By Linus Aleke, Abuja
The Direct election to ECOWAS Parliament suffers set back as the Nigerian President gives conditions for supporting the principle of Universal Suffrage into the regional Parliament.

Universal Adult Suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man), is the principal objective of the incumbent Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament, Rt. Hon. Sidie Mohammed Tunis, for the regional Parliament.

He wishes that Members of the Parliament (MPs), be elected directly into the regional Parliament, as opposed to the current practice, where a designated number of members are drawn from the national Parliament of each member state.

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Direct election into the Parliament, Tunis argued will crystallize into absolute commitment, as members drawn from the national Parliament often grabble with multiple tasks, hence the absence of complete commitment to duties of the regional Parliament, thereby robbing the community of this presumed complete commitment by MPs.

However, the hope of actualizing this perceived lofty objective by the Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament, dimmed slightly this week, as Nigerian President, Muhammad Buhari gave a difficult condition for his support to the proposed shift from the status quo.

In his Goodwill Message at the ongoing Second Session of ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja, the Nigerian leader said, Nigeria can only support the policy if it will not drain the treasury of the community.

“On the issue of election of Members of the ECOWAS Parliament by Direct Universal Suffrage, Mr Speaker will recall that I gave Nigeria’s assurance to support the process, provided it is conducted with minimum or even at no cost at all, to the Community,” President Buhari said.

He added, “Let me underscore that the ECOWAS Parliament can only fulfil its true mandate when it has a set of directly elected and dedicated Members. I believe that a member of the ECOWAS Parliament, not drawn from serving members of Parliaments of Member States, would be a good step towards injecting our regional integration with new energy and initiative.

As a country that believes strongly in regional integration and cooperation, let me emphasize that Nigeria will continue to support all the ECOWAS Institutions domiciled within the country”.

President Buhari said, since the formation of ECOWAS, 47 years ago, the organization has evolved in many aspects.

He revealed that ECOWAS has recorded changes that have affected its demographic composition, as well as the social fabric of our population.

He added that the community has seen our challenges increase in the face of growing aspirations and the expectations of our people.

He concluded that ECOWAS will continued to wax stronger as a Community and have remained strong and resilient and shining example of regional integration and solidarity.