…as Togo failed to attend inaugural ceremony

By Gloria Ikibah

Nigeria has been elected the first Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS, with Senator Barau Jibrin clinching the position.

Naijablitznews.com recalled that President Bola Tinubu who is Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of States and government inaugurated the Sixth legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament on Thursday in Abuja.

The inaugural Session of the Parliament formally marks the commencement of the business of the 6th legislature, is in pursuant to Article 28 of the Supplementary Act on the Enhancement of the Powers of the ECOWAS Parliament of 2016, following the end of the Fifth Legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament on March 8, 2024.

Members were also expected to elect The Speaker of the Sixth Legislature to serve a four-year tenure, in accordance with the provisions of the Supplementary Act 2016.

And Article 24 of the Supplementary Act of the Parliament relating to the Enhancement of the Powers of Parliament provides that the position of the Speaker of the Parliament shall be allocated to Member States by the Authority, in line with an established rotational system based on the alphabetical order of Member States.

The Republic of Togo comes next in
alphabetical order of Member States after Sierra Leone which held the position of Speaker in the just ended Fifth Legislature.

And in this legislature the Republic of Togo will be fielding a candidate for the position of the Speaker but this didn’t happen as Togolese delegates were absent for this auspicious occasion.

However, the regional legislature was unable to elect a substantive Speaker to lead the Parliament following the inability of Togo which the position was zoned, to produce the Speaker due the political situation in their country.

For the election of the four Deputy Speaker to take place, the Bureau must be constituted and with the inability to produce a speaker due to the absence of the Togolese delegates, the parliament nominated a pro-temporal speaker.

Inpursuant to the Supplementary Act the oldest member and the two youngest memebers of parliament were selected to constitute the Bureau. After this a motion was moved by an MP to nominate Hon. Edwin Snowe Jnr as the Speaker Pro-Tempo to enable the Parliament elect the first, second, third and forth Deputy Speakers.

The motion to make Hon. Snowe the Speaker Pro-Tempo was seconded and unanimously adopted by the MPs through a voice vote.

Hon. Barau was nominated by a Nigerian member of Parliament, Awaji- Inombek Dagomie Abiante, in a session presided by Liberia’s Edwin Snowe as Speaker Pro-Tempo. His nomination was seconded by another Nigerian member of Parliament, Senator Ireti Kingibe and he was voted unopposed.

The office of the Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament is usually reserved for Nigeria anytime the country is not presiding as Speaker of the Parliament.

Also elected as Second Deputy Speaker was Hon. Adjaratou Traore Coulibally from Cote d’Ivoire, who polled 54 votes to beat Hon. Cecile Ahoumnon from Benin, who got zero vote.

The position of the Third Deputy Speaker was won by Hon. Alexander Kwamena Afenyo- Markin from Ghana in a unanimous voice vote.

The Fourth Deputy Speaker position was won by Hon. Billay Tunkara from The Gambia with 47 votes beating Hon. Orlando Pereira Dias from Cabo Verde who got 7 votes.

Outgoing Speaker of the Parliament, Sidie Mohammed Tunis, thanked the regional body for the opportunity given him to serve for four years even as he reaffirmed his commitment to the regional body.

Hon. Tunis was appointed ceremonial speaker, following the gap that exists because Togo, the country to which the Speakership was zoned, was not able to produce the Speaker due to some political situation in the country.

Earlier on Thursday, had announced his intention to travel to Togo to see how best to get a Speaker.

He said: “I will proceed to Togo to have a conversion with the authorities there with a view to encouraging them to have their delegation inaugurated as soon as possible so that we can have a Speaker to run this institution. It is very, very important. There are so many things to do in the sub-region, and the ECOWAS Parliament has a very big role to play in the sub-region but they will not be able to do so without the Speaker.”

Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar in his address, noted that in the face of the various challenges confronting the region, including peace, stability, security, as well as the unity of the region, the role of the Parliament is more important than ever.

The Minister, who is also the Chair of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers, commended the outgoing 5th Legislature, especially its Speaker Mohamed Tunis, for their invaluable contributions to the ECOWAS Parliament and the Organization as a whole.

He said “it is, therefore, imperative that the Parliament continues to work in synergy with the ECOWAS Commission and other Institutions that serve as the executive and judicial arms of our governments”.