News:
Hon. Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin
October 6, 2021
Leader of the Ghanaian delegation to the fifth Community Parliament, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin said the parliament does not expect any delegation from Guinea Conakry to the upcoming, Extraordinary Session in Winneba which starts on Tuesday, October 12, 2021 and expected to last for ten days.
The military takeover in Guinea Conakry witnessed the National Assembly being dissolved by the military junta led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya. The Authority of Heads of States and Government subsequently suspended Guinea from all ECOWAS governing bodies until the restoration of constitutional order.
According to him one hundred and three (1o3) lawmakers to the Community Parliament are expected, the Rt. Hon. Speaker Sidie Mohammed Tunis and his four deputies as well as experts invited who are expected to take them through various aspects of the programme.
The military junta in Mali after their coup appointed a delegation to represent the country at the Parliament’s First Extraordinary Session in Sierra Leon 2021, but they were not allowed to represent the country as the Authority of Heads of States and Government had suspended the country from participating in the activities of its institutions.
The Extraordinary Session is on the theme: “High level evaluating seminar on two decades of democratic elections in the ECOWAS region: achievement challenges and the way forward”.
Mr. Afenyo-Markin recounted that currently there has been instability within the West African sub-region despite the fact that “we started well embracing democratic dispensation; unfortunately we have had coups and the issue of sub-regional leaders seeking third term”.
The Session would review everything that has been done as a sub-region for the past twenty years and perhaps come out with a new road map aim at ensuring that there is peace and political stability, and also put across the views of the Parliament on the situation in the sub-region to the Authority of Heads of States and Governments through a communiqué.
“We have made sufficient arrangement for accommodations; hotels that need to upgrade their facilities have done that and the protocol team of the parliament has been to Winneba and are satisfied with the facilities so far; the University of Education Winneba auditorium, which has the
state-of-the-art facilities would be the venue for the main event”. Windy Lodge Conference room would also be on the standby for other consultative meetings and seminars.
And in terms of security the Inspector General of Police (IGP) has made preparation for men and women of the police force to be in Winneba to support the programme, adequate streetlights had been provided with the Minister of Roads and Highways being magnanimous to put arrangements to provide good road networks.
It is the “first in history of ECOWAS that a Session would be held outside the national capital city, and again first time that a delocalised meeting was held outside the National capital, and the Ghanaian delegation would be on the stand by to make this Session a memorable one” the leader of the Ghanaian delegation stated.
The Effutu lawmaker pointed out at a media briefing ahead of the Session that some city beautification projects would be unveiled, and handed over to the Ministry of Tourism and the Ghana Tourism Authority to manage and administer Osimpa heritage center, a museum where the history of Winneba and the Effutu people would be told.
And other tourism attraction points would be the unity square where an edifice called reconciliation roundabout would also be unveiled – the statues of two past Ghanaian national figures who played divers roles for the development of Ghana, “Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and J. B. Danquah, when you go to Akosua village the fisherman square would also be unveiled”, he added.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com