ECOWAS Parliament turns 19 today. The institution was born at the inaugural legislature of the Community Parliament in Bamako (Mali) on November 16, 2000.
Malian legislator, Prof. Ali Nouhoum Diallo was elected the first Speaker of the 120-member ECOWAS Parliament, with Nigeria’s lawmaker, Senator Ibrahim Mantu serving as the first deputy Speaker.
At the 25th session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government in Dakar, Senegal on the 21st and 22nd December 2001, it was decided that Abuja should be the headquarters of the Parliament.
The Protocol provided for 120 seats in Parliament, with each of the then 16 Member States being guaranteed a minimum of five seats and the remaining 40 seats allocated on the basis of population.
After the state of Mauritania announced it was pulling out of ECOWAS in 1999, the Parliamentary seats were reduced to 115.
Consequently, Nigeria has 35 seats, Ghana 8 seats, Cote d’Ivoire 7 seats, while Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Senegal have 6 seats each. The others – Benin, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo have 5 seats each.
