ECOWAS: Committee on Enhancement of Parliament’s Power Submits Report

After exhaustive deliberations, the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Enhancement of Powers of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament finally submitted its report to the parliament on Friday.

The 16-member ad-hoc committee is chaired by the Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Sulaimon Lasun Yussuff.

In the report, the committee acknowledged that a great deal of work had been done in the area of enhancement of powers of the parliament during the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Legislatures which the present committee said it would build on.

The committee also considered the status of the enhancement process of the 3rd Legislature,expressing its wish to determine the precise situation of the draft Supplementary Act on Enhancement and any concerns there were to the proposals in the documents.

The most part of the report, is the aspect that touched on the failure of the 47th Ordinary Session of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government to sign the document on powers of parliament’s enhancement.

In opposing the action of the Authority of Heads of State and Government, the committee averred that “the language of item 63 of the final communique of the 47th Ordinary Session of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government, which stated that ‘Community institutions should pursue their thoughts on the enhancement of the prerogatives of the ECOWAS Parliament and Report to the Authority.’ was vague and did not reveal their reasons for not signing the document.

Commenting on this, Hon. Garba Shehu told the parliament that the failure to sign the document by the Authority of Heads of States and Government, will define the 4th Legislature.