Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar has urged West African media practitioners to pay less attention to the exit of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), stressing that focus should be on economic development.
The Minister gave this urge when he received a delegation from the ECOWAS Parliament led by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Memounatou Ibrahima, in his office in Abuja on Friday, as part of the bilateral partnership to strengthen democratic governance in West Africa ahead of the 25th anniversary of the ECOWAS Parliament in November.
The minister admonished stakeholders to pay more attention on the remaining twelve member states and how they can develop critical sectors with policies and programmes such as the West African Power Pool, ECOWAS Trade Liberalization scheme, Abidjan- Lagos corridor, Abidjan –Dakar corridor and others that will enhance development of the region.
He noted that the ECOWAS Parliament is the embodiment of the “representation of the citizens of the member states and demonstrates commitment towards constitutional and democratic governance.”
Tuggar however, expressed optimism that the three Sahel countries that pulled out following disagreements with ECOWAS over military coups, will soon see reasons to return to the regional bloc.
He said “We will continue to work hard towards the success of ECOWAS and the success of the member- states will encourage the countries to come back. As we keep saying we have not closed the door on their return, we are confident that they will return because they are part and parcel of the region. It is just a matter of time.”
Tuggar said further that although the three countries have exited the regional bloc, Nigeria and other countries within the region will continue to relate with them as neighbors and work together in certain areas for mutual benefits.
Speaker of the Parliament Ibrahima, who was accompanied on the visit by Fourth Deputy Speaker, Billay Tunkara; Secretary General, Bertin Some among others, said the delegation was there to update the minister on the past activities of the parliament in the last one and half years while planning its future activities.
Both sides also discussed ECOWAS at 50, which was celebrated on May 28 in Lagos, while the parliament established in the year 2000, is getting set to celebrate its 25 years as regional legislature.
“We discussed how we can have some capability and enhancement so that we can have more legislative role in the ECOWAS community. We also discussed how we can support ECOWAS in all their programmes and activities,” the Togolese Speaker said.
Source: EcowasNewsOnline.com
