Ita Enang, a Nigerian ambassador-designate and former Akwa-Ibom North-East Senator, has called for the election of ECOWAS parliament members directly in their countries, rather than the current “part-time” arrangement.

The former senior special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on national assembly matters made this known at the ongoing ECOWAS Parliament‘s 2026 First Extraordinary Session and Seminar in Abuja.

Mr Enang urged the ECOWAS Commission and Authority of Heads of State and Government to treat the issue of electing ECOWAS MPs directly from their respective countries with the seriousness it deserved.

According to him, under the current part-time arrangement, lawmakers from member states are often overburdened with their national assembly responsibilities, so they devote only minimal attention to the regional parliament.

Mr Enang suggested that there should be a sunset clause, under which each country would be given at least a year to elect members of the ECOWAS parliament from its own country.

”So, it is important for this short sunset clause to be set by the ECOWAS Commission and the Authority of Heads of State and Government to at least six to eight months, within which a direct election would be conducted for ECOWAS Parliamentarians,” he said.

He also suggested that 30 per cent of the delegates must be women to mainstream them into the decision-making process at both national and regional parliament levels.

The former lawmaker said that what was required was the deployment of political will by member states to secure the buy-in of their unwilling members to elect regional parliamentarians directly from their respective countries.

”They can even decide that the election should be done in one day all over the countries in West Africa or within a period of one month.

”They can even do it by universal adult suffrage, and in accordance with the laws of each country,” Mr Enang added.

(NAN)