Nigeria supports direct election for ECOWAS Parliamentarians

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has declared that Nigeria was in support of the calls for an electoral plan that will offer direct election for representations at the West African regional parliament also called ECOWAS Parliament.

This is enclosed in a statement by his media office on Tuesday. Lawan said in the statement, “We are in support of creating an ECOWAS Parliament that has members that will be directly elected into the parliament so that the ordinary people will have a complete attachment with those that represent them in ECOWAS Parliament.”

The Senate President spoke while playing host to the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Niger, Hon. Seini Oumarou, who led some of his Honourable colleagues on a courtesy visit to the President of the Senate.

Lawan stated that the present plan, in which parliament from each member-country sends representations, is working but “we hope that there will be an improvement over the arrangement to ensure that the ECOWAS sub-region is in such a manner and form that our Parliament, when it sits, will be giving us resolutions that will be useful in every part of the ECOWAS countries.”

The Senate President informed his guests that the ECOWAS Parliament is truly representatives of the people in the sub-region and called on other parliaments in the sub-region to keep on supporting the ECOWAS Parliament to achieve its purposes.

Lawan disclosed that Nigeria and Niger had a very long history of relations that dated back to the pre-independence period, stating that the peoples in the two nations share a lot of things in common.

He said, “A formal relationship was established in 1960 and we cherish this very good relation. The affinity between our two countries is very deep and we really cherish that. We take it very seriously that we will continue to be good neighbours.”

President of the Senate, spoke of the mutual partnership and some significant projects like the rail project started to ease trade and economic activities between the two nations.

On the multifaceted relations such as the involvement in the Multinational Joint Task Force, which is in place to tackle insurgency in the Lake Chad Region, Lawan used the opportunity to commend the effort, partnership and support of the Republic of Niger.

He said, “We believe that together we can finish the insurgency in our region. We should continue to be determined that this war with insurgents is something our countries can win and that we will continue to support each other.”

The visiting Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Niger, Seini Oumarou disclosed that he and his delegation were just on a courtesy visit to the National Assembly.

Oumarou stated that it is vital to explore the good relationship between Nigeria and Niger for the advancement of the two countries.