ECOWAS Parliament.: Is the 2024 Second Ordinary Session really in limbo?

Never in my more than six years coverage of the Community Parliament have I witnessed a budget session thrown into limbo, where Members of Parliament and ad hoc staffs remain uncertain over when the 2024 Second Ordinary Session of the parliament would be held.

On the calendar of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, statutorily, between November and December of every year there is a Second Ordinary Session which is normally held in Abuja Nigeria, known as the budget session.

This session is to consider and give Parliamentary opinion on the Community Budget proposal adopted by the Administration and Finance of the Commission (AFC) of ECOWAS. It is a session to examine the draft 2025 Consolidated Budget of the Community Parliament.

At the end of the third Extra Ordinary Session in Lome-Togo, the Rt. Hon Speaker, Memounatou Ibrahima announced that the 2024 Second Ordinary Session will hold from November 18, 2024, to December 10, 2024. That date has passed few days ago and there was no session.

A week to the above date, when Members of Parliament had not received invitation letters to this effect it brought some confusion in the minds of the lawmakers who started asking questions as when the event would be held. While in Cairo Egypt attending the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum, I met with the Deputy Majority Leader of the Sierra Leone Parliament, Hon. Saa Emerson Lamina who happens to be a member of that country’s delegation to the current Community Parliament, also enquiring about the date for the session. Based on what I gathered as a journalist I told him, “The Session is in limbo; and from what I gathered it might not hold, there is no funds”, I explained.

The question that begs for answers however is, “how financially stable is the Community Parliament?”

During the consideration of the 2023 Draft Consolidated Budget of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Institutions, by the Community Parliament, the Parliamentarians, sitting in Plenary as part of its Second Ordinary Session for the year, debated among other issues, the non-payment of the Community levy by some Member States, on Wednesday, 30 November 2022, in Abuja.

The Parliamentarians frowned at the attitude of some countries that have not made any payments since the beginning of 2022. They condemned this situation, arguing that Countries that are up to date with their contribution cannot continue to pay for others.

A case in point is when Cape Verde in the 5th and 6th Legislatures were denied deputy speakership position in Niger and Nigeria respectively due to glitches in the payment of their levies which the longest serving community lawmaker and leader Dr.  Pereira Dias Orlando did not take kindly to. Back home in Cape Verde, Dr. Orlando has been crusading for his country to pay up its levies.

It is worth of note that the Community Parliament’s main source of income is the levies paid by member states. As such what becomes of it when member states fail to honour their financial obligation to the group?

Is it really the case that the ECOWAS is cash trapped?

Is it about time the Bureau of Parliament uses the mechanisms at its disposal to find a solution to the worrying situation of non-payment of levies as suggested by the Parliamentarians?

The Community levy is a 0.5% tax imposed on goods from non-ECOWAS Member States and constitutes between 70 and 90% of the ECOWAS budget.

I cannot agree more with a former member of Ghana’s delegation to the Community parliament, Hon Fredick Opare Ansah, who believe its high time the sub-regional bloc looked at alternative ways of funding the body to pave way for accelerated execution of program and policies in the sub-region.

November 22, 2024

Source: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso || Ghanamps.com