The Deputy Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Rep Benjamin Kalu, has said that the ECOWAS Parliament is deploying parliamentary diplomacy mechanisms to handle issues with Mali, Burkina Faso, and the Niger Republic who are all threatening to exit the sub-regional bloc.
Kalu disclosed this in an interview with journalists in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on the sidelines of a meeting of the parliament’s Joint Committee on Administration, Finance, Budget, Public Accounts, Macroeconomic Policy and Economic Research, of which he is Chairman.
Kalu said there was no cause for alarm over the bloc’s perceived existential threat posed by violent extremism, and the exit threats from ECOWAS by the three West African countries.
“There are already mechanisms in place, through what is called parliamentary diplomacy, to reach out to them.
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“Letters have been sent to them, and very soon, some of us will start visiting those countries to engage the heads of government.
“We’ll open up the doors for them to come back to the family; we need them.
“We’ll tell them for instance that, granted, maybe they were offended by one or two things, but let us sit down again and discuss,” the deputy speaker stressed.
He added: “You can’t just forget them and say it doesn’t matter; that they can go on their own.
“No! We have to reach out to them and say we are better off as one family.
“I’m sure it’s going to work.”
Kalu, however, said that in the event of a worse case scenario, where the three countries go ahead and exit, ECOWAS would not be threatened financially.
According to him, there is a clear definition of the sources of ECOWAS revenue.
He noted that the Community Levy is just one of them.
“There are many other sources. So, we want to make sure that we streamline it and know where monies are coming from.
“If these are not enough, we will increase because there are so many development agencies, there are so many people, who are interested in the sub-region.
“There are multiple ways of raising funds for the parliament, as well as the community,” he said.
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