News:
December 2, 2019
As the life span of the fourth legislature of the Community Parliament comes to an end on the 3rd of January 2020 with Sierra Leone next in line to take over the mantel of speakership, leader of the women caucus of Sierra Leone and a member of the delegation of the fourth Community legislature, Veronica K. Sesay has assured of her country’s preparedness to take over the mantel of speakership next year.
“We are more than ready to take over the mantel of speakership next year”, she emphasized.
She noted that since the formation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), it is their turn and the first time to occupy that position in the Parliament and they are ready for it.
Madam Sesay in an interview noted that they are five in number as a delegation, the person nominated by the country’s President to be next Speaker in the fifth Legislature was presented in Liberia at an extra Ordinary Session.
“I am happy having a Speaker coming from an Anglophone country, we need to be together, we have had speakers coming from francophone countries, and it is now our turn and I hope we would do more”.
“In addition we are not saying we are going to do new inventions, it is continuity, only that we would try to bring new modalities as we are in tune with the parliamentary sittings of ECOWAS Parliament.”
She also indicated that one serious challenge that they would have to address has to do with language barrier.
“Most of us from the English speaking countries, cannot communicate in French and Portuguese which are official languages of the community Parliament and the other way round, they cannot communicate in English”.
She proposed that the basics in the three official languages should be taught to lawmakers to enable them communicate in the next Parliament and added that it should be such that every lawmaker attends this sessions.
She also expressed hope that in the next Parliament attendance to sessions would be taken seriously as some countries do not pay serious attention to attending meetings, meanwhile, they need correct information on the session to be related back to their home countries.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com/Abuja