OLU IBEKWE

REGIONAL ,  TRENDING Hon. Roger Nkodo Dang, PAP President, 2015 to present   The establishment of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) in 2004 was informed by the vision to provide a common platform for the African peoples and the grass-roots organizations to be more involved in discussions and decision-making on the problems and challenges facing the continent. Its main focus is to ensure the upliftment of the African people from poverty through the harmonization of African Union policies that promote good governance, economic growth, free movement of people, goods and services. The Parliament has also focused on issues affecting the youth, women and persons with disability. Hon Gertrude Mongella, PAP President 2004 - 2008 In its almost 14 years of existence, it has gone through four parliaments with four presidents namely Hon. Gertrude Mongella of Tanzania (2004 to 2008); late Dr. Idris Ndele Moussa of Chad (2009 to 2012); Hon. Bethel Nnaemeka  ...

PAP President Roger Nkodo Dang The Pan African Parliament at the Sixth Ordinary Session of the Fourth Parliament in May 2018 resolved to initiate advocacy activities to expedite the signature, ratification, domestication and implementation of the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) and the Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community Relating to Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment.  PAP also urged their parliamentarians to popularize the CFTA to the members of their respective national parliaments and communities in order to promote national ownership of benefits of the CFTA and the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons in the socio-economic development of Africa. PAP further resolved to work in collaboration with National Parliaments and their members to urge their respective Governments, where applicable to sign, ratify, domesticate and implement the CFTA and the Protocol on Free Mo...

BY OLU IBEKWE o lu4paragon@yahoo.com PAP President Roger Nkodo Dang One of the decisions taken at the 31 st  Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) which took place between June 28 and July 2, 2018 in Mauritania was the suspension of the 2019 budget of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) pending the completion of an independent audit exercise. The decision followed the recommendation of the Permanent Representatives Committee/ Executive Council. That decision, in my opinion is inconsistent with the vision of the founding fathers of the AU and has far-reaching implications as far as the institutional development of this continental parliamentary body is concerned. The problem is not with the conduct of an audit which of course, is normal but the sensational suspension of PAP’s 2019 budget and “ordering” the PAP President not to fire or hire any staff while the audit lasts unless with the approval of the AU Chairperson. Let us attempt t...

By Olu Ibekwe PAP President H. E. Hon. Roger Nkodo Dang In an article on May 26, 2018 edition of  News24  titled Why the Pan-African Parliament must clean up its act if it wants to   survive ,  Babatunde Fagbayibo , an Associate Professor of International Law, at the  University of South Africa    disclosed that  major newspapers  in South Africa “have been  extremely critical ”   of the Pan African Parliament   and that “Pretoria might be forced to re-assess its financial contribution in the face of civil society pressure”. Continuing, Fagbayibo wrote “The image of the parliament as corrupt is also bound to raise even more questions about its  continued existence . The PAP is costly to run. Some may question if it’s worth keeping or whether it might be more productive to channel the funds that keep it afloat to other strategic regional integration projects. These include infrastructure development and the pro...