.

BY: Victoria Ojeme

The fact that lawmakers in the ECOWAS parliament have a penchant for absenting from parliamentary sessions is no news. What is news is that the speaker of the parliament can also flagrantly absent himself from a whole 21-day parliamentary session without reason.

In May 2018, only four out of 35 Nigerian representatives to the ECOWAS Parliament were present at the presentation of the Nigerian Country Report at the First Session of the Parliament.

Following that, the then Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Mr Moustapha Cisse Lo had warned that the consistent absence of some members of parliament would not be tolerated anymore.

He recalled that during previous sessions and throughout the session in June 2019, some parliamentarians never showed up and some others sparingly did and would collect the daily sitting allowances.

He said that the Bureau of Parliament had been instructed to block the payments of certain parliamentarians that were absent during the session.

“I gave instructions for MPs to sign the attendance, that attendance list is mandatory because if there is nobody there will be no plenary session,” the speaker said.

That was the attitude the former speaker had towards the law making business. That could be contrasted with the attitude of the current speaker of parliament, Sidie Tunis.

Sources at the parliament in Abuja told our correspondent that “for the first time since the almost 30 years history of the ECOWAS parliament, no speaker has ever abandoned a whole 3 weeks session without giving a reason for his absence.”

“The Speaker was always seen with his President gallivanting around other nations. He was also seen in Kigali with his President. How can a President of a country allow a speaker of a parliament to be in his entourage when a session is on-going?”

The 2022 First Ordinary Session Of ECOWAS Parliament was held between 9th June and 2nd July 2022 in Abuja.

During this session which was presided over by the ECOWAS First Deputy Speaker, Hon. Idris Wase, parliament deliberated on the draft community regulations emanating from the ECOWAS Commission, examined Community strategies targeted at improving governance, addressed issues of unconstitutional change of government and proffer solutions towards democratic consolidation in the sub-region.

One of the key highlights of this First Ordinary Session is the presentation of the State of the Community report by the President of the ECOWAS Commission, His Excellency, Jean Claude Kassi Brou. This is in accordance with Article 32 of the Supplementary Act on the Enhancement of the Powers of Parliament, which stipulates that: “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.”

At the close of the session, the first Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament announced the temporary suspension of all recruitment, conversion and promotion exercise in the Parliament pending on the outcome of the parliament’s audit report.

The motion to suspend the recruitment and promotion in the ECOWAS Parliament was moved by Hon. Awajim Abiante, a Nigerian lawmaker at the ECOWAS Parliament. The motion was seconded by Sen. Biodun Olujimi, a Nigerian Lawmaker at the Parliament, supported by Hon. Yousoufa Bida and concurrently agreed by the house.