World

Senegalese emerges new ECOFEPA President

By John Okeke

Hon. Woraye Sarr of Senegal has been  elected as the new President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Female Parliamentarian Association(ECOFEPA) alongside Biodun Olujimi (Nigeria)  and Gabriella Fernandez (Guinea Bissau) as first and second Vice Presidents.

Sarr succeeded Honorable Isa Filomena Pereira Soares Da Costa (Cape Verde)  who bowed out of office as the President of the ECOFEPA yesterday in Abuja .

ECOFEPA is a subset of the ECOWAS Parliament and a network of female parliamentarians who are representing member countries in the sub-regional parliament.

Out of the 115 parliamentarians in the ECOWAS Parliament, 21 of them are female lawmakers, representing 18.2%, according to the Department of Parliamentary Affairs and Research of the ECOWAS Parliament.

The Association was established in the year 2002 to support and encourage ECOWAS Community programmes that promote the social, economic, and cultural development of the peoples of West Africa, bringing a parliamentary and political approach to the ECOWAS gender mainstreaming and towards the execution of the ECOWAS gender policy.

Hon. Filomena was unanimously elected President in 2018 and sworn in on December 10th, replacing Nigerian Senator Stella Oduah. She was elected along with Hon. Kaboule Reine Bertille Sakande Benao (Burkina Faso) 1st Vice President, Hon. Biodun Olujimi (Nigeria) as 2nd Vice President and, Hon. Guiro Oulimata (Senegal) was appointed to serve as Secretary-General while Hon. Fatoumatta Njai was elected as the Association’s Treasurer.

Hon. Filomena, while bidding farewell to Members of the ECOWAS Parliament during the ongoing Second Ordinary Session in Abuja-Nigeria said that ever since 2007, she has learned a lot and built good ties with members from across the region, noting that even as she leaves, she does not consider herself a stranger in the sub-region.

”I have friends who I can call on at any time in the French, English and Portuguese Countries in the sub-region,” she said.


A comprehensive interview with Hon.

Filomena on what the ECOWAS Parliament has taught her could not materialize due to language interpretation challenges.


Credible sources have it that she has been appointed Foreign Minister in her native Cape Verde.

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