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Tag: ECOWAS Parliament

  • Tinubu inaugurates ECOWAS Parliament

    Tinubu inaugurates ECOWAS Parliament

    • Barau is acting Speaker

    President Bola Tinubu yesterday inaugurated the sixth Legislature of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament.

    The President performed the inauguration as the incumbent Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government.

    The inauguration, which took place at the International Conference Centre in Abuja, was also attended by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, representatives of parliamentarians of other ECOWAS countries, diplomats and top government officials, among others.

    Barau and Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (PDP, Kogi Central) were among the region’s legislators who took their oaths of office as members of the sixth Legislature of the ECOWAS parliament during the opening session.

    Barau, who was the leader of the Nigerian delegation to the ECOWAS Parliament, was elected acting Speaker.

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    He was first nominated the First Deputy Speaker of the Parliament by House of Representatives members Awaji-Inombek D. Abiante (Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro Constituency of Rivers State) and seconded by Senator Ireti Kingibe (FCT).

    During the session, Akpabio transmitted the list of the Nigerian delegation to the President of the ECOWAS Commission and the Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament.

    Also, Barau is the leader of the Nigerian delegation to the Sixth ECOWAS Parliament.

    The ECOWAS Parliament is one of the institutions of the sub-regional body established by the ECOWAS Treaty of May 28, 1975 in Lagos, Nigeria.

    The treaty was revised in July 1993 and signed in Abidjan and it is what is currently in use.

    The ECOWAS Parliament comprises 115 members drawn from the 15 member-states, including Nigeria.

  • Freetown mudslide a monumental regional disaster, says Ekweremadu

    Freetown mudslide a monumental regional disaster, says Ekweremadu

    …Calls for immediate regional action

     

    Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Wednesday described as a monumental regional disaster, the floods and mudslide that killed hundreds of persons in the outskirts of Freetown, the Sierra Leone capital.

    Ekweremadu is the immediate past Speaker of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS Parliament,

    In a statement by his Special Adviser, (Media) Ekweremadu called for immediate regional and international action to boost rescue efforts and alleviate the sufferings of the victims.

    He said: “The personal account by the Vice President of Sierra Leone, His Excellency, Victor Foh, confirming the death of at least 300 persons as a result of the tragic mudslide is heartbreaking.

    “It is a natural disaster of monumental proportions, not only for Sierra Leoneans, but also the entire ECOWAS family. My heart goes out to the people and government of Sierra Leone as well as the serving and former members of the Sierra Leonean National Delegation to the Community Parliament.

    “This calls for immediate intervention by the ECOWAS and the international community to boost rescue efforts and provide robust humanitarian support to both the injured and the displaced”.

    While praying for the peaceful repose of the souls of the deceased, the former regional Speaker also prayed God to grant the sub-region, especially the affected families and the people of Sierra Leone the fortitude to bear the irreversible loss.

  • ECOWAS parliament advocate legislative training for lawmakers

    The ECOWAS Parliament Monday called for the inclusion of legislative practices and procedure in African universities’ curricula.

    This, it said, would help improve the quality of law making and democratic process in the sub-region.

    Its Secretary General, Dr Nelson Magbagbeola, said the legislative processes of the West African states need to be harmonised as the region works towards economic integration.

    He spoke in Lagos during a workshop on comparative parliamentary practice and procedure for parliamentary staff of ECOWAS member states, drawn from three linguistic groups, namely Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone.

    It was organised by the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NLS), an organ of the National Assembly, in collaboration with ECOWAS Parliament and the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF). 

    Magbagbeola said the quality of legislative staff and law making need to be improved on through specialised training so as to equip African parliaments to better discharge their oversight functions. 

    “We want to encourage the universities to have curriculum on legislative practices and procedure. West African is on a democratic process. It’s important that we are ready to sustain the democratic process.

    “Most of the officials in the executive arm of government are well trained. But there is asymmetric knowledge between officials of the legislature and the executive. It’s not easy to carry out oversight functions on people who know more than you do.

    “That is why we need to enhance the capacity of the parliamentary staff and the members of parliament. If a parliamentarian is not versed in financial reporting, how will he ask questions when on oversight duties at ministries, departments and agencies? So we want to bridge that gap with this sort of training,” he said.

    Former Speaker, National Assembly of Burkina Faso, Prof Melegue Traore, who was one of the resource persons, said the quality of legislation needs to improve if African parliaments must better control public policies. 

    “We also need parliamentary diplomacy because West Africa is a field of crisis now. African parliaments have a big role to play in the process of settling the various crises bedeviling the sub-region.

    “We need strong governments, but we also need strong parliaments,” he said.

    Director of Research at the National Institute for Legislative Studies, Drt Adeyemi Fajingbesi, said African parliaments have not development as much as the executive due to military interventions.

    He said legislative staff are key to the legislative process, hence the need to improve their skills.

    “I’ve had the opportunity of interacting with quite a lot of legislative staff in West Africa and my observation is that we don’t have the kind of legislative staff that we desire for qualify legislative functions. 

    “As such, there’s need for them to be trained and retrained. Governance is dynamic. So, to keep up with the changes, the legislature needs to continue adapting through continuous capacity building,” he said.

  • Saraki seeks more powers for ECOWAS parliament

    Saraki seeks more powers for ECOWAS parliament

    Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has called for more powers for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, if the aim of the sub-region to achieve full integration is to be realized.

    Saraki made the call in his speech at the opening of the First Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja on Monday through a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Senate President, Sanni Onogu, in Abuja.

    According to the statement, the Senate President said that though the ECOWAS parliament is evolving in the right direction, it was his fervent hope that members of the sub region will begin to invest in it, more responsibility and opportunity as a sure path to creating the right structure for closer integration of the sub-region.

    Saraki said: “The ECOWAS sub-region has come a long way in pursuit of integration and development. However, what is clear today is that we need to do more. Other regional bodies, including those who we inspired have moved faster towards integration than we have.

    “Sadly, this has been due to our inability to add to the institutional building blocks and muster the courage to reorder our structures for the vision of a virile and integrated ECOWAS.

    “The ECOWAS Parliament remains a critical place to start. We must as a necessity, give the parliament greater authorization and capacity to duly legislate in common areas and provide oversight on certain issues of common interest and interdependency.

    “For as long as we are unable to, or fail to remit to this parliament more power, the dreams for greater integration will remain a myth. This singular reason may be responsible for the lack of adequate cohesion in the fight against terrorism, cross border crimes and the implementation of agreed trade agreements and protocols.

    “With greater oversight and authorization, it is possible that we would see greater inroads made in the areas of the enforcement of ECOWAS regional trade agreements and instruments especially the Common External Tariff Order,” he said.

    He said that the ECOWAS Parliament has shown itself as a primer of integration and a key instrument for stability in the sub region having utilised ‘its instruments to provide opinions on various issues such as infrastructural development, migration, public health and investment referred to it by other Community Institutions, especially the ECOWAS Commission; with the aim to positively impact on the standards of living of West African citizens.’

    He noted that there has been a significant increase in the level of cross boarder businesses in the sub-region – with investment criss-crossing regional boundaries by nationals of the ECOWAS region – as a result of the implementation of the free movement of goods and persons across the region.

    While saying that the policy on free movement of goods and persons is beginning to bear significant fruits across the length and breath of the region, he lamented that “very little is being done to provide the right legal and institutional inter-ECOWAS-states frameworks that would guarantee and insulate these enterprising citizens from discriminatory practices, anti competition, human rights abuse and the possibility of host bias in the treatment of conflicts arising from their cross-border enterprise.

    “This further underscores the need for us to act together to encourage this free flow of capital as a means to deepen our integration and avoid the possibility of recoiling our gains by enabling the parliament have more powers to make laws and fill in the legislative gaps where necessary to aid our regional development agenda,” he said.

    He however reiterated the support and assistance of the nation’s National Assembly to the work of the ECOWAS parliament as it strives to provide the necessary legislative leadership for greater development of the ECOWAS region.

    While the region is proud that the Parliament has done creditably well in fulfilling its mandate according to the Senate President, he noted that “in recent times, we have seen the scourge of terrorism cut through and expose the weaknesses of our regional integration efforts as our various governments scrambled to find a foothold for proper coordination of intelligence, resource mobilization and rapid response to terror threats.

    “This weakness we also witnessed in the coordination of responses to the spread of Ebola virus in 2015. These are glaring cases in which we were severely examined and our imperfect union exposed.

    “While these may have happened, we have also shown resilience and our leaders shown ingenuity in coming up with measures that have helped us contain these scourges.

    “However, they remain stark reminders of the challenges ahead and the need for us to revisit our protocols and treaties in order to create a more virile union that can help us deal with the challenges of the 21st century.

    “As we speak, the average citizen of the ECOWAS is yet to feel meaningfully the impact of the ECOWAS union beyond free movement of persons and goods. This is another reason I believe the enhancement of the ECOWAS Parliament remit merits deliberation,” he said.

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  • Lasun, others elected as ECOWAS Parliament deputy speakers

    Lasun, others elected as ECOWAS Parliament deputy speakers

    The ECOWAS Parliament on Friday elected its deputy speakers from Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia and Cape Verde in line with the rules of procedures of the parliament.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the election was held during the inaugural session of the of the fourth legislature of the parliament in Abuja.

    The election followed the end of the four-year mandate of the third legislature which ended in August 2015 in line with the provisions of the Supplementary Protocol relating to the Parliament.

    The four deputy speakers are: Yusuf Lasun from Nigeria, First Deputy Speaker; Aminata Toungare from Cote d’Ivoire, Second Deputy Speaker.

    Others are Jefferson Kanmoh from Liberia third Deputy Speaker while Orlando Pereira Dias from Cape Verde emerged as the Fourth Deputy Speaker.

    Addressing newsmen, Lasun promised to bring his wealth of experience in Nigeria’s National Assembly into the ECOWAS Parliament.

    “The Nigerian National Assembly is well developed and from my experience, I have come to the conclusion that the Nigerian Parliament is one of the most developed in the world.

    “Anyone going from the Nigerian parliament to an international parliament has a lot of impact to make; we know the rules and we know what the parliament seeks to achieve in democracy.

    “My own area of specialisation is to make sure that whatever benefits we can get for this parliament is taken back to the Nigerian parliament and impact positively on Nigeria as a country,” he said.

    Lasun assured that the new legislature would ensure that the Supplementary Draft Act of the enhancement of powers of the parliament was signed into law.

    “As at today the parliament of ECOWAS does not have legislative powers yet and when that exists, it becomes difficult to actually impact positively on the community.

    “What we are going to do in the next four years is to make sure that this parliament has legislative powers.

    “This is so that we can properly oversight our region because one of the most important functions of a parliament is the oversight functions.”

    NAN reports that the speaker of the parliament and the four deputy speakers make up the Bureau of Parliament, responsible for overseeing the activities of parliament.

    The ECOWAS Parliament is currently a non-legislative assembly which issues advisory opinion to the Authority of Heads of State and Government and the Council of Ministers.

    The parliament has 115 seats and draws its membership from the national assemblies of member states.

    Each member state has a minimum of five seats and the remaining seats are allocated to Member States on the basis of their population.

    Nigeria has the highest number of seats with 35 seats, followed by Ghana with eight seats.

    Cote d’Ivoire has seven seats, while Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Senegal have six seats each.

    Meanwhile, Benin, Cape Verde, the Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo maintain the allotted minimum number of five seats each.

    The first legislature of the parliament was inaugurated in November 2000 for a five-year tenure which ended in November 2005.

    Following the restructuring carried out in 2006, the tenure of members of the parliament was reduced from five years to four years.