News:
November 23, 2020
Speaker of the Community Parliament Rt. Honorable Sidie Mohamed Tunis has said there is the urgent need to build a relationship between the sub-regional Parliament and the Parliaments within member states.
According to him the relationship is needed for the Community Parliament to effectively represent the Community citizens.
In an interview at the end of the week long delocalised joint Committees meeting in Lome at the Republic of Togo, he said, currently there is no much relationship between both institutions and even in Nigeria which is the seat of the Parliament has no such relationship, hence the need for change.
He announced that the Community Parliament would host a meeting with speakers of National Assemblies of member states in January of next year.
“My vision is to bring ECOWAS Parliament to the people, so that we would be in a better position to work with National Assemblies, how are we going to represent the people when it is the National Assemblies that represent the people?”
He noted that, that is the reason why he is proposing the January 12, 2021 and hoping that this particular meeting will begin to bring ECOWAS to the people, he emphasized.
On the issue of the inability of the Community citizens including lawmakers to recite the ECOWAS anthem, Speaker Tunis noted that it was important that citizens learn the anthem and more importantly for MPs who are representing people to understand the anthem and imbibe its meaning.
“ECOWAS Parliament which represent over three million Community citizens must know the anthem and then translate its meaning to their job as representatives, and I have always said we are the voices of the citizens and their voices must be heard”.
He further noted that, to do that MPs must first learn the ECOWAS anthem and send the anthem to their people.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com