By Martin Odiete, Abuja

The ECOWAS Parliament holding in Banjul, Gambia have restated commitment to the actualization of the single currency for the region, and that will be topmost in the agenda of the 5th Legislature.

A Member of Parliament from Liberia, Mr. Clarence Massaquoi in an interview with journalists at the Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Banjul Gambia, said the parliamentarians, in the Fifth Legislature, will step up on their oversight functions to ensure that member countries meet the convergence criteria for common currency of the region.

The idea of a common currency for the West African region which was mooted in the hope of boosting cross border trade and economic development has been postponed several times.

Mr. Massaquoi said the Fourth Legislature did not carry out sufficient follow up as its oversight responsibility, on the implementation of the common currency for the region.

“Oversight responsibility is a major function of any legislative body; we had conferences we had sections in Senegal concerning the Single Currency, we had presentations from the commission and those presentations in my opinion were brilliantly presented.”

“Now following up those meetings, it behooves, the parliament to do sufficient follow up on the commission to see what is the status of the implementation of these decisions that were reached.” 
“I just hope in the next four years we can make some gains.”

Mr. Massaquoi expressed optimism that there will be robust debate at the sessions of the Fifth Legislature on issues affecting the region.

“I just hope that the next four years, honestly, we can able to make some gains we need to give ourselves time to debate, we need to give ourselves time to  debate, this is not a conference but parliamentary debate.”

“We need to rearrange the way we organize our sessions, there should be debate, we should be allowed to critique the commission, and we should be allowed to critique ourselves.” 

For Mr. Mahama Ayariga, a Parliamentarian from Ghana, speaking on the Single Currency, expressed the commitment of the Fifth Legislature to deal with the divide between the Anglophone and Francophone countries in the region which has affected the adoption of a Common Currency for the region. 

“I think that the key issue is that we need to deal with the divide between the Anglophone and the Francophone countries in the sub region and ECOWAS Parliament has a key role to do so.”

Mr. Ayariga said the parliament will keep up the pressure on ECOWAS institutions to ensure that the Single Currency for the region is achieved. 

“We as legislators must keep the pressure on ECOWAS institutions so that they will live up to the plans, road map and commitment they made to ensure that the Single Currency is realized”.

On his expectations for the Fifth Legislature, Mr. Ayariga, also expressed optimism that there will be robust debate in the parliament as part of the parliamentary mandate to hold institutions and Heads of State in the region accountable on their responsibilities to community citizens.

He said the parliament will also hold member countries in the region accountable on their commitment to ECOWAS Protocol.