313 BI-LINGUALISM, INTEGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE WEST AFRICAN SUB-REGION Nurudeen Alliyu and Adebayo,T. Salami Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria. ABSTRACT Integration is a phenomenon that has gained ground among development experts, academics, professionals and the likes the world over including the West Africa Sub-region. The phenomenon is anchored on the need for development based on the diverse potentials of all countries in the region. The paper argues that the various components of the region are naturally endowed along their life zones and that it has participated in the transformation of its economy in the past through its capacity and ability to gain control over its environment. Along the path there was a dislocation and disconnect which brought about poverty and other features of underdevelopment. To re-enact development for the region, the paper posits that knowledge, growth, capacity and so on are parts of the components of development that are required in the process of deliberate transformation of a society by a conscious people. In effect, development and how it is attained is about ‘people’. Finally, the paper concludes that the removal of the dislocation and disconnect between West African Countries based on Zikist philosophy of the New Africa is fundamental to the desire and attainment of development. However, the driving factor of the entire process is the language that reflects the culture and totality of the way of life of West Africans. For the development to be sustained beyond the present generation therefore, the people must connect to the next generation through the instrumentality of language as a preservative, the culture as a reservoir of ways of life that shapes the direction or path of desired development over time. Keywords: Language, Knowledge, Culture, Development, Integration. Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa (Volume 17, No.8, 2015) ISSN: 1520-5509 Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Clarion, Pennsylvania