About 50 parliamentarians from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will, tomorrow, open their second extraordinary session in Kano with issues bordering on regional and economic integration of member states.
Addressing journalists shortly at the end of its Bureau’s meeting, yesterday, First Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS parliament, Senator Barau Jibril, said the opening session of the sixth legislature would ventilate wide range of matters of interest among member states.
Jibril, who doubles as Nigeria’s Deputy Senate President, said the leadership of the parliament, committee chairmen and other principal officers of the community, had concluded a session that outlined agenda for the four days deliberation in Kano.
He said: “The entire Assembly has been brought here and in the assembly, we don’t have any kind of restrictions. When we have a parliament, everything concerning the entire community will be discussed.”
On why Kano was chosen to host the sixth session, Jibril said: “Kano is the centre of commerce in the entire northern Nigeria. It is the political capital, if you like political nerve centre, in the entire northern Nigeria.
“So that’s why we brought this session to hold here so that we bring ECOWAS closer to the people so that people will know ECOWAS parliament and ECOWAS parliament will go deeper into our various societies.”
Parliamentarians from Nigeria, Benin Republic, Burkina-Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Cote ‘D Ivoire, Liberia, Senegal, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Togo, and Sierra Leone.
