NAN-F-35
Movement
By Emmanuel Mogbede
Niamey, Oct. 10, 2017 (NAN) Dr Nelson Magbagbeola, ECOWAS Parliament Secretary-General says the parliament will continue to monitor the borders of member states to ensure full implementation of the community´s protocol on free movement.
Magbagbeola made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the end of the five-day ECOWAS Parliament 4TH Legislature de-localised meeting in Niamey.
According to him, the ECOWAS protocol on free movement signed in the 70s, is the oldest and has unfortunately been a major challenge to it with regards to its full implementation in member countries.
He added that citizens of member countries had continuously been harassed and asked to pay certain amount of money while trying to enter other countries.
“It is a serious challenge, but ECOWAS Parliament has taken it upon itself to be visiting the borders. We started in August when we were in Lome.
“We visited the Lome border, Ghana border at Aflawo, we also went to the Lakunji Benin border, that is the border between Togo and Benin to sensitise the population.
“And we have also planned similar border visits by parliamentarians for Darkar, Bamako Quagadugu.
“There are other ones for Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia so as to address these issues, meet with the operatives and find out what the challenges are,´´ he said.
According to to him, the parliament´s desire is for the ECOWAS to be a single space in terms of economy where people can move freely without any harassment.
Magbagbeola further added that though governments and the authorities of member countries had the political will to ratify ECOWAS protocols, implementation of treaties had remained a challenge.
According to him, this is so because it is the operatives that monitor the borders and not the Heads of States.
He maintained that the political will was there among Heads of State, adding that because of poverty, the operatives in most member countries still engaged in sharp practices.
“The political will is there but unfortunately because of poverty, the operatives demand for money and they lobby to be posted to border post to demand for money,’’ he said.
He, however, added that sensitisation was going on to educate ECOWAS citizens that they were not to pay anything to move freely within the sub-region.
He said that while the parliament believed that Heads of States of member countries had the political will to implement ECOWAS protocols, there was the need for state operatives to do the needful.
The ECOWAS Parliament Secretary-General described the de-localised meeting as successful in terms of organisation and course content, adding that it brought the community to the people of Niger.
“Instead of staying back in Abuja and talking about ECOWAS and people hearing about it, we brought it closer to the people.
“Part of the programme was to engage with the authorities, we were with the President of the country and the Speaker of the National Assembly and also met with the Prime Minister,’’ he said.
The Sectary-General thanked the Nigerien delegation, the government and authorities of that country for ensuring the comfort of parliamentarians from member countries.
He maintained that the parliament would continue to encourage women to take up elective positions, education for the girl-child, and the training and re-training of women to get to high positions.
According to him, the parliament will continue to give priority to issues concerning Female Gender Mutilation, suppression of women rights and gender equality.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that issues about migration and the free movement of persons and goods within the sub-region were extensively discussed at the meeting.
The meeting also discussed issues concerning development generally and the need for a common currency as a way of bringing ECOWAS closer to the people.
ECOWAS Parliament is made up of 15-member countries, Nigeria, Niger, Togo, Gambia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d´Ivoire and Ghana.
Others are Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone. (NAN)
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Edited by Ese E. Ekama