A proposal to establish a Youth Parliament in the West African sub-region was rejected by members of parliament at the ongoing High-level Parliamentary seminar organised by the ECOWAS Parliament at Winneba, Ghana.
The drama unfolded when the third Deputy Speaker, Hon. Memounatou Ibrahima from Togo, pointed out that the presentation was not presented to the bureau.
She explained that she is not against the youth of the sub-region wanting to establish a Youth Parliament, but it should be done properly, and not a few selected youths wanting to establish a parliament without taking into account the views of the entire sub-regional youths.
“If you want to succeed, you need to revisit the formation of this association and it should involve all members. You need to do it well”, she pointed out.
Another member of Parliament from Nigeria, Hon. Awaji-Inombek Abiante, also backed the third Deputy Speaker’s stand and pointed out the need for proper housekeeping and self-auditing.
He added that anything coming to the parliament should go through the proper channel.
The First deputy Speaker, Ahmed Idris Wase who presided over the proceedings intervened and pleaded with his colleagues to let this pass as they will deal with the issue at a closed-door session.
However, the drama got heated as each MPs intervention was not taking kindly to what was unfolding.
When the youth group was reached out to by journalists, they expressed surprise at the way things had turned up.
They recalled that at the opening ceremony of the High-level Seminar, Speaker Sidie Tunis, mentioned that a youth Parliament would be inaugurated.
But the representative of the youths said that in paragraph 10 of the Speaker’s speech, he said that they would make their presentation to members of parliament during the Seminar.
