ABUJA – (ECOWAS Secretariat) – The President of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Jean-Claude Kassi Brou has called for cooperation from the ECOWAS Parliament towards ensuring the adherence of member – states to their responsibilities in the regional integration process. He made the remark during his 1st Ordinary Session of the 4th Legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament which held in Abuja, Nigeria on Wednesday May 10, 2018.
Jean-Claude Brou stated that the August body is now in a high need to make the Community’s Parliament a key institution for monitoring the adherence to such commitments. “My team and I and all other ECOWAS Institutions stand ready to work simultaneously and closely with the ECOWAS Parliament for fruitful cooperation in the shared interest of our community,” he said.
Jean-Claude Kassi informed that he was preparing to present the status of the Community to the parliamentarians, an exercise which would allow for a review of the progress accomplished in recent years as well as an appraisal of the new challenges ahead which he said requires the collective efforts of all.
According to him, paying tributes to Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari and the Chair of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of States and Government, Faure Gnassingbe, who is the President of the Togolese Republic also called for a collective effort on the advancement of the regional integration process. He stressed that the ECOWAS governance system has a unique model which sets the pace among other Regional Economic Communities (REC) on the African Continent.
The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Moustapha Cisse Lo in his address welcomed delegates and members to the session. He later explained that since the beginning of the 2018 parliamentary processes undertaken with a parliamentary forum and an extraordinary session in Dakar – Senegal, activities of the Parliament have been going hand in hand with the pursuit of activities aimed at implementing the annual programme of the Parliament.
He indicated that far reaching programme of activities were adopted at the extraordinary session and apart from organizing de-localized meetings, the oversight functions of community agencies and programmes have been on the verge of implementation, being one of the important powers of the Parliament. Moustapha added that a proposal on the implementation framework of the parliamentary oversight would be handed to the President, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou during the current session.
The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Kingdom of Morocco, Rachid El Abdi, who was a guest at the occasion seized the opportunity to call for the solidarity of Morocco with West Africa. He revealed that Morocco is one of the countries with great commitment to the African Continent, adding that it was for that reason as well as deepening relations with the region that his country has expressed the desire to join ECOWAS.
Present at the occasion was the President of the ECOWAS Court of Justice, Jerome Traore and the representative of the Senate President of Nigerian, Yusuf Lasun; the Secretary- General of the ECOWAS Parliament, John Azumah; the Vice President of the ECOWAS Commission, Finda Koroma as well as officials standing in for international and inter-African organizations.
Activities slated for the session included: meetings of the Joint Committees on Political Affairs, Peace, Security and African Peer Review Mechanism; the Legal and Judicial Affairs; Human Rights, Protection of the Child and Other Vulnerable Groups as well as on Gender, Women Empowerment and Social Protection among others. Also targeted was an interactive session with the new Commissioners of the ECOWAS Commission.
