The 2nd Ordinary Session of the 5th Legislature in the ECOWAS Parliament that held in Abuja the Nigerian Capital might have come and gone but lessons learned will remain indelible on the sands of time. The session began with a huge expectations by all stakeholders on large participation, robust and quality contributions by parliamentarians at the plenary and committee sessions. Some of the issues for deliberation at the session include the 2022 community budget, regional security, intra- regional trading, vision 2050 and direct universal suffrage among others. Speaker after speaker took turns to drive home their points. The 2nd Ordinary Session also had some other mild issues like the threat by the Portuguese speaking parliamentarian to pull out of ECOWAS Parliament for perceived marginalisation as well as the temporary technical hitches experienced during the AFC presentation of report to the committee on finance headed by Senator Ali Ndume. The session granted audience to the Association of West African Legislative Correspondents, AWALCO an umbrella body for media reporters from the sub-region assigned to cover the Parliament. It was the time to draw the curtain for the 2nd Ordinary Session of the 5th Legislature with Speaker, Mohammed Tunis assuring members of the community of better days ahead. However, the earlier high expectations by stakeholders to the session was at its lowest ebb due to the lackluster attitude of most Nigerian Parliamentarians who did not show more commitment to the legislative business. Roll calls at the plenary session shows only few Nigerian Parliamentarians in attendance, some come in late while majority don’t show up. This infectious attitude already emulated by some members of the Community Parliament from other climes if not checked could impact negatively on the leadership vision and push for a Direct Universal Suffrage and the vision 2050.
