By John Okeke
The Vice President of Gambia, Badara Joof , has challenged the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS) Parliamentarians to show more commitment in their duties as lawmakers to ensuring the people oriented governance that produces results .
Joof made the charge yesterday in Banjul , Gambia when he visisted the lawmakers who is in his country on a Delocalised Meeting .
He urged them to be effective , vibrant legislature that promote democracy and development.
He said,”You people have a lot of work to do . You are the custodian of the laws , you are the creators of the laws and you are the representative of the people . if you hear the people and more importantly listen to them then you will be able to actualize whatever the challenges they are facing . yoy are the legislature and you hold the executive to account . You hold the judiciary to account . You hold every institutions in a functioning democracy to account. And depends on your effectiveness , your proactiveness , your efficiency in execution of your duties. If the legislature functions , the democracy functions. Kwameh Nkruma said seek ye the political kingdom and all the things will follow. Seek ye an effective vibrant legislature and all democracy will be development democracy graduating from political democracy. Political democracy leads in ignoring the idioms of democracy but development democracy you work together to reduce poverty , conflicts , hunger and among others . That is development democracy . And that is challenge am putting onto you that you should promote development democracy rather than rather than putting a lot of emphasis on political democracy which leads to disunity and dyfunctionality system. So, promote development and democracy . we don’t need conflicts in the ecowas region .
He continued’” The cost of war is more expensive than the price of peace . And it is in peace that we can achieve a lot. That is very important and we don’t have much time . you will get the support executive this country and sure of other countries . There are certain challenges in the ecowas region but you should remind the indifference , support the weak and try to bring those people who have deviated to fall in line through persuation , discussion and collaboration . the provident of the future does not in the lie in AK47 and Khaki boys and it lies in sound policies , programmes that are implemented that ministers to the social economic development of the community in particular and the community of Africa in general.
“That is very important for all of us to know. It is time to allow people participation, it is time to allow the legislature to function. It time to allow the legislative, the executive and the judiciary to function,” he said.
He also said his country is committed to the promotion of women participation in governance while stressing the need to involve the women inclusiveness in politics.
“The government has deliberate policies on 35% affirmative action on women representative. It is just the question of sensitizing the publics who should change the mindset to appreciate the role of women . The man and a woman are the two sides of the same coin and minus any one of them there is no value to the coin. It is important that this affirmative action is promoted . and am sure all those at the National Assemlies and all the media will promote this awareness in order to make sure that they have appreciatable representation not only in the parliament but also in the civil service and public service and so forth. It is in active awareness of this that his excellency created ministry of gender women and children. So, it shows a conscious policy effort to promote women participation in development . So, we will continue to do that and it is central to our development initiative.
“The fact that ECOWAS has come together and I think it is one of the strongest regional blocks we have. We have the ECOWAS Parliament, we have the ECOMONG and we have other institutions that are coming together. And I think that should be consolidated and build upon . I mean together we can make a difference in the life of our people. Acquiring comprehensive social economic development is anchored in partnership , in cooperation , in coordination and collaboration . And that is what I see in this room . ECOWAS member states cooperating, collaboration for the advancement of ecowas community,” he said.
Earlier in his remark, the Chairman on the Committee on Political Affairs and Security, Edwin Snowe Junior thanked the Gambian vice president for the warm reception given to the committee.
“Mr. Vice President we are extremely excited that you took time off to meet with us in our working session . what we have in the Gambia today is a joint committee on political affairs , peace and security , Africa peer review mechanism (APRM), Legal Affairs and Human Rights / Social Affairs, Gender and Women Empowerment. We are meeting in Gambia relating to commuty texts to the governance, the challenges and the implementation of our oversight roles at the ecowas. And Gambia is holding that meeting and on behalf of the joint committee of the ecowas parliament we will like to thank you and the people of Gambia for the warm reception we received since our arrival to your country .”
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Gambian Vice President challenges ECOWAS Parliament on enabling laws to aid good governance
