Rep. Benjamin Kalu, Nigeria’s House of Reps Deputy Speaker and Chairman, ECOWAS Parliament’s Joint Committee on Administration, Finance and Budget.
The Deputy Speaker, Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Rep. Benjamin Kalu, has said the ECOWAS Parliament is deploying parliamentary diplomacy mechanisms to ensure Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger’s threats to exit the sub-regional bloc do not materialise,
Assuring there is no cause for alarm over the bloc’s perceived existential threat posed by violent extremism and the threats of exit from ECOWAS by the three West African countries, Kalu said: “There are already mechanisms in place, through what is called parliamentary diplomacy, to reach out to them.
“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.
He explained that there is a clear definition of the sources of ECOWAS revenue, noting that the Community Levy happens to be just one of them.
“There are many other sources. So, we want to make sure that we streamline them and know where monies are coming from.
“If these are not enough, we will increase because there are so many development agencies, 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.
