government facilities built and funded by China in Africa as far back as 1966.