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Nigeria may withdraw from funding the ECOWAS Parliament and other regional organizations in Africa, Hon. Yusuf Sulaiman Lasun, Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, has hinted.
It was gathered that he angrily left a session of the parliament, in protest against what he described as lack of appreciation of Nigeria’s huge role in the body.
Lasun’s action was provoked by the statement of a Senegalese member of parliament (MP), Ibrahima Baba Sall, who ranked the contributions of his country in resolving the Gambian crisis above that of Nigeria.
He spoke to journalists at the just concluded 2017 Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament, in Abuja.
The Deputy Speaker lamented Nigeria was not duly recognized when a motion was moved to identify countries involved in the resolution of The Gambia’s political crisis.
His words:“A motion was cited and was accompanied and in the resolution, they were trying to identify the personalities and countries that contributed in halting the political impasse in The Gambia. What pained me the most is the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari played an active role, particularly and specifically but despite the size of Nigeria, we were not even mentioned. Even the presentation of the 2017 Budget was shifted for about two days because of The Gambia’s issue.”
Threatening that Nigeria may pull out of ECOWAS, he said: “We might withdraw funding of ECOWAS Parliament. America is great today because they think of themselves alone. China is great today because they put China’s interest first. India is great today because they think of India alone. If you consider Singapore separating from Malaysia, they are great today because they took charge of their domestic responsibilities.
“We can’t continue to say that we are the big brother of Africa, spend our money, human resources and intellect and we are not being recognised or acknowledged. And people think we are equal. In this case, we are not equal”.
He continued: “Nigeria is a country of about 180 million with vast resources, human capital excellence and superior intellect. So, I don’t know. As far as I am concerned and as one of the leaders of Nigeria, we must begin to review our position in all these international and regional organisations. And don’t forget that just recently, Britain just decided to leave EU. Who said we cannot leave regional organisations? Britain is living well”.
“How can we spend our resources to cater for ECOWAS and we will not be accorded and recognized? This ECOWAS Parliament has been sitting here for the past few days and nobody has ever thought it fit to find out about President Muhammadu Buhari’s health by visiting the Acting President or by writing a letter to wish the man well. Something is wrong somewhere. Is it by force? We are not supposed to be in regional organizations where we have to spend whatever we have to make take it to greater heights, yet we are not being recognized,” fumed Lasun.