Wednesday 4 January 2017

'No to War' - Senator Ekweremadu's Statement on Gambia



H.E Senator Ike Ekweremadu
Deputy Senate President
Sir,

In Feb 2016, your valedictory address  in Abuja at the inauguration of Moustapha Cisse Lo,  the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Senegal,  as the Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament was received; having served  resoundingly as Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament and you had caused to be adopted the Supplementary Act on the enhancement of powers of ECOWAS Parliament by the Community decision making body. Having handed over  the Mandate to Moustapha Cisse Lo  of Senegal who now serves a four-year tenure 2016-2020, significant.


In the face of threats posed by President Jammeh’s challenges in the sub-region, one would say  reading  statements in Nigeria, hereunder yours being reported. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/01/explore-dialogue-gambia-ekweremadu-warns-ecowas-heads-state/


In your call for dialogue, I urge you to use your ECOWAS platform to bring about a peaceful resolution ASAP. It was because Jammeh dismissed the ECOWAS mediation team as biased that ECOWAS troops started positioning to strike should YJ refuse to leave office on 18 Jan, 2017.


Acknowledging Dr Bukola Saraki is President of the Senate, perhaps the Nigerian senate could constitute a Mediation Committee or an Adhoc committee of sort to dialogue if you are unable to use the platform of ECOWAS Parliament or should ECOWAS Parliament not be in a position to steer it, considering Senegal’s position right now. I am of the view that in the next couple of days peaceful transition is achievable if vigorously pursued.


Yesterday 3rd Jan 2017 the US Senate had resumed and I was listening to Senator Chuck Schumer (Democrat) Minority Leader on CNN ref:  “US twitter presidency”.


Great men and Women don’t want war because the consequences for children and women are grave.  Nigeria is not at war, and Tuesday Punch newspaper reports of 4 cultists in Lagos publicly assaulting women. Imagine in a war situation what would happen to vulnerable members of any society, assault of unimaginable proportion.

NG Senate and or ECOWAS Parliament please act now! You want to ask why don’t Nigerians tell H.E President Buhari to lead ECOWAS mediation or dialogue, you know PMB is not a great name in mediation or dialogue, please.

Best,

Carol Ajie, LL.M Int’l Georgetown; LAWA Fellow 2009-2010; Vital Voices Lead Fellow 2013-2017
EmpowerWomen @ UN Women Global Champion for Change 2016-2017

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