The Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States is expected to elect a new Speaker at its 2024 second extraordinary session taking place in Kano State, North West Nigeria.
The delegation from Togo, which is expected at the session, will be sworn in before the end of the extra ordinary session, which is scheduled to commence on the 21st of May, 2024.
The delegation from Togo is expected at the session after the conduct of their parliamentary elections, and the names of the Togolese representatives are sent to the Community parliament.
In accordance with the rotational system, the Speakership of the Sixth Legislature of the regional body was zoned to the Republic of Togo
However, during the inauguration of the Sixth Legislature of the ECOWAS on April 4th 2024, the delegation of the Republic of Togo was not present because they had not conducted election to enable the country send their representatives to the Community Parliament.
Nigerian Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau, who is the first Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, was elected as the acting speaker of the Sixth Legislature of the Parliament.
In order not to create a vacuum, Jibrin, as the first Deputy Speaker, was given the nod to act as the Speaker of the Parliament pending when the Togolese delegation presents their representatives to the Parliament of which the Speaker would be elected.
Meanwhile, Preparatory, to the Extra Ordinary Session in Kano, the Community Parliament had its Bureau meeting, which was virtual and Conference of Bureau meeting thereafter, which is made up Chairpersons and rapporteur of various committees.
This was where the work plan was discussed for the year, and deliberations will be brought to the plenary for discussion and adoption.
Speaking to journalists after the sessions, the Acting Speaker who is also the First Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, Senator Barau Jibrin, said that they decided to hold the extra ordinary session in Kano in order to bring the community closer to the grassroots for them to truly feel the impact of the community parliament..
Jubrin, who is Nigeria’s Deputy Senate President, said the Parliament needs to know the people they are serving at the Grassroots with the Citizens also vice versa of knowing them.
He said: “Tomorrow, Tuesday, is going to be the session that will implore all the parliamentarians and of course the invited guest that will be here with us tomorrow and what we had today is the Bureau meeting – between the leadership of the Parliament and the committee chairmen and other principal officers of the parliament.”
He added that 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.
Jibrin disclosed that the representatives from Togo will be attending the session later in the week and will hopefully be sworn in on Thursday.
He said, “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 a 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 the society, about the economy, about ECOWAS, about 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 disclosed that this is 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 parliament and ECOWAS parliament will know Kano.
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