Category: General

As the First Ordinary Session of 2022 commences on Thursday, June 9, 2022 in Abuja – the Federal Republic of Nigeria, two lawmakers were sworn in as the Republic of Gambia went to the polls to elect the lawmakers few months back.

The two are Majority Leader, Billay G. Tunkara and Alhagie S. Darboe, Minority Leader.

Gambia’s 6th Legislature on Monday April 25, 2022 considered and adopted a report on the selection of nominations for the various parliamentary committees, International parliamentary delegations, and Friendship Groups.

Five (5) new MPs were nominated to represent the Gambia at the Community Parliament. However, they don’t include three of MPs who are currently serving in the Community Parliament and were re-elected: Hon Fatoumata Njai, Hon Kebba K Barrow and Hon Samba Jallow.

Rather they have reassigned the former Leader of the delegation Hon Kebba K. Barrow as leader to the parliamentary Union of the OIC; Hon Fatoumata Njai now a member of the Pan African Parliament; whiles Hon samba Jallow is also a member of the ACP-EU joint Parliamentary Assembly.

The five new MPs are:

Hon Billay G Tunkara-Majority Leader and Head of Delegation

Hon Alhagie S. Darboe- Minority Leader and Member

Hon Maimuna Darboe Ceesay- Member

Hon Amadou Camara- Member

Hon. Sheriff S. Sarr- Member

Ghanamps.com can confirm that after a feature article cautioning the Gambia legislature of replacing continuing Community lawmakers could back fire there was parliamentary diplomacy at the background which resolved the misunderstanding that were pointed out.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com/Abuja-Nigeria

Rt. Hon Fabakary Tombong Jatta, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Gambia, has expressed his fullest support to have Community Parliamentarians elected through universal adult suffrage by citizens of Member States.

Speaking at the opening of the 2022 First Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja Nigeria, he added that this would  ensure that the  Parliament assume its Legislative functions and perform effective oversight of ECOWAS Institutions and hold them accountable.

He is the latest, among many, to have thrown their weight behind the call since the Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament; Rt. Hon Dr. Sidie Mohamed Tunis made the election of the Community lawmakers as his flagship programme.

He described the Community Parliament as one that can engender the agenda of ECOWAS of the People. But for the Parliament to deliver this reality to the ECOWAS Community, he advised that it must have the powers necessary to become an effective community institution.

“At a time when the world faces great uncertainty, with insecurity, economic recession, climate change and violent extremism threatening the collective future of humanity, that unity of purpose for a stable, peaceful, and progressive world order is more inevitable and compelling now than ever before”, he emphasised.

Aware of the collective ideals on which the ECOWAS was established, Speaker Jatta believes that Community Parliament is better situated and strategically positioned to deliver unity, peace, security, and prosperity to our sub-region.

“In your strive to achieve these goals, be rest assured that the National Assembly of the Gambia will be a reliable partner,” he told the Parliament.

Speaker Jatta, a former member of the Community Parliament, who had previously served as a National Assembly in the Gambia for 20 years, informed the Community Parliament that in the last six years  The Gambia has conducted two Presidential and two Parliamentary elections, all of which were peaceful, free, and fair.

“In this regard, the Government, and People of the Gambia condemn in the strongest terms the unconstitutional seizure of political power through coup de tats which is threatening the very fabric of our society.  This also includes those leaders who rely on support in Parliament to amend their constitutions to accord themselves extended term limits against the will of their people.”

On the issue of violent extremism, the Rt. Hon Speaker Fabakary Tombong Jatta called for all hands to be on deck to fight the menace.

Ghanamps.com

The Nigerian Federal capital Abuja would today host the first ordinary Session of the Community Parliament which would host one hundred and fifteen (115) lawmakers, in line with Article 27 of the Supplementary Act A/SA.1/1/16 relating to their enhanced powers.
During this Session, there would be deliberation of draft community regulations emanating from the ECOWAS Commission targeted at improving governance and unconstitutional change of government and give solutions to consolidating democracy in the sub-region.
Among the key highlights is presentation of state of the Community report by the president of the Commission by its president, Dr. Jean Claude Kassi Brou in accordance with Article 32 of the Supplementary Act.
“At each ordinary session of the ECOWAS Parliament, the president of the Commission shall present a general report on the state of implementation of the Community’s work programme”.
And an opportunity for the ECOWAS citizen representatives to track and oversee the implementation of the Community programmes.
In this session there is an interactive session planned with the ECOWAS Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources on the main initiatives of the departments within its technical competence.
Ghanamps.com

The Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi has defended the delay on work on the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021.

He asserts that the committee has never rested and assured that they would go through the process and ensure they pass a bill that would withstand the test of time, “we just cannot rush through this”.

According to him, there are several bills before the committee, and reiterated that when the referral was made after the first reading, the committee received about 187 memoranda.

The committee thereafter held public hearings in the last meeting.

He disclosed that the timetable of the committee is that after the public hearings come private hearing (in-camera) hearing. This, the committee has started doing already.

He assured that the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs is on course with its work on the Bill.

He was however unable to state categorically when the committee would complete discussions and submit to the House.

He appealed to his colleagues not to accede to pressures from outside. “Indeed when this bill was laid most members of the public thought that within three days this bill would be passed;
nobody new the number of memoranda that has come to the House and the processes that we are going through”.
Ghanamps.com

Chairman of the Political Affairs, Peace, Security and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe J. said the issue of terrorism should be looked at from the root cause in the wake of increased attacks in the West African sub-region.

According to him it is time to start looking more at what is happening in the West and see how best the sub-region can put necessary safety mechanism to work in the region.

“What is happening in Russia and Ukraine has a trickledown effect and the impact is felt mostly on the smaller countries”, he said in an interview from his base in Liberia.

When the terrorist begin to feel that there is more global attention on what is happening in the West or other countries, then they want to take chances, come down and inflate wounds and pains on our people. We need to ensure the international community, the United Nations including the AU do everything possible to look at the situation between Ukraine and Russia”.

And added that the terrorist attack on Togo there was loss of lives and that has been the problem in other parts of the West Africa sub-region. “The problem in the Sahel is coming down” and something should be done about it.

“We are prone to experiencing more of these kinds of attacks in our West African sub-region”, he stated.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Electing Community Parliament lawmakers is going to benefit the West African sub-region and not the current Speaker Dr. Sidie Mohamed Tunis whose flagship programme it is, Senator Edwin Melvin Junior has said.

According to him the current system of various National Assemblies approving delegations to the Community Parliament made their first loyalty to their National Assemblies.

He cited an example by saying as chairman of a very strategic Committee of Senate in his home country Liberia, Public Works and Infrastructure Development, if there is a Committee hearing in his parliament, “I want to stay at home, my first responsibility is to my colleagues back home, we need work on this programme you have a choice to make”.

He gave an example of Ghana and pointed out that its lawmakers are one of the productive members of the Community Parliament but when the issues of the passage of their Electronic Transfer Bill (E-Levy) came, MPs from Ghana could not come to the second Ordinary Session of 2021, their loyalty was to their party and Parliament they remain in Ghana.

“They needed numbers to deal with the E-Levy, so E-Levy had an impact on the Community Parliament. Again we were unable to have the Ordinary Session two weeks ago in Abuja. We had a situation where all the major political parties were going for their primaries and the political situation in Nigeria did not allow us to go there at the time we decided”.

Chairman of the Political Affairs, Peace, Security and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe J. in a telephone interview from his base in Liberia pointed out that, a suggestion was muted to move the first Ordinary Session to Ghana as a second choice.

But his colleagues from Nigeria were quick to point out that when that is done, they are unable to move to Ghana in their numbers because they have a situation in their National Assembly. There is discussion on their national constitution and there is an upcoming election.

“We  had to delay the session by extra two weeks because, we wanted to make sure the situation in Nigeria was clear to enable us move to Nigeria. So this is the situation  we are facing and we would continue to face it because there are growing demand on attendance of MPs in their home countries”.

Additionally, the more countries experience democratic rule, the more there are demands on MPs and until they can achieve electing MPs to represent them in the Community Parliament they have to split between their national Parliament and that of ECOWAS.

“I think the ECOWAS Parliament would begin to achieve more, it is the Community tax payers’ money, if you pay for the ticket of the MP to fly to Abuja, and that MP goes to Abuja for two three days and there is emergency, he or she has to come back home because that is where his or her allegiance is; but if you have an MP who is dedicated to serve his Parliament you would have more from him or her than we are having now”.

As to whether, the Authority of Heads of States and Government contacted to help champion electing lawmakers to the Community Parliament would be able to assist, he said “this is only attainable through the political will. Once the Authority of Heads of States do not show that political will that is needed; the speakers dream would not come to reality”.

And this requires more than just dinning, winning, laughing and joking together; it requires honesty and that is what they need to resolve. This issue of electing MPs to ECOWAS Parliament, just regular visiting and pleasantries is not sufficient enough to solve this problem, he emphasised.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Chairman of Liberia’s Senate Committee on Public Works and Infrastructure Development, Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe Junior has held his first confirmation hearing after his practice as a lawmaker for 17years.

He thanked his colleagues on the Committee and other Senators who made time to attend.
“Thanks for your assistance in guiding me through the process, I remain grateful”.
During the hearing, the nominee, Madam Ruth Cooker-Collins was collaborative, respectful and professional in answering questions that were posed to her.
The Senate Committee on Public Works will revert to committee room to determine the fate of the Minister designate and report to the Senate Plenary within the period of two weeks, he said in his Facebook post.
Ghanamps.com

As part of his agenda as a lawmaker, Member of Parliament for Kombo South Kebba K. Barrow in the Gambia, has embarked on an outreach programme.

He presented food donations to the Kartong Community in Kombo South for their annual “Gamo” and Quranic Recitation which took place on Saturday, June 4, 2022.

Items donated comprise of 5 Bags of Rice (50k) 5 Gallons of cooking oils (20 litre) and 30 packets of drinking Water. The Kombo Parliamentarian was accompanied by Community elders including Bafoday Barrow and Mamo Fofana.

The Donations were respectively distributed to the Kabilos ( wards) and women’s folks and witnessed by Community elders including Aja Nkie Touray ( Women’s leader) Fasaikou Jabang(Deputy Alikalo) and Sanisi Fatty the Iman of Sanchaba in Kartong Village, Kombo South District, West Coast Region.

Ghanamps.com

The political situation in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea has pushed the Authority of Heads of States and Government of the Economic Community of West African States to hold an emergency meeting in Accra Saturday, June 4, 2022.

The 6^th Extraordinary Session is expected to review the decision taken on the political situation in the above countries

It is also to look at efforts made so far by the political leadership in those countries.

For the first time, the meeting is being held at Ghana’s Presidency, Jubilee House.

At the last meeting of the Authority in March, concerns were raised about the continuous detention of deposed Burkina Faso leader Roch Marc Christian Kaboré.

It also upheld the suspension of Burkina Faso from all ECOWAS institutions until constitutional order is restored.

On Guinea, the Authority expressed “serious” concern over the lack of visibility on the transition.

It noted that the six-month deadline set by ECOWAS for the conduct of elections has not been respected.

On the social and political situation in Mali, the Authority notes that the security and humanitarian situation in the country continues to deteriorate with attacks by terrorist groups resulting in military and civilian casualties.

The Authority, therefore, recommended an urgent need to reach an agreement in order to avoid further deterioration of the situation in the country.

Ghanamps.com

Members of parliament around the Nzema area have called on the Ghana Gas Company Limited to address socioeconomic challenges of the people in their immediate environs before extending their assistance to other parts of the country.

The MPs including Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, Ellembelle; Dorcas Affo-Toffey, Jomoro; and Kofi Arko Nokoe, Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira, at a press conference on Thursday addressed by Mr. Emmanuel Amah Kofi Buah expressed surprise that Ghana Gas has abandoned the needs of the people of its immediate areas of operations and is rather solving challenges of other areas.

Mr. Buah who admitted that Ghana Gas is national in nature and would at some point extend its corporate social responsibilities across the country said it is rather sad that instead of starting such assistant from their operational areas, they abandoned the people and are helping build edifices in other regions.
“As we speak we have hospitals there with a lot of challenges, and so you see Ghana Gas building, refurbishing hospitals in the Eastern Region, building schools in the Ashanti Region, which is okay; but we are advising Ghana Gas that we speaking as representatives of the people in the closest of the area they operate that they are not happy”.

He said the situation is building up agitation among the youth and the traditional leaders, a situation he said is not healthy for an important national asset as the Ghana Gas Company Limited.

According to the MPs it is important to note the sacrifices of the people of the Western Region especially the communities in the Nzema area and attend to their needs.

He said compensation has still not even been paid for the lands acquired; “but the communities there have been patient, but a lot of development in the last few years is really creating a lot of tension and concern in the communities in the area, especially in the six districts of the Western region.”

“The reason this is important, I want to be very clear, Ghana National Gas Company is national in nature and so it is important that their reach in terms of corporate social responsibility would be reflected across the country, by all means it is very important. But I think that their focus on places must start from home; their immediate areas of operation.

“As we speak in the last few years, Ghana Gas is spreading its tentacles across Ashanti Region, Eastern Region and all sorts of places except for the areas that it operates – the Nzema area.

They should focus first in addressing some of the concerns that have been put forward by the chiefs and people constantly on daily basis whether is on education, health care, hospitals, because “it is very disheartening when I come from Atuabo, or Anokyi and I know that God forbids if anything happens tomorrow morning, I would be the first to be affected, I know the sacrifices I have gone through with my farm lands to Ghana Gas, to read on daily basis Ghana Gas is building hospital bungalows somewhere else and my hospital has nothing”.

Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira MP, Kofi Arko Nokoe in adding his voice said though his area hosts the longest stretch of the pipeline, he cannot pinpoint one project by Ghana Gas in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Constituency.

He appeals to Ghana Gas to evenly distribute the projects bearing in minds where they operate.

Dominic Shirimri/Ghanamps.com