The thesis work tried to find the impact of ethnicity and nationalism on the development of the West African sub-region of Africa. It tried to find the reasons why the alternative civic nationalism of Pan-Africanism has failed in achieving its goals in uniting the African continent. It also tried to find the reasons why there were increases in the amount of ethnic conflicts within the region especially from 1990 when 'the wind of political changes' started blowing through the African continent. The thesis tried to correlate the level of ethnic diversity in each country of the region to the level and volatility of conflicts since 1989. It tried to give reasons for the increasing level of ethnic nationalism in the region over the same period of time.