Make ECOWAS Integration Benefit Citizens – Afenyo-Markin

Alexander Afenyo-Markin, Minority Leader in Ghana's Parliament, has emphasized the need to move the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) integration beyond treaties, protocols, and meetings to deliver tangible benefits to citizens across the region. Speaking at the conclusion of an ECOWAS parliamentary seminar in Accra, he highlighted the importance of creating opportunities for young people, ensuring free movement of citizens and businesses, and enabling member states to collectively tackle challenges that individual countries cannot.

The ECOWAS Parliament leader also stressed the importance of the ECOWAS Parliament engaging directly with communities, suggesting that periodic relocation of activities beyond national capitals could promote public participation in regional affairs. Winneba, the capital of Afenyo-Markin's Efutu constituency, served as an example of such efforts, as the parliamentary seminar has been held there four times since 2021.

He praised the ECOWAS Parliament's initiatives to bring activities closer to citizens, such as engagements in Kano and Port Harcourt, with Bayelsa expected to continue this trend. Afenyo-Markin, also a Third Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, highlighted the relationship between environmental stress and insecurity, warning that climate change could exacerbate poverty, intensify competition over resources, and weaken livelihoods.

He expressed confidence in his successor, George Kwaku Ricketts-Hagan, who succeeded him as leader of Ghana's delegation, and urged participants at the seminar to ensure their deliberations translate into practical outcomes for the people of West Africa.