The regional parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has commenced for the first time in the ancient city of Kano with the Deputy Senate President, Sen Barau Jibrin acting as the Speaker in his position as the 1st Deputy Speaker of the parliament.
Addressing newsmen yesterday after a technical session of the parliament, Senator Jibrin stated that there is not going to be restriction on what to be discussed during the sessions.
He described it as an opportunity to reach the grassroots and address the various challenges of the regions.
“Tomorrow (today), is going to be the session that will implore all the parliamentarians and of course the invited guest that will be here with us tomorrow.
“What we had today is the Bureau meeting between the leadership of the Parliament and the committee chairmen and other principal officers of the parliament,” he stated.
He further explained why representatives from Togo are not attending the meeting saying there were no elections in the country earlier, but now that elections have taken place, they are being expected.
“There were no elections in that country, but now that election took place, we are expecting them to be around within the period we are going to have this event and they will hopefully be sworn in on Thursday.
“In this meeting, the entire assembly has been brought here and in the assembly we don’t have any kind of restrictions. When we have a parliament, everything concerning the entire community will be discussed.
“When you have a parliament even if you have an agenda, you still have a room for everybody to bring forward whatever he feels should be discussed.
“So, it’s an open session for parliament and they don’t have restrictions. Everything about the society, about the economy, about ECOWAS, about the West African sub-region can be discussed. So, it’s an open ended kind of a scope in respect of what is going to be discussed,” the first deputy speaker said.
Barau explained further that it is the first time the ECOWAS parliament is taking place in Kano. “It’s in line with what we’ve said, we are here so that Kano will know ECOWAS parliament and ECOWAS parliament will know Kano.”
The parliament is composed of 115 seats with each member state having a guaranteed minimum of five seats while the remaining 40 seats will be shared to member states on the basis of population with Nigeria getting the largest share.
With the 15-member states of ECOWAS, even as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are not likely to attend, the speakership rotates among the member states with a four-year term each. The current parliament will seat for the next four days.
