Skip to main content
ECOWAS Parliamentarians pledge Peace, Unwavering  co-existence across Region


As the fifth legislature of the Law making body of the  Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Parliament) opened in the prestigious Mahatma Gandhi International Conference Centre in Niamey under the chairmanship of Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou with lots of hope from the parliamentarians promising peaceful co existence, more integration in ECOWAS and breaking down all the invisible walls and barrier hindering free movement of people within the region.

Speaker of the Fifth Parliament, His Excellency Sidie Mohamed Tunis, in his inaugural address at an elaborate ceremony in the Niamey, the Capital of Niger, pledged to work diligently with the Authority of Heads of State to promote peace in the sub-region. Tunis is the Leader of Government Business representing the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) in the Sierra Leone House of Parliament.

In his words,” “Mindful of Article 2 of the ECOWAS Protocol relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Mmanagement, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security adopted in Lomé on 10th December 1999, we shall diligently work with the Authority of Heads of State and Government and Council of Ministers to ensure that our sub-region is safe, secure and prosperous,” He recounted that over the past two decades, ECOWAS, working with other global institutions, have done a lot to keep the peace of the region.

The new Speaker promised to assist the ECOWAS Commission in its integrated economic activities by providing the much-needed oversight in the areas of industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, youth empowerment and monetary and financial issues.

 Hon Tunis’ ascendancy marks the first time that Sierra Leone is occupying the position of Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament since its establishment in 2002. He is expected to serve until 2024, when Togo will be next in line to succeed Sierra Leone.

Honourable Awaji Abiante, MP from Nigeria says it is time to break all those invisible walls we created ourselves thereby giving room to a vibrant community while reacting to journalists question on what should be done now to see that we avoid trade wars and disputes among member countries.

 In his words, “We build these invisible barriers and we also have to break the barriers, and breaking the barriers has to be a win-win situation for all of us. In life there is always competition and is always what makes life meaningful. Competition has to be done within the ambit of the law, and law itself to me is a living thing. That is why law will grow, laws will be weaken over time, laws may be sick and need surgery, will need to amend those laws to suit present challenges.

Continuing, He said,  If there are legal barriers the parliament as a community will look at it and advise members states  on how best to tailor  such in order to achieve a more integration in west Africa ".

Speaking in the same vein Adjaratou Fadiga Traore , leader of the delegation of Cote D’ivoire said, “the more important thing in our community is for our to see how the ECOWAS Community can work together especially on the free movement between each country, on goods and service and how the connection within each country will work easily and nicely for the interest of ECOWAS”.  She hinted that the inaugural meeting was mainly to set up rules that will guide the operations of the fifth parliament for the next four years.

Magassy Muhamed , member of the Parliament from The Gambia said the new MPs sworn in will serve the community in the interest of the community for the next four years . 

According to him "We  hope that given this responsibility base on hope and trust bestowed upon us we will live up to expectation, because you know the expectation on the ECOWAS community is huge but we will try to do the best at the maximum of our capacity. Among the biggest challenges of the 4th Legislature is the issue of free movement of goods and service and single currency, the ECO currency, we will try our before the end of this term to see that those things are things of the past. So we have that complete courage”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reject List From Countries In breach Of 30 Percent Women Representation – Njai Tells ECOWAS Parliament

A Gambian representative to the ECOWAS Parliament, Honorable Fatoumatta Njai has challenged the Community Parliament to reject list of countries that are short of thirty percent women’s representation to the Parliament. Speaking in an exclusive interview at the official Opening Ceremony of the Fifth Legislature’s delocalized meeting of the Joint Committee on Social Affairs, Gender and Women Empowerment / Education, Science and Culture/Health, currently holding in Monrovia, Liberia on the theme, “ Empowerment of Women in the ECOWAS Region.” Njai said that some countries lack female representation in the Conference of Bureau, this according to her is disregarding the ECOWAS Rules of Procedure. “The Rules of Procedures mentioned that each member country should have a female representation at the Conference of Bureau. Each country has three members in the Conference of Bureau, so each country can at least have one female member which will be thirty percent representation. I thin...
Post a Comment
Read more
Benin Republic set to review Constitution on terms of Political Office. In a year when many countries on the continent and in West Africa are changing their constitutions to allow for incumbent presidents to run yet again, the Beninese National Assembly has approved a major constitutional reform to discuss the precision on the two terms of office of the President of the Republic among other issues. Detailing the political situation of Benin at the floor of the ECOWAS Parliament, the country report presented contained that the constitutions review was to address the current political situation of the country marking a new Republic following two unsuccessful attempts. The report stated that “Benin Republic has after the April 2019 Legislative elections experienced a tense atmosphere following the frustrating feelings from political group who were unable to participate in the legislative elections, due to the inability to meet the requirement on the law on the constit...
Post a Comment
Read more
Nigerian senator dies in UK A senator representing Cross River North, Rose Oko, is dead. The 63-year-old senator died on Monday night at a United Kingdom (UK) medical facility where she had been receiving treatment in the last one month. Oko was a member of the House of Representatives representing Yala/Ogoja Federal Constituency during the 7th National Assembly. Senator Oko was elected into office as the first female representative from her constituency in June 2011, and is currently in her second-term member of the upper chamber and served as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Trade and Investment. Her death comes about six weeks after Plateau senator, Ignatius Longjan, passed on and three months after Imo senator, Ben Uwajumogwu, died.
Post a Comment
Read more