Absence of legislative arm, setback for ECOWAS – Ekweremadu

The Speaker of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States, Senator Ike
Ekweremadu, has described the continued absence of a proper legislative arm as a huge setback for the ECOWAS.
Speaking at the closing of the 2015 First Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja on Wednesday, the Deputy Senate President regretted that the regional body could not boast of a regional parliament after 40 years of existence.
“It is sad to note that 40 years after its establishment, ECOWAS cannot boast of a regional parliament in true sense of a parliament,” he lamented.
He noted that though the ECOWAS Parliament was inaugurated in year 2000, it had remained a sheer talk-shop and a resource drain since it does not perform any legislative function.
The Senator regretted that although the New Article 13 of the Supplementary Protocol amending the 1994 Protocol on the Parliament provides for the progressive enhancement of the ECOWAS Parliament from advisory to co-decision making and subsequently to a law making body, the body had remained the same 15 years after it was inaugurated.
Ekweremadu explained to journalists that the relevant ECOWAS bodies such as the Body of Attorneys-General of the subregion, Administration and Finance Committee, and ECOWAS Council of Ministers had all considered the Suplementary Act on the Enhancement of the powers of the ECOWAS Parliament, affirmed its legal sufficiency, financial propriety and recommended it to the Authority of Heads of State for assent.
He said that the Authority adopted the Act at its 46th Ordinary Session in Abuja in December 2014, but it was regrettably not signed at its recent 47th Ordinary Session in Accra because of the opposition mounted by Senagal and Cote’divoire.