By Olukayode Idowu
A member of the 6th ECOWAS Parliament, Sen. Osita Izunaso has called for election of members directly by their constituents into the regional legislative body, rather than through nomination by their countries as it is today.
Izunaso, the First Rapporteur of the parliament’s Joint Committee on Public Accounts, made the call in an interview with journalists in Abidjan on Tuesday.
Izunaso (APC-Imo West) is a fourth-term senator, and longest serving lawmaker from the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones in the Nigerian senate.
Speaking on the sidelines of the parliament’s joint committee on administration, budget, finance, public account, macroeconomic policy, and economic research meeting, he suggested the amendment of the Supplementary Act for that purpose.
“The direct election of members to the ECOWAS Parliament is long overdue.
“We must borrow a leaf from the European Parliament, where members are elected directly by their constituents.
“I think we have to work out a framework for the direct election of members to the ECOWAS Parliament.
“That will go a long way in solving most of the problems of the parliament, and I strongly believe in it.
“I spoke about it when I was making my contributions and I believe that is the best way to go.
“The modalities have to be worked out, and it is one of the issues we are going to agree on in this conference.
“The committee that is in charge will be given that responsibility to work out a framework on how to hold direct elections to ECOWAS Parliament.
“When that happens, I’m sure more powers will be given to the Parliament,” he said.
Izunaso noted that through direct elections, the people’s representatives to the parliament will be elected directly, whether they have been parliamentarians or not.
According to him, it has to be open for people who want to contest to do so because it is not only parliamentarians who have repository of knowledge.
The lawmaker said there were non-parliamentarians that are more knowledge, who might even make better contributions if they were elected into the Parliament.
“The benefit of electing ECOWAS parliamentarians directly is that it will give them more authority, they’ll have more powers, they’ll have more checks and balances.
“This is as enshrined in the principles of Separation of Powers, because when you hold direct elections, you give more powers to the legislature.
“So, it will be more beneficial to the ECOWAS sub-region than it is today,” the senator said.
Izunaso also called for the amendment of the Supplementary Act to give total legislative authority to the ECOWAS Parliament, stressing that there were a lot of gaps that needed to be closed.
He observed that a situation where the ECOWAS Parliament does not have legislative powers with regards to budgeting, it would not augur well for the community.
“So, we are proposing that the Supplementary Act be amended to give more powers to the ECOWAS Parliament, in terms of budgeting and also auditing.
“This is because if you have a parliament that does not exercise legislative duties, then there’s a gap, something is missing somewhere,” he said.
The parliamentarian also proposed that the amendments should include mandating that some key appointments in the ECOWAS parliament be subjected to parliamentary confirmation.
He suggested that the appointment of the President of the ECOWAS Commission, the commissioners, and other top management staff should be subjected to parliamentary confirmation.
On the threat of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to exit ECOWAS, the lawmaker said their exit would bring about the dual challenges of funding and exclusion.
“So, it’s not only about the need for more funding, but it’s more of inclusivity; If we say we are ECOWAS, every part of ECOWAS should be together.
“We’re not happy that any one of our member countries would want to pull out, because the more we are, the merrier, so we want them back.
“But I believe that the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of Government are working towards resolving the issues,” Izunaso added.