Nations around the globe under
diverse economic blocs are constantly meeting to strategize ways and means
of eradicating transnational organized crimes such as drug trafficking,
terrorism, trafficking in persons and other grave threats to human
existence. The member nations of such economic blocs in all parts of the
World but Africa have also worked out measures for eradicating illegal and
irregular migration of persons from countries considered as very poor,
unstable and economically insecure into their countries considered as
comfort zones.
Africa harbors the largest
concentration of grossly underdeveloped, poverty-stricken, unstable and
economically insecured nations followed very closely by Asia and invariably
produces the highest percentage of irregular migrants into advanced
economies.
The European Economic bloc for
instance, reportedly entered into a deal with the now deposed regime of the
murdered Libyan dictator Colonel Muamar Gadaffi in which Europe accepted to
make huge payments to the then Libyan regime so that it could effect
measures no matter how draconian to curb the passage of irregular African
migrants into Europe from Italy and Malta via Libya. The then Libyan
strongman was alleged to have even fed his wild lions with black African
migrants captured while making attempts to sneak into Europe through the
international waters that traverse Libya.
Ironically, political and
economic leadership of much of sub-Saharan Africa and especially the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is yet to effectively
implement measures to efficiently create the enabling environment for
economic growth and investments to thrive within the region so that the
large population of the productive youths that now migrate to Europe
irregularly at their own risk can stay back home and engage in one
meaningful economic activity or the other.
Aside producing some of the
World’s highest percentage of irregular migrants to Europe, the West
African Sub-region is afflicted by diverse types of transnational crimes
including but not limited to corruption, drug/human trafficking, terrorism
and massive in- flow of small arms and weapons of mass destruction.
Unfortunately, West Africa’s
parliament which came into being on 14th March 2002 is only a forum for
endless speeches without the necessary legislative force of law to compel
the individual governments that make up the economic bloc to wage effective
war against the spread of these cankerworms of transnational crimes that
have become hydra-headed monsters.
Corruption remains the biggest
hydra-headed monster in the West African sub-region due to the total
absence of the needed political will on the part of the political
leadership to battle the scourge which has almost crippled most members of
the economic bloc such as Nigeria, Togo, Burkina Faso, Gambia, to mention
only but few. Because ECOWAS parliament operates like an avenue for tea
parties, there are no legal instruments strong enough to banish corruption.
But this is not to say that some
member nations of the ECOWAS economic bloc have not in paper endorsed the
international anti-corruption convention that came into force as a global
law in late 2005. The West African parliament therefore needs to be
properly empowered to make enforceable legislations that would compel each
member state to effectively put the legal framework and the architecture to
battle these transnational and national crimes like terrorism and
corruption.
For purposes of emphasis, it is
worthwhile mentioning that corruption and the wanton misuse of public fund
is the fundamental cause of the spread of terrorism and other crimes. For
instance, if member states of ECOWAS fail to check corruption and resources
meant for procurement of these necessary infrastructures, facilities and
the capacity training of law enforcement Operatives to battle the scourge,
then lawlessness will set in.
Just before the international
convention against corruption came into force at the end of year 2005,
participants at the eleventh United Nations Congress on crime prevention
and criminal Justice, which took place in April 2005 in Bangkok, Thailand,
(with this writer in attendance) agreed to push for the member states of
the United Nations to fight corruption from a unified formidable front.
At that global anti-crime forum
in 2005, the representative of Ukraine, Valerii Demianets captured the
minds of most anti-corruption advocates around the World when he proclaimed
thus; “corruption is closely connected with other kinds of crime and,
therefore, detecting corruption must be a comprehensive effort”.
In West Africa, the member
nations of the Economic bloc which formed the ECOWAS Parliament have only
but paid lip service to the fight against corruption and other
transnational crime.
From the abundance of evidence,
it does appear that ECOWAS Parliament is a mere tea party and does not
possess similar attributes like other parliaments of similar economic blocs
in the global community.
The European parliament may not
have the power of legislation but there are provisions on how it can
institutionally and effectively partner with other European institutions to
achieve the objective of building a safe Europe for the European citizens.
Available records show that the
European parliament (EP) meets in Brussels and Strasbourg as well as having
offices in Luxembourg. European Parliament elections are held every five
years, and every European Union citizen who is registered as a voter is
entitled to vote. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) do not sit in
national blocs, but in seven Europe-wide political groups. The largest of
these are the European People’s Party (EPP) and the Progressive Alliance of
Social and Democrats (S&D). The work of the EP is overseen by the
EP[European Parliament] President, currently German politician, MARTIN
Schulz, of the S&D group. The present parliament, elected in June 2009,
has 754 MEPs of which 73 are British. Under the Lisbon Treaty reforms which
will come into effect at the 2014 elections, Germany will lose 3 seats and
the number of MEPs will be capped at a maximum of 751 (including the
President of the Parliament).
Conversely, members of European
Parliament (MEPs) are elected under proportional representation to
represent regions (such as south-west England or Scotland). The number of
MEPs each country has reflects its population. Whilst the EP represents the
electorate’s interests in discussions with the other EU institutions, it
cannot propose legislation; only discuss, propose amendments, and vote to
accept or reject laws proposed by the Commission. EP committees can produce
‘own-initiative’ reports that recommend legislation to the Commission, but
the Commission is under no obligation to act on these. For a new EU law or
budget to pass, it must have the support of both the EP and the Council of
the European Union. The other significant power the EP[European Parliament]
has is that of ‘democratic supervision’ over the Commission-giving it the
power to sack the whole Commission through a vote of censure.
Flowing from the above, this
writer will suggest that the political leadership of the West African
regional group (ECOWAS) borrow a leaf from the operational style of the
European Parliament to see if the challenges of terrorism, corruption and
other disturbing transnational crime can be effectively tackled under a
unified front.
Happily, the current ECOWAS
Parliamentary leadership under the Speaker, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, appears
to be listening to the broad issues of enhancing the power of the ECOWAS
parliament to use the proceedings as necessary legal framework for the
member states to combat the spread of transnational crimes under a
formidable unified front.
Only last Week, a draft
supplementary Act on the enhancement of the powers of the ECOWAS Parliament
was adopted at their recent session in Abuja, the Nigerian Capital.
The parliament's speaker, Ike
Ekweremadu, said that the ad hoc committee report on the enhancement of
powers which was deliberated during the First Ordinary Session of the Third
Legislature in May 2012, was adopted by the Parliament at the First
Extra-Ordinary Session that closed in Abuja on Saturday last week.
The draft supplementary Act will
enable the parliament to make and harmonise their laws which will enhance
the well-being of the sub-region as well as transform the parliament from a
mere advisory body to that imbued with the capacity to make laws.
Ekweremadu who is also the deputy
president of the Nigerian senate told newsmen during the closing session at
the weekend that the parliament cannot exist without having the capacity to
make laws that will be binding on its members.
Ekweremadu said that the ECOWAS
Parliament was committed to eradicate child trafficking and other heinous
transnational crime afflicting the sub-region.
Most people in West Africa are
worried about the ease with which armed terror groups operate in Northern
Nigeria just as concern has been raised on the possibility that weapons of
mass destruction flow freely into ECOWAS member states especially Nigeria
with gravely porous international border from such speedily failing states
like Guinea Bissau and Mali. This is one challenge that ECOWAS Parliament
should focus on how to enforce pragmatic panacea.
This is because of the universal
fact that if terrorism is allowed to spread in Nigeria and results in the
collapse of the Nigerian nation-state, then the entire West Africa
sub-region and much of Sub-Saharan African region will invariably collapse
since the remnants of these terrorist armed with sophisticated weapons will
move to other fertile grounds in the sub-region in search of soft targets
to sow their seeds of destabilization and anarchy.
· Emmanuel
Onwubiko, head, HUMAN RIGHTS Writers’ Association of Nigeria, writes from
www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
19/6/2012
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