Abstract This research paper, as its major objective examined the effect of Nigeria’s border closure on economic cooperation and integration in West Africa, and how despite the ECOWAS protocol which encourages inter-state trade and cooperation, Nigeria had ignored it and employed the diktat of power politics to promote and protect its national interests against that of its neigbours. The methodology used is the qualitative approach which focused on content analysis of secondary data using a historical research design. The analysis in a major finding discovered that the border closure did more harm than good on the goals of economic cooperation and integration in West Africa and was unhelpful to the provisions of the ECOWAS Charter. The paper recommended that West African governments and non-state actors need to comply fully with the provisions of the ECOWAS Charter and network their institutions to improve multilateralism so as to boost investment and inclusive economic growth through economic cooperation and regional integration by de-emphasizing trade protectionism and the primacy of sovereign national interests for the collective good of the sub-region. Keywords: Border Closure, Economic Cooperation, Economic Integration, Realism.