ECOWAS: 31 of 35 Nigerian MPs absent for their country report
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mao a. ohuabunwa1 only four out of 35 nigerian representatives to the ecowas parliament were on wednesday present at the presentation of the nigerian country report at the first session of the parliament1 during the ordinary sessions of the parliament the 15 ecowas member nations present reports on their countries. the report bothers on the political situation economic situation human rights situation and many more relating to their countries1 our correspondent reports that only two representatives hon. ibrahim sadiq who read the report and hon. mohammed shaaba lafiagi were sighted on the floor of the ecowas parliament1 however a member of parliament from ghana hon opare-ansah frederick who observed the embarrassing absence of nigerian representatives expressed displeasure that only four nigerians were present for the report1 fredrick particularly expressed displeasure at the absence of the nigerians especially on a day when the nigerian country report was being presented1 mr speaker on a day when nigeria is presenting her country report one would have expected that the representatives from nigeria would be well represented1 we see them here but on a day when we are taking their report only four of them are here. in fact i saw one of them leaving right after the report he said1 on the issue of community levy the ghanaian mp joined many other members to call on nigeria to play her big brother role and pay her community levy stressing that nigeria was the biggest economy on whose shoulders the success or failure of ecowas laid the most1 our correspondent reports that the issue of poor attendance by nigerian representatives has been a recurring decimal1 at the last session of the parliament in 2017 the speaker of the parliament moustapha cisse lo particularly frowned at the low attendance by the nigerian representatives1 our correspondent reports that rather than step up their attendance many nigerian representatives still shunned the parliament. some of them only come in sign the attendance and leave story1 a particular nigerian representative from the south-south has gained popularity for coming late and rather than sit and contribute to plenary goes about exchanging pleasantries with other members of parliament who are going about their businesses1 reacting to the interventions by other members of parliament nigeria representative hon. lafiagi apologized for the very low turn-out of nigerians1 he explained that the low turnout was almost unavoidable as the 2018 budget of nigeria was scheduled for passage in both chambers of the nations national assembly1 it is particularly very bad today because budget this year had been delayed the budget is being passed today in both houses. that is one reason why a lot of us are absent today1 another issue that causes this is because we are based here and the parliaments meet at the same time that is why many of us go to attend especially on a wednesday when it is on live tv1 saturdays attendance was poor because congresses were going on so members have to go to their constituencies to organize for the congresses1 i must also apologise for the absence of a lot of our colleagues. we will convey the message to let them know that their brothers are missing them he said1 speaking on the non-payment of the community levy lafiagi stressed that the delay in the passage of the nations budget had affected the payment1 he however assured that nigeria was committed to meeting up with its obligation with regards to the payment of its levies1 below is a list of nigerian federal lawmakers senators and members of the house of representatives who are members of the ecowas parliament1 sulaiman lasun yussuff1 mohammed ali ndume1 foster ogola1 ibrahim danbaba abdullahi1 gershom otu bassey1 princess stella adaeze oduah1 the absence of the 31 representatives is coming days after only 19 of 35 representatives were reported to have attended the opening session of the parliament1 yele omogunwa1 tijjani yahaya kaura1 mustapha bukar1 biodun christine olujimi1 ahmad moallahyidi abubakar1 isah misau hamma1 mohammed shaaba lafiagi1 joshua chibi dariye1 rilwan adesoji akanbi1 nelson asuquo efiong1 adamu dali usman kamale1 lynda chuba ikpeazu1 mani aminu ashiru1 dickson dominic tarkighir1 shehu garba sarkin-noma1 salisu garba koko1 gaza jonathan gbefwi1 sani mohammed aliyu rano1 sadiq ibrahim1 olatunbosun george oladele1 abdullahi balarabe salame1 magaji dau aliyu1 bassey eko ewa1 sulaiman romo aliyu1 abdullahi idris garba kontagora1 solomon ahwinahwi1 asabe vilita bashir1 emmanuel isaac ukoete1