Senate President Ahmad Lawan says Nigeria supports calls for direct election of representatives into ECOWAS parliament.

This is contained in a statement issued by Mr Lawan’s media aide, Ola Awoniyi.

Mr Lawan made the call when he hosted Seini Oumarou, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Niger, in Abuja.

“We are in support of creating an ECOWAS parliament that has members that will be directly elected into the parliament so that the ordinary people will have a complete attachment with those that represent them in ECOWAS parliament.”

He added, “But we hope that there will be an improvement over the arrangement to ensure that the ECOWAS sub-region is in such a manner and form that our parliament when it sits, will be giving us resolutions that will be useful in every part of the ECOWAS countries.”

Mr Lawan, who told his guest that the ECOWAS parliament was representative of the people in the sub-region, urged other parliaments in the ECOWAS zone to support it.

He also noted that Nigeria and Niger had a history of relations that dated back to the pre-independence period, adding that the peoples in the two countries share many things in common.

“A formal relationship was established in 1960, and we cherish this very good relation. The affinity between our two countries is very deep, and we really cherish that. We take it very seriously that we will continue to be good neighbours,” explained Mr Lawan.

Also, he expressed his appreciation for the effort, cooperation, and support of Niger on the multilateral relations, such as the involvement in the Multinational Joint Task Force to fight insurgency in the Lake Chad Region.

“We believe that together we can finish the insurgency in our region. We should continue to be determined that this war with insurgents is something our countries can win and that we will continue to support each other,” he said.

(NAN)