In the wake of the military leaders in the Three Sahel Countries (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger) closing their doors to any negotiation to avert their exit plan from the West African bloc, despite efforts by Authority of Heads of States and Government, the ECOWAS Commission and Parliament, one of the MPs is calling for a survey among the citizens of those countries on whether or not they endorse the exit of their respective countries from the bloc.
A member of Ghana’s delegation to the Community Parliament, Hon Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah in a telephone interview in Lome Togo where he is attending the third Extraordinary Session of the Parliament agreed that there should be a survey to find out if indeed the citizens of the three Sahel Countries (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger) will want to exit the West African bloc.
And further pointed out that, if the military junta had open up to hear from ECOWAS, “we will not be here contemplating on survey to find out if the citizens agree with their entrenched position of exiting the bloc”.
He revealed that at the last ordinary session in Abuja, they agreed to send an Ad Hoc Committee to the three countries, adding that ground works have started in earnest. “It is left with our colleagues, who are working with the ECOWAS institutions to speak to their Heads of States to allow for communications to see how best to resolve the situation”.
“We are better as ECOWAS than the three of them to have Sahel Alliance; and I hear some Community member states are preparing to join them from the rumors on the ground and that will be a disaster for ECOWAS if that happens”.
He further stated that there is a meeting with the Committee on Political Affairs, Peace, Security and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) on Ghana’s upcoming presidential and Parliamentary elections, Senegal and Guinea Bissau’s National Assembly being dissolved and the exit of the three Sahel countries from the sub-regional bloc.
Source: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ecowasnewsonline.com
