The first ordinary session of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament for the year 2023 opened on Monday in Nigeria.
This session will be dedicated among others to the examination of the draft report of the extraordinary session held in January 2023 in Guinea Bissau, the presentation of the state of implementation of the work programme of the community which will be made by the President of the ECOWAS Commission.
Thus, a series of presentations of country reports followed by debates on the state of implementation of this program at the level of member countries of the community and interactive sessions with ECOWAS commissioners will be followed by parliamentarians during this session.
Apart from the parliamentarians, the parliament’s partners, namely the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will also be able to follow these sessions.
Speaking at the opening of the session, the President of the ECOWAS Parliament, Mohamed Sidie Tunis, recalled that “the parliament, the face of democracy in our sub-region, is called upon to fulfill the wishes of the people of the community”.
President Mohamed Tunis also pledged to continue his “support to women” through ECOFEPA.
However, he acknowledged that “the parliament has not yet succeeded in being a legislative body, the only way for parliamentarians to fully exercise their power”.
The ECOWAS parliament is composed of 115 deputies from the national assemblies of the 15 member countries.