The First Deputy Speaker of the Economic of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Senator Barau Jibrin, has said that the members resolved to bring the 6th Regional Parliament meeting in Kano to the grassroots to truly feel the impact of the herculean task ahead of them.
The ECOWAS Parliament, also known as the Community Parliament, is one of the institutions of ECOWAS.
It is the Assembly of the People of the Community, serving as a forum for dialogue, consultation, and consensus for Representatives of the People of West Africa with the aim of promoting integration, says the First Deputy Speaker, Senator Barau Jibrin.
Senator Barau Jibrin, who doubles as the Deputy Senate President, made the assertion on Monday, after the opening of the Technical Session of the ECOWAS Parliament meeting at the Bristol Hotel, Kano, that the Members of Parliament need to know the people they are serving at the grassroots with the citizens, and vice versa.
“Kano is the centre of commerce for the entire northern Nigeria. It is the political capital if you like political nerve centres in the entire northern Nigeria.
“So that’s why we brought this session to be held here so that we could bring ECOWAS closer to the people so that people would know about ECOWAS parliaments, and ECOWAS parliaments would go deeper into our various societies.
According to him,” 115 member states are supposed to be attending the regional legislative sitting in Kano; however, 3 members of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso are not attending due to some reasons.”
Senator Barau disclosed that each member state should have a guaranteed minimum of 5 seats, while the remaining 40 seats would be shared on the basis of population, with Nigeria having the highest share due to its population strength.
He added that “tomorrow, Tuesday, is going to be the session that will implore all the parliamentarians and, of course, the invited guests that will be here with us tomorrow, and what we had today was the bureau meeting between the leadership of the Parliament and the committee chairmen and other principal officers of the parliament.”
Tomorrow will be a session for all the parliamentarians, and VIPs are going to be invited to witness the session, and it’s going to be a general meeting.
He then gave reasons why representatives from Togo are not attending the meeting, saying, “There were no elections in that country, but now elections have taken place, and 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.”
He, however, disclosed that “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 room for everybody to bring forward whatever he feels that we feel should be discussed. So it’s an open session for parliament, and they don’t have restrictions.
Everything about society, the economy, ECOWAS, and the West African Sub-region can be discussed. So, it’s an open-ended kind of scope in respect of what is going to be discussed,” the First Deputy Speaker noted.
He insisted that, “it’s the first time that you have this kind of meeting and session of ECOWAS parliaments taking place in Kano.
“It’s in line with what we’ve said; we are here so that Kano will know ECOWAS parliaments, and ECOWAS parliaments will know Kano.
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