Speaker of the Economic Community of West African States, (ECOWAS) Parliament, Rt. Hon. Dr Mohamed Sidie Tunis said the Community Parliament under his watch examined and issued opinions on 83 draft Community Acts and adoption of 93 Resolutions of Parliament.
He stated this at the opening of a three day seminar organised by the Parliament on the “Illegal mining and its implications in the ECOWAS Region.”
He said “the fifth legislature has delivered on its commitments, manifested by the examination and issuance of opinions on 83 draft Community Acts and adoption of 93 Resolutions of Parliament.
“Despite the extremely difficult context the region finds itself, the Parliament was able to hold almost all its statutory meetings, namely seven ordinary and eight extra-ordinary sessions including the strengthening of the ECOWAS Female Parliamentarians Association (ECOFEPA) and the establishment of regional network of legislative Journalists (AWALCO) as the press corps of the Parliament.”
It would be recalled that during his inaugural address in Niamey, on 9th March 2020, the Speaker had reeled out a l0-point strategic plan for the fifth legislature, mainly the promotion of intra-Community relations; maintenance of peace; election observation; improving transparency and accountability in the Community’s budgeting process for programmes and the establishment of Community standards and the formulation of policies.
Tunis also pledged to bring Parliament closer to the people; instill accountability and transparency in the operations of the Parliament; initiate reflection on the election of the parliamentarians by direct universal suffrage: institute administrative reforms for strengthening the human resource capacity of the Parliament and address issues of concern to the Community.
The Speaker further thump-up the Parliament under his leadership, saying, the period was marked by ‘progressive and undisputed conduct of its duties in line with the pledge made during the legislature’s inauguration in 2020, in Niamey.
The ECOWAS Parliament has a total of 115 seats and fourteen Standing Committees. Each Member State is guaranteed a minimum of allotted five seats. The remaining forty seats are distributed in proportion to the population of each country. Consequently, Nigeria has a total of 35 seats followed by Ghana with eight seats. Côte d’Ivoire is allotted seven seats, whereas Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Senegal have six seats respectively.
The remaining ECOWAS Member States, namely Benin, Cabo Verde, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo, have allotted to each of them, five seats.
