A member on the Committee on Telecommunications and Information Technology in the fourth Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Mr. Clement Kofi Humado has dismissed a suggestion to have the first Extra Ordinary Session of the fifth Parliament scheduled for May/June via Skype or conference call in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.
According to him, the numbers that form the Parliament; one hundred and fifteen (115) from the fifteen member states is too huge and it is not everybody who is up to speed with that kind of technology.
“There are a lot of elderly people who need to be coached before they can effectively participate should there be even a need for Skype meeting. Going forward, we should learn how to do this conference calls gradually until it becomes part of us in ECOWAS Parliament”.
Mr. Humado made this remarks in an interview with Ghanamps.com in the wake of the outbreak of the Coronavirus, and most of the ECOWAS institutions have shut down in Abuja and Lagos as staff had been directed to stay at home.
“Our first meeting of the fifth Legislature is supposed to be in May, June; we are in April, it seems to me that it is too close and the rate of management of COVID-19 in West Africa has just began, we have not reached the peak. I think the May session has to be postponed indefinitely”.
He further pointed out that with the putting up of a building to house the Community Parliament, modern technology should play an important role, because COVID-19 has shown that there should be less contact.
“We do not know what would follow the coronavirus, we should learn how to communicate at a distance but also arriving at the same results going forward we need to do that as it would reduce cost tremendously, considering airline flights and other logistics”.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com
