ABUJA – The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu , has called on heads of state and government to reconsider their stand on the issue of enhancement of powers of the ECOWAS Parliament.
Ekweremadu made the call at the end of the 2015 first Ordinary Session of the Community Parliament in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, the parliament is the only regional parliament without a legislative power and as such cannot perform legislative functions.
He said that it was a huge but temporary setback for the Community Parliament and the concept of democratic governance in the sub-region.
“ Today, as I speak, ECOWAS Parliament is the only regional parliament anywhere in the world that does not have a legislative function.
“It is, however, sad that 40 years after its establishment, ECOWAS cannot boast of a regional parliament in its true sense of a parliament.
“ECOWAS Parliament was inaugurated in 2000 and has remained a sheer talk shop and at best a resource drain since it does not perform any legislative function,” he said.
Ekweremadu said that the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) which was inaugurated in 2001, a year after the inauguration of ECOWAS Parliament, exercised far reaching powers.
|”It included powers of legislating, oversight and presentation in the East African sub-region.
“It was against this backdrop that we made it our core legislative agenda in the third legislature to pursue the enhancement of the powers of the Community Parliament.
“This would empower us to carry out basic parliamentary functions such as budget consideration, confirmation of statutory appointments and oversight functions over the activities of the organs of the community,” he said.
Ekweremadu said that the struggle had scaled all official and man-made hurdles, including adoption by the authority of Heads of state and Government in December 2014.
“Sadly it was not signed at its 47th Ordinary Session that just took place in Accra as expected even though ECOWAS Council of Ministers had listed it.
“Some countries made sure that it was blocked- namely Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire -and it was very disheartening to all of us that worked hard to be where we are,” the speaker said.
He said that Francophone countries in ECOWAS were opposing efforts to enhance the powers of the ECOWAS Parliament because they were not used to oversight functions where the legislature oversights the executive.
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“They said that it was a practice in the English speaking part of the sub-region and their practices should not be imposed on the rest of the sub-region.
“France from where they got their independence, and they owe their allegiance, is part of the European Union (EU) and it submitted to oversight by the European Parliament.
“If France submitted to EU parliament for over sighting, I see no reason why the francophone countries of ECOWAS would not submit to the ECOWAS Parliament,” Ekweremadu added.
He said that the existence of Union Economique et Monitaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA) for the francophone ECOWAS countries had posed a problem to the enhancement of powers of the ECOWAS Parliament.
“It is a community within a community, a shadow of ECOWAS which has a parliament that is functioning, the francophone countries contribute to it but do not contribute to ECOWAS.
“ECOWAS is supported by Nigeria, Ghana and few other countries; others seem not to be providing funds and yet they contribute to run the UEMOA”, he said.
The speaker said that as long as the organisation was working for the Francophone countries of ECOWAS, ECOWAS would never function properly.
“UEMOA has a common currency, a parliament that is working, central bank; most of their institutions are working.
“It is important to consider these issues and convince the Francophone countries to come to terms with the realities of integration instead of having a community within the community,” he said. (NAN)
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