Nigeria has threatened to withdraw its membership of the Economic Community of West African States, (ECOWAS) if the regional body does not suspend the ongoing recruitment exercise as recently directed in the 2022 First Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja.
The Nigerian representatives at the parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) issued the threat when some principal officers in the regional bloc defiled the directives and embarked on the illegal process of recruiting their relatives and cronies.
Leader of the Nigerian delegation and Deputy Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, who is also the First Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Ahmed Idris Wase said it has become imperative that Nigeria review its relevance and membership of the bloc.
“If you are in a system, and you are not getting the right results, where you are investigating your money, it pays best to walk out of the union.”
“In a situation where we are having an infrastructural deficit and witnessing security challenges, why should we continue to invest our money where it will not benefit our country.”
“Yes, we will pull out if we don’t get the desired result from this,” he said.
According to the Deputy Speaker “we are asking for justice not just for Nigerians alone, but for the entire ECOWAS community.”
That is what MPs are asking for. There are few countries that want to run ECOWAS like a cabal but we will not tolerate that.”
Grievance
The lawmakers cited the huge financial commitments which Nigeria makes to the body while relegating funding its internal security challenges.
They said there was no commensurate return on investment for Nigeria in ECOWAS for all the country has done and is doing for the region.
This face-off is coming on the heels of recent lopsided recruitment exercise at the ECOWAS parliament which is manifestly skewed to serve the personal interest of member states to the exclusion of Nigeria.
When contacted, the Secretary General of the Parliament John Azumah from Ghana said he was unaware of any audit report that talked about employment and promotion.
