The acting Speaker of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS Parliament, Senator Barau Jibril has called on the regional Parliamentarians to expressed their solidarity with the Togolese delegation that were absent at the inaugural session due to some internal political issues.
The Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate who disclosed this at the closing ceremony of the inaugural session in Abuja said due to the virtue of the ECOWAS Parliament’s Supplementary Act, Togo was to assume the Speakership of the 6th Legislature.
“As you all are aware, an integral part of the events that should have Characterized the inaugural session of the Parliament was the election of the Speaker.
“Unfortunately, that did not happen due to the absence of our brothers and sisters from Togo, who, by virtue of our Supplementary Act, should assume the speakership of the 6th Legislature.
“I seize this opportunity to express our solidarity with the Togolese Delegation and pledge the full support of this Parliament in insuring that the Togolese Representatives are inaugurated as soon as possible, which will ultimately lead to the election of new Speaker,” he said.
He reminded the Parliamentarians that even though their responsibilities are heavy, they must remain totally faithful to their commitments, work together with intelligence, rigour, and determination to meet the major challenges that lie ahead.
“The Session, which was convened in accordance with Article 28 of the Supplementary Act Relating to the Enhancement of the Powers of the ECOWAS Parliament, has marked the beginning of a new era for our revitalised Community Parliament.
“We are resolute in our mission to uphold peace and prosperity for the people of West Africa, and this session has provided us with the platform to launch this noble endeavour,” he said.
….”As you can see, Honourable Members, the mission we have been assigned is enormous but very exciting because it involves putting ourselves at the service of the community to ensure its prosperity and emergence.
“As you well know, we have deliberately chosen to be on this front. So, let’s join forces beyond our differences to remain true to our commitments and make history with our term of office. Therefore, let us work resolutely to produce concrete and valuable results for ECOWAS,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, the 6th legislature of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, presided by acting Speaker, Senator Barau Jibril has adopted recommendations by the committee on selection on setting up of 14 standing committees at its inaugural session.
The committees which include agriculture, health, security among others have 56 positions to be occupied to guarantee the balance in languages, gender and nationality.
The selection committee, Chaired by Honourable Melvin Snowe Junior of Liberia proposed to the Bureau of the regional parliament to uphold draft rules of procedure on the distribution and composition of the standing committees.
The parliament however, stepped down adoption of the report of the ad-hoc committee on Drafting the Rules of procedure opting to continue with rules of the 5th Legislature pending when they have scrutinised and agreed on the draft.
