By Innocent Odoh, Abuja
The Speaker of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Rt. Hon Memounatou Ibrahima and the President of the Nigerian Senate, Godswill Akpabio have affirmed their commitment to finding solutions to the myriad of crises bedeviling the sub region.
The Speaker led a delegation to pay a courtesy visit to Akpabio at the National Assembly in Abuja on Wednesday, where she engaged the Senate leadership on the socio-political situation in the community. She was accompanied to the visit by the Secretary General of the ECOWAS Parliament, Mr. Bertin Some among others.
The Speaker’s delegation was received by the Deputy Speaker of the Nigerian Senate, Jibrin Barau, who is also the First Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament.
Speaking to reporters after a closed door meeting Hon Ibrahima said “we have come to pay a visit to the President of the Senate, we came to thank him for all the facilities that the Senate of Nigeria is providing for the ECOWAS Parliament to facilitate the holding of our sessions in Abuja. We also discussed on the socio- political situation in the community and how the parliament can make more contributions on the various issues and challenges that we are experiencing in ECOWAS.”
On the vexed issue of the three member countries of the community- Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which announced their intention to quit the regional bloc, following disagreements with ECOWAS, the Speaker emphasized that the parliament will deploy “parliamentary diplomacy” to bring back the three estranged member countries.
On his part, Akpabio, who was represented by Barau, commended the Speaker for enhancing cooperation with national parliaments, adding that her untiring efforts at repositioning the sub regional parliament by enhancing cooperation with national parliaments, is yielding significant results.
He noted that since assuming the parliament’s speakership, Ibrahima has deployed enormous parliamentary diplomacy to bear not only on the level of cooperation with institutions in the region but also on those that have expressed the wish to quit the regional bloc.
“”It is in that respect that she is here, and what she is doing is commendable. She has come to strengthen her idea and initiative of making the parliament stronger and more effective,” he said.