Saraki To ECOWAS Parliament: Help Us Fight #BokoHaram

Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on Thursday called on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, to join hands with Nigeria and the International Community in the ongoing war against terrorism.

“Unless we act together, the objective of eliminating terrorism from our soil will be harder to achieve. The ECOWAS Parliament provides us a unique platform to advance this objective,” Saraki said in his goodwill message at the inaugural session of the 4th Legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja.

“Therefore, it has a major role to play in addressing the menace of terrorism both as a coordinator of regional effort and an initiator of the right legal framework that can lead to a cohesive regional effort.

“I urge the ECOWAS Parliament to join hands with us in Nigeria and the international community to ensure that we eliminate terrorism from the region”.

Saraki who commended past efforts of the parliament aimed at enhancing the socio-economic development of member nations, said: “Our sub-region has in recent times fallen victim to terror and the activities of organized crime. The region has lost much in social and economic terms.

The Senate President said though the parliament is just 16 years old, it has achieved significant strides in “nurturing the vision of our founding fathers, cementing our collective aspirations and providing us a platform for the integration process, notwithstanding the obvious limitations”.

“The experiment we had with a sub-regional Parliament in West Africa, as well as the significant achievements recorded especially in the area of Parliamentary diplomacy in the Mano River area, the Ivorian conflict and the Guinea Bissau crises are all testimonies of the critical moderating role that the parliament is capable of providing,” he said.