Category: General

Community lawmakers from the Gambia on the sidelines of the 2022 Second Ordinary Session on Saturday 3rd December 2022 paid a courtesy call on the President of the Republic, His Excellency Adama Barrow.

The President was in Abuja to attend the 62nd ECOWAS Ordinary Session of Heads of States and Government slated for Sunday 4th December 2022.

He was also on schedule to attend the swearing-in of Gambian-born President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, and the ECOWAS Excellence Award to the former President of Gambia, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, for his leadership in establishing ECOMOG, restoring peace in the sub region, and championing and making Banjul the home of Human Rights.

The Majority Leader and Head of the Gambian delegation to ECOWAS Parliament Hon. Billay G. Tunkara expressed their appreciation to the President on the ascension of a Gambian to the presidency of the ECOWAS Commission.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Mamadou Tangara said that his Ministry was acting under the directive of the President to reach out to all his counterparts to present the Gambian candidate.
In his response, President Barrow noted the need for Gambians to assume such a crucial position in the sub-regional organisation.

He thanked the delegation for the visit and assured them of his governments support to the course of diplomacy between Gambia and Nigeria.

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The Econoic Communicty of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, has condemn the barbaric and dispicable voilence perpetrated on a femal lawmake of the Senegal Parliament, Amy Ndiaye Gniby on Thursday, Deceber 1, 2022 which has gone vira.

At its plenary Session on December 3, 2022 at the on going Second Ordianry Session deliberated and adopted the following declaration:

1. The ECOWAS Parliament strongly condemns this despicable act unworthy of a parliamentarian from the ECOWAS region at a time when we are witnessing a proliferation of initiatives to prevent and eliminate violence against women and come helping women who are victims of it;

2. Reiterates its commitment to respect for women, and reaffirms that any form of violence against women is unacceptable, whatever the situation and whatever the circumstances;

3. Recalls that the State of Senegal, in addition to its fundamental law, has signed and ratified the international legal instruments relating to gender-based violence;

4. Reaffirms that this act, whatever the circumstances, cannot be justified nor tolerated in a country which guarantees parity between men and women in politics;

5. Considering that one of the key goals of the 5th Legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament is to strengthenwomen participation in politics and that the action as witnessed is very regrettable as it sends negative impressions of the gains made in the past few years, the ECOWAS Parliament will continue to support and advocate for increased women participation and condemn any act of violence and abuse against women in general.

6. While wishing a speedy recovery to the victim MP, the ECOWAS Parliament urges the Senegalese State, in collaboration with the National Assembly of Senegal to take the necessary steps to ensure that justice is done for this unfortunate event.

Dr. Sidie Mohamed TUNIS

Rt. Hon. Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament

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A member of Nigerian’s delegation to the Community Parliament, Oghene Egoh has said with the country report presented by Liberia and Sierra Leone over the weekend at plenary, there is the need to take a second look at the political situation there as both countries prepare for election next year.

According to him the Community Parliament should take up the issue in Liberia as the World Bank and other International agencies assessment has raised some alert ahead of their Presidential and Parliamentary elections next year; “so that we can send a delegation to go and see the Liberian president and other politicians there.

The danger, he stated is that when the unstable political situation gets worse, the military could take over and then ECOWAS Parliament will be short of one more country, so the issue should be looked at”.

Further in his contribution, he noted that, the Country report of Sierra Leone was okay, there is a major dispute as to representation and how the elections will be done, stating that if you speak to one or two of their delegation, they will tell you going into their election is unstable; there is no need to hide anything from each other in the Parliament.

“If we in Nigeria have discovered that there will not be free and fair elections, we will say it out, if we say it and ECOWAS intervenes it will help us. But if we know there is something that will create problem in the country and we say there is nothing and something happens we have lost two countries”.

Mr. Bamidele Salam in his remarks noted that conducting of census needs accurate data for the purpose of planning and development, but unfortunately most of the member states in the sub-region have issues of politics coming to interfere with the smooth running of national censuses.

As some of the issues identified ranges to corruption and inefficiencies and lack of political will of the political leaders to ensure that the process is conducted in a manner that will be seamless and this is worrying given the fact that development partners support these national census processes. He was contributing to the Country report presented by Liberia, and thanked the Liberia delegation for their candor display in this report.

He further, commended Liberia for passing a law that guarantees thirty percent for women in Parliament, and hopes other countries will learn from that.

On Sierra Leone, he expressed worry over the political situation there with regard to management of inter-party conflict reference to the August 10, 2022 protest and there was mention of panel of investigation to bring out measure to cub it and there has not been conclusion on that matter.

He queried about what is being done; how inclusive is the members of the opposition as they are getting close to the elections.

Leader of the Liberian delegation, Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe Jr. in his contribution raised concern about the political situation in Sierra Leone, stating that for the third time the military has to enter their Parliament House and brutalized MPs from the opposition party. He added that it is a serious situation and the ECOWAS Parliament must send a fact finding mission to Sierra Leone to investigate this serious issue, since it is neither the first nor second time, but the third time.

He further pointed out that less than a year to their election, they are still trying to change the electoral law, to work in the favour of the ruling establishment, indicating the situation is quite alarming and the delegation needs to speak to it.

On the issue of the August 10, 2022 demonstration, he pointed out that, he thinks the issue is being diluted. It was of great concern political and security situation and Sierra Leone delegation has five members to the Community Parliament.

One independent, two opposition, two ruling party, “we notice that none of the opposition party members are in here for the country report and I hope the delegation can tell us why they are not here whiles they are presenting their country report?”, he stated

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The Minority Caucus in parliament has made clear their objections to certain aspects of the 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of government and vow to reject those aspects as they deem them inimical to the very existence of Ghanaian in these difficult economic times.

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu flanked by his colleagues from the Minority at a press conference on Monday December 5, 2022 said they remain resolute in objecting to the E-levy, the 2,5 percent increase in VAT, the National Cathedral, and the debt restructuring.

E-Levy
Mr Haruna said their position on the E-levy has not changed, and not even its reduction to 1 percent is acceptable. “It is a setback to this cashless economy”.

He said they are also astonished to learn in the Budget that the GHS 100 threshold for e-levy deductions has been abolished. “How come that the threshold is being abolished. How do we protect the vulnerable poor?

He added that at least a 300gh threshold with a reduction in the principal from 1.7 to 1% will be ok. “You recall my suggestion of a 1% levy at a threshold of 500, which was out-rightly rejected by Government at the negotiations. This was part of the discussion when we rejected “AGYAPA”, he staed.

Debt Restructuring
On debt restructuring, Mr Iddrisu said the form and structure of this debt restructuring is unacceptable to the NDC Minority, stating that they simply cannot agree to this as it has dire consequences on the financial sector, on pension funds and on jobs.

He said the Minority is unable to help the government at this point as it warned them ahead yet they failed to heed those warnings.

He asserts that the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has himself made it categorical that “Ghana’s debt is unsustainable and we cannot service it fully if we do not restructure some GHc 137 billion of our domestic debt”.
National Cathedral 80 Million Ghana Cedis.

According to the Minority, the GHS 80 million earmarked for the National Cathedral does not constitute a spending priority at this time as it will bring the total amount spent on the project to about GHS 420 million, the total amount of tax payer funds so far spent. The estimated total cost of the project is around 400million dollars, and wondered if the project constitutes a national priority.

“For a government that is unable to print textbooks for basic school pupils several years after introducing new curricular unable to pay NABCO arrears and that is indebted to contractors and suppliers to the tune of over GHS 40 billion, this is most imprudent and unacceptable”.

2.5 % INCREASE IN VAT
The Minority described the 2.5 increase in VAT as a pile up of more hardships on the people of Ghana.

“The most punitive among these taxes is the addition of 2.5% to the VAT rate bringing it to a cumulative 21.5% (made up of 2.5% GETFund, 2.5% National Health Insurance, 1% Covid Levy and 15% VAT all levied under the terms of Value Added Act, Act 870) the highest in Africa”.

They questioned the moral right of President Akufo-Addo to increase VAT by 2.5% when he led the “KUMI PREKO” demonstration in 1995 resulting in the loss of five lives.

According to the Minority, the high rate of inflation has already eroded the disposable incomes of Ghanaians and they can no longer bear to give more to a government that is determined to waste our resources on extravagant living.

Click here to watch the Video

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The Minority in parliament is demanding government carries out major expenditure cuts to achieve fiscal consolidation.

The Minority in addressing the press on the 2023 Budget and Debt Treatment Plan as put forward by the government said the size of Government must be reduced drastically. “We demand responsible spending”.

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu who spoke on behalf of the Minority affirms his sides resolve not to accept the outrageous GHC1.4billion allocation as contingency vote contained at page 209 of the 2023 Budget statement. “We note that, this allocation is an additional GHC400million compared with last year’s allocation of GHC993million. This cannot be happening in a period of austerity”, he stated.

Furthermore, the Minority asserts their opposition to an allocation of GHS10 million for what has been strangely described as Defense Advisory Services. “We also strongly denounce plans to increase the staff strength at the Office of Government Machinery by a staggering 1,570 at Page 230 of the 2023 Budget. This will increase total staff strength at the OGM to 3,681. This is unconscionable at a time Government has announced a total freeze in public sector jobs”.

“If ever there was proof that this government has lost its way and shown itself unworthy of the trust of the people of Ghana, this would be it”.

The Minority Caucus warned that without any clear, and significant improvement in the attitude of the Majority side and sector Ministers do not turn up to lead the Budget process on their sectors, they will withdraw from the Budget process.

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The Mampong Akuapem Apesemakahene Nana Yirenkyi l has lauded the achievements of the Director General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Sammi Awuku.

According to him, Sammi Awuku had indeed transformed NLA since he assumed office.

Speaking in an interview with the media, Nana Yirenkyi l pointed out that Sammi Awukh has changed NLA for the first time in our history.

He said, for Sammi Awuku to bring world lottery association to Ghana to host NLA at 60 is commendable.

Nana Yirenkyi l hinted that most of the communities in Ghana have benefitted from the Good Causes Foundation which provides KVIPs, boreholes and supporting to needy people; all are initiatives under the able leadership of Sammi Awuku.

He said “our brother our son has made us proud. He hasn’t disappointed us.”

Nana Yirenkyi l said these projects being undertaken by NLA boss is not political as they affect the lives of all persons, both NDC and NPP are beneficiaries.

He said only blind people will not see that NLA has transformed under the leadership of Sammi Awuku.

Nana Yirenkyi urged Ghanaians to make history when given the opportunity for them to be remembered in future for their good works as Sammi Awuku has done.

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The only female among the sierra Leonean delegation to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Veronica Kadie Sesay has said less than twenty (20) percent of females occupy elected positions in her country.

Despite the fact that women account for fifty-one (51) percent of the total population, their voice, visibility, participation and representation in elective and appointive position remains very low compared to the men.

She made this known on Saturday, December 3, 2022 when she presented the Country report of her country at the plenary at the ongoing Second Ordinary Session of the Community Parliament in Abuja Nigeria.

The challenges faced by women are many and include lack of economic independence, high illiteracy and entrenched customs and traditions, political violence and reprisals, the absence of progressive laws that protect and promote participation of women, and the lack of confidence to vie for public positions.

Gender representation is relatively low in Sierra Leone as in the rest of West Africa. Sierra Leone was ranked 182nd out of 189 countries on the UNDP’s Gender Development Index in 2020, and nearly half of the bottom 20 countries were in West Africa.

Today, 18 out of 146 (12%) MPs in Sierra Leone’s Parliament are women while only four women serve in a Cabinet of 32 Ministers. The four Ministers head the gender, tourism, marine and social welfare ministries.
The President, His Excellency Dr. Julius Maada Bio, in his stance for an affirmative action for female representation, has been constantly giving support to the Gender Empowerment Bill, which was enacted on the 11th of November 2022.

Also, the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act, 2022 seeks to address gender imbalances by making provision for increased elective positions for women, the promotion of gender equality in employment and training, the implementation of gender mainstreaming and budgeting, for access to financial institutions and to prescribe procedures for the improvement of women’s access to finance.

The Public Elections Act 2022, which was also recently passed into law, provides for a woman to be among every three candidates to be presented by political parties for election to Parliament or Local Council. Both the Gender Empowerment law and the Public Elections Act, 2022 will strengthen, enhance and improve women’s participation and representation in Parliament and the Local Councils.

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Liberia’s delegation to the Community Parliament on Saturday, December 3, 2022 in its country report presented by a member of its delegation to the plenary, Hon Clarence Massaquoi noted that they have made significant progress in the payment of its Community levy on monthly basis especially for the first quarter of 2022.

However, the Country continues to struggle in the payment of the Levy arrears and said amount is accumulating monthly as reconciled by the Community Levy Technical Mission in Liberia February 2022.

On the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS), the implementation continues during the year under review a number of registered companies under the scheme rose from 15 to 17 in 2022. Of the 17 enterprises, 15 are exporting active 40 products.

Since its adoption in 2017, the Common External Tariff (CET) considered a four year migration plan that ends in 2022.

However, the Monitoring Committee is yet to be constituted to ensure full compliance of Member States including Liberia. Liberia is yet to fully implement and operationalized the CET.

Additionally, the ECOWAS harmonized CET implementation is on-going as the region is, “negotiating the African Free Continental Trade Area (AfCFTA) as a bloc while granting the ETLS trade preference to its member countries”, he told the House.

As the country is continuously participating and complying with provision of the Protocols on Free Movement of Persons, Goods and Services and the Right to Residence and has conducted series of sensitization mission especially carried out by the ECOWAS National Office and other partners involved in the integration process.

Consequently, the ECOWAS Common Passport has been adopted, Visa-free movement of community citizens observed, a 90-day stay without residence permit implemented and a National Bio-metric Identity Card has been rolled out.

The Liberia’s Council of National Bureau of the ECOWAS Brown Card Scheme has completed the payment of 50.0 percent of its arrears to the Council of Bureau which was a pre–requisite for the lifting of their sanctions and partial waiver of their remaining debt.

Also the National Bureau has also regularized Liberia’s country contribution to the Council which puts the country in line to assume full membership role and benefits under the ECOWAS Brown Card scheme for 2022.

This has been possible through the successful implementation of the simultaneous sale of the Brown Card alongside the motor insurance stickers as agreed upon in Protocol A/P1/5/82 on the Establishment of the ECOWAS Brown Card relating to Motor Vehicle 3rd Party Liability Insurance.

The convention relating to the ECOWAS Inter-State Road Transit of Goods (ISRT) is being implemented by the Liberian authorities in line with the WTO TFA, but the major focus of the Scheme is on the implementation of the MRU Inter- State Road Transit Scheme within the framework of the MRU Truckers Association.

The Country is yet to establish and put in place the introduction of way-bridges. However, the country has issued and commenced the regulations of the Axel Load limit of 11.5 tones in compliance with the ECOWAS Supplementary Act of 2012.

And Liberia has signed the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) agreement between West Africa and European Union.

However, the Authorities are yet to commence domestication of the agreement pending the conclusion of the Agreement by ECOWAS.

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The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament is to issue a statement on the attack of a Senegal female lawmaker Hon Amy Ndiaye by a male colleague in their National Assembly – a video that has gone viral and attracted condemnation of this act.

A member of the Senegalese delegation to the Community Parliament, Abdoulaye Vilane raised this issue at the plenary on Saturday, December 3, 2022 when Liberia and Sierra Leone were scheduled to present their country report to the plenary.

The third deputy Speaker of the Community Parliament Memounatou Ibrahima, fourth deputy Speaker Adja Satu Camara Pinto Hon. Abdoulaye Vilane and the Parliament Secretariat are to issue a statement in the coming days.

On point of order his colleague from Togo drew Mr. Speaker’s attention that the House has an agenda it has adopted for the day, they should and asked that they stick to the agenda which Speaker Dr. Sidie M. Tunis agreed with.

The Speaker on the subject matter pointed out that, respect for women anywhere is very important and whatever the circumstance violence against women should not be allowed, and recounted that there has been violence before in the Sierra Leone Parliament and other parliaments within the sub-region and the world at large.

And as a Speaker the attack of the Senegalese female MP, what he saw on the video circulating is something the community parliament will look at, at a later time, they will look at other videos from other parliament irrespective of where the incident happened in this particular case all of them are concerned because of what they saw.

“A man coming across whether the person is an MP coming across and actually beating up a woman, I am sure we will look at it, but like what the MP from Togo said there is an agenda that has been adopted and any other thing relating to the matter will come later on”.

The Rt. Hon speaker urged a Committee of the Community Parliament, Committee on Political Affairs, Peace, Security and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to take a critical look at the kind of things happening now.

If the need be a visit be made to Senegal either in January or February of next year not because of the female MP attacked in question, but to look at the entire political situation considering the outcome of their Legislative Assembly election.

There are a lot of changes that has taken place in Senegal, that probably warrant the intervention of that committee and from what I hear, it’s the opposition MP that beat up the government MP normally it’s the other way round but this time it’s the opposition MP and its very serious even if your visit is for a week, he stated.

Speaker Tunis backed the point raised by Abdoulaye Vilane, stating that if there were security forces around when the female MP was in danger all that was needed was to call the security to come in.

“If my Speaker in Sierra Leone’s life is in danger we cannot handle, the best you can do is to call in the state security. I am the Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament, I am not justifying police entering our parliament, I am only saying you need a police to protect the Hon Speaker and Hon members if there was a police officer around, this will not have happened in Senegal”.

“Let say in the case of Sierra Leone, if the police were not around, “our Speaker would have been in the hospital by now”, he added.

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A member of Nigerians delegation to the Community Parliament, Awaji-Inombek D. Abiante has said the reduction in the budgetary allocation to the ECOWAS Radio in Monrovia for the year ended December 31, 2023 is a minus and a no no.

According to him Parliament should revisit the issue and rather maintain the allocation given to the ECOWA Radio in the 2022 budgetary allocation rather than cutting fifty percent of their budgetary allocation.

In an interview he noted that other lawmakers in the Community Parliament shares his sentiment, stating that the reduction in the budgetary allocation has to do with the Radio station not utilizing this year’s budgetary allocations.

“I do not understand their impediment towards the untilisation; were they given the go ahead to manage themselves? It has not been clear and from the explanation, I think something has not been properly disclosed to us. If truly we want to have the participation of the various communities and truly we want others to know what we do and probably have that support it’s important that we support the radio and provide them with all that they will require in terms of equipment and man power, getting to online platforms. Most of us if you ask do not even know that ECOWAS has a radio situated somewhere in Monrovia”, he stated.

And further added that the Head of the Radio station should have been invited to tell lawmakers, explain to lawmakers why they were unable to utilise what was appropriated to them, they need to know.

For someone who has not come to parliament to defend his or her position and tell us that the person could not utislise allocation for 2022, “I do not see how that fit into the purpose of what we are doing”.

In addition, he questioned, if in Liberia the ECOWAS Radio is broadcasting; he does not know and if they are broadcasting what is the range, how many people do they reach? “There is a lot of question surrounding the ECOWAS radio and the reduction in budget”.

“If you in Ghana cannot receive signal and I cannot receive in Nigeria and several other communities cannot receive and they are returning money and cutting down on their budget, a lot of things are still unknown to members of Parliament”.

He indicated they are desirous and want to understand what the challenges are; unless and until there is proper oversight and an invitation to the Head of Radio to appear before the Parliament and tell them their own side of the story what happen to the radio station, the true picture will not be known.

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