Janet Samuel, Abuja
The Chairman of The Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will convene the inaugural session of the ECOWAS Parliament (The House of Representatives of the Peoples of the Community), today at the seat of Parliament in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria.
A statement by the communication division of the ECOWAS Parliament said, the Inaugural Session of the Sixth Legislature of the Parliament which formally marks the commencement of the business of the legislature, is being convened pursuant to Article 28 of the Supplementary Act on the Enhancement of the Powers of the ECOWAS Parliament of 2016, following the end of the Fifth Legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament on March 8, 2024.
Hgh points of the inaugural session is the swearing in of the Representatives elected to the ECOWAS Parliament by the various National Assemblies or their equivalence in every Member State.
“with the new Members affirming before the Chairman of The Authority, their commitment to serve the interests of the peoples of the sub-region. Members will then elect of a speaker to serve a four-year tenure Parliament for a four-year tenure,
” in accordance with the provisions of the Supplementary Act 2016. Article 24 of the Supplementary Act of the Parliament relating to the Enhancement of the Powers of Parliament provides that the position of the Speaker of the Parliament shall be allocated to Member States by the Authority, in line with an established rotational system based on the alphabetical order of Member States. Consequently, Decision A/DEC.1/3/24 of The Authority of Heads of State and Government,”
‘Allocating the position of Speaker of the Sixth Legislature, was recently signed by its Chairman. The Republic of Togo comes next in alphabetical order of Member States after Sierra Leone which held the position of Speaker in the just ended Fifth Legislature. Article 2 (2) of the Supplementary Act states that ‘Members of the ECOWAS Parliament shall represent All the peoples of the Community’.
