Mark inaugurates summit for African Parliaments

An Africa Legislative Summit for parliamentarians has been floated to promote integration in the continent and deepen democracy for the benefit of the citizenry.
The summit is expected to bring together legislators from African countries and other parts of the world for the purpose of exchange of experience and fostering understanding of issues of common interest to
emerging legislators.
The President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, inaugurated the steering committee tagged: “Management Committee of African Legislative Summit 2013.” The committee is to organize the maiden Edition of the summit in November,2013 in his office in Abuja, Nigeria.
Inaugurating the nine-man committee headed by Senate Leader, Senator Ndoma Egba, Mark explained that the summit, which is the first of its kind in Africa, is meant to give the National Assembly the leadership role in facilitating exchange of ideas between the legislative and the
executive arm of governments at the continental level. The summit will feature discussions on legislative oversight, expanding bilateral and regional trade in Africa through legislation
among others.
According to Mark: “The Summit will discuss issues of common interest that will improve and deepen democracy as well as opportunities to exchange ideas with other parliaments especially advanced democracies. “It is a beautiful idea that we must pursue to its logical conclusion. There will be challenges we should be prepared to face to ensure the success of the Summit.”
For the success of the programme, Senator Mark asked the committee to collaborate with the executive arm of government in order to come up with a blue print that would make the programme a huge success.
He added that the approach of the executive and the legislature to administration may differ but ultimately “we all have a common goal and that is the welfare and security of the citizenry.”
Responding on behalf of the members of the committee, Ndoma-Egba said the summit would deepen democracy and foster mutual cooperation between and among parliamentarians in Africa. He said time has passed when diplomacy was the prerogative of the executive of arm of government, pointing out that recent developments have shown that parliaments are in the forefront of integration and
cooperation in the world. Other members committee are: Ben Nwankwo, Adetumbi Olubunmi, Abubakar Atiku Bugudu, Emmanuel Menga Udende, Ibrahim Tukur El-Sudi, Simon
Osei-Mensa, Inuwa Garba and Eugene Odo.