Nigeria backs calls for direct election for ECOWAS Parliamentarians
He said: "We are in support of creating an ECOWAS
Parliament that has members that will be directly elected into the parliament
so that the ordinary people will have a complete attachment with those that
represent them in ECOWAS Parliament," Lawan said.
He spoke while playing host to the Speaker of the National
Assembly of the Republic of Niger, Hon. Seini Oumarou who led some of his
Honourable colleagues on a courtesy visit the Senate President.
Lawan said the current arrangement, in which parliament from
each member-country sends representations, is working but "we hope that
there will be an improvement over the arrangement to ensure that the ECOWAS
sub-region is in such a manner and form that our Parliament, when it sits, will
be giving us resolutions that will be useful in every part of the ECOWAS
countries."
The Senate President told his guests that the ECOWAS
Parliament is truly representatives of the people in the sub-region and urged
other parliaments in the sub-region to continue to support the ECOWAS Parliament
to perform its functions.
Lawan said Nigeria and Niger had a very long history of
relations which dated back to pre-independence period adding that the peoples
in the two countries share many things in common.
"A formal relationship was established in 1960 and we
cherish this very good relation...The affinity between our two countries is
very deep and we really cherish that. We
take it very seriously that we will continue to be good neighbours," Lawan
said.
The Senate President spoke on the bilateral cooperation and
some key projects like the rail project initiated to facilitate trade and
economic activities between the two countries.
On the multilateral relations such as the involvement in the
Multinational Joint Task Force which is in place to fight insurgency in the
Lake Chad Region, Lawan seized the opportunity to appreciate the effort,
cooperation and support of the Republic of Niger.
"We believe that together we can finish the insurgency
in our region. We should continue to be determined that this war with
insurgents is something our countries can win and that we will continue to
support each other," Lawan said.
Earlier, the visiting Speaker of the National Assembly of
the Republic of Niger, Seini Oumarou said he and his delegation were just on a
courtesy visit to the National Assembly.
He said that it is imperative to explore the good relationship between Nigeria and Niger to the betterment of the two peoples.
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