The parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has elected its first ever female speaker.
The new speaker, Memounatou Ibrahima from Togo, was elected at the 2024 Second Extraordinary Session of the Sixth Legislature of the Community Parliament in Kano.
She emerged as speaker due to the rotation of the speakership of the parliament in alphabetical order in accordance with the provisions of its Supplementary Act.
Ibrahima was the third Deputy Speaker in the fifth Legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament. She has been in the ECOWAS Parliament since 2021.
She is taking up the baton from the Nigerian delegation leader, Senator Barau Jibrin, who had been acting as the speaker to avoid creating a vacuum of leadership at the Community Parliament. Jibrin was elected the First Deputy Speaker at the inauguration of the Sixth Legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament on April 4.
"Our responsibilities are weighty, and we must be aware of them and remain faithful to our commitments. We need to work together with intelligence, rigor, and determination," she stated.
During this 6th legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament, Mémounatou will collaborate with two other Togolese deputies, Senou Soklingbe and Patrick Kodjovi Senam Bolouvi, both members of the Union for the Republic (UNIR) party.
The ECOWAS Parliament, established in July 1993 with its headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, consists of one hundred and twenty (120) seats. Each of the sixteen (16) member states has a minimum of five (05) seats, with the remaining forty (40) seats allocated based on the population of each country.
Source: Daily Trust, TogoFirst
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