The Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is facing a fierce storm that has lingered over a recruitment process that was alleged to be discriminatory against Nigerians in the regional legislature.
The controversy was triggered in August when Nigeria first deputy Speaker of the Parliament, Ahmed Idris Wase and Nigeria’s permanent representative at the ECOWAS Commission, Musa Nuhu, threatened to withdraw Nigeria from the regional bloc if urgent steps were not taken to address alleged marginalisation of Nigerians and other issues of nepotism in the recruitment process.
The Nigerian delegation had expressed dismay that the country makes enormous contributions to the development of the region’s institutions, stressing that the reported marginalisation of the Nigerian citizens was a slap on the integrity of the nation.
Following these complaints, the Speaker of the Parliament, Sidie Mohamed Tunis, set up an Ad hoc Committee headed by Nigerian Senator, Ali Ndume, which sat and entertained reports and complaints from varied groups within the Parliament.
However, the attempt by the committee to present its report at the plenary of the 2nd Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Lome, Togo recently, was rejected by lawmakers, who argued that it was against the rules of parliament for the recruitment exercise to have gone ahead after it was voted to be suspended in the last parliamentary session over allegations of favouritism.
The lawmakers alleged that the speaker constituted the review committee without recourse to parliament, arguing that the decision to set up the committee did not conform to the operating rules.
Leading the opposition against the committee was Nigerian lawmaker Hon. Awaji-Inombek Abiante, who moved a point of order, saying that the report of the Ad-hoc Committee as set up by the Bureau was given the mandate to work without recourse to its adoption by the Plenary, stressing that the move was illegal in its entirety.
This position was supported by another Nigerian Senator, Smart Adeyemi, who drew the Speaker’s attention to the adverse implication of the exercise.
According to Adeyemi, “when actions are taken that are not in conformity with the spirit and content of the documents that are supposed to guide us, I think Mr. Speaker let us accept that something was done wrong. We should be courageous to say that. If we go ahead to accept what is not properly done then the integrity of Parliament itself will be questioned. It means that as we are here, somebody can take a decision on our behalf without consulting us.”
Another lawmaker, Hon. Samson Ahi from Ghana argued that the formation of the Ad-hoc Committee was against the rules of parliament.
“I just want to find out from you Mr. Speaker, are you saying that with the consultation of the Bureau you constituted an Ad-hoc Committee and after that, you gave them a mandate to work without the approval of the entire house? Is that what you are saying?
“My understanding is that you can constitute the committee, alright, but it is subject to the approval by the entire members before they can legally work. If you and your Bureau can constitute a committee and they start working without recourse to members before you present your report, then I think there is something wrong with what you have done,” Ahi added.
Also, Hon. Abdullahi Kamba noted that the Bureau has no right or powers to take the decision and that they should have reverted back to Plenary to form an Ad-hoc committee.
Responding to the dismay of Parliamentarians, the Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Senator, Ali Ndume said “We have a mission but now I am embarrassed by the observation of abnormalities. “I was thinking that members will hear me out or hear the committee or even adopt if there is abnormality because I know the situations where normally if the head of the institution takes a decision that decision is not questioned, but is looked into with the view of ratifying it.
“Distinguished colleagues, if I will not present the report, I will not continue with illegality, you have to decide.”
Following this fierce opposition, Speaker Tunis moved that the Presentation of the report on recruitment process be suspended indefinitely but this infuriated Senator Edwin Snowe from Liberia, who walked out of the plenary in protest of the deferment.
Recall that Snowe had told reporters in Abuja that Nigerians were not marginalized in the recruitment process, adding that Nigerian lawmakers that raised concerns were “filibustering to gain the favour because of elections”.
Shortly after the session, at a press conference, the Speaker however, accused lawmakers in the parliament of mischief and a deliberate misrepresentation of facts in order to garner the sympathy of constituents.
He said that as the speaker, he was mandated by the law to set up such a committee in line with the Supplementary Act. He added that because the issue of recruitment initially came up from the Plenary, he decided that the chairman should also report to the plenary for information purposes only, because the law does not in any way require plenary to deal with recruitment issues.
“If you look at the recruitment issues, a reference is made to the head of the institution, which is me, I am the Speaker. I am wearing two hats, one as the Head of Institution and the other as Speaker. So, as Head of institutions I can take decisions with regards to that, but then, I can say because colleagues in the plenary actually raised the issue I needed to be very clear in my mind and to the public, that in fact the process was transparent and it was all done in line with the Law,” he said.
Speaker Tunis also dismissed the alleged marginalisation of Nigerians in the recruitment process, stressing that the Ndume report clearly exonerated the Parliament as the recruitment from G to P4 is transparent and in line with the Staff Regulations and the Supplementary Act.
This controversy, our correspondent gathered, may linger for a while as Nigerians in the Parliament are said to be poised to address the alleged injustice being perpetrated against Nigerians in the regional legislature.
