Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, has stated that Parliament is against the plan for ECOWAS military action to restore democracy in Niger.
He stated that democracy must be the most important thing in Niger because the countries in West Africa have promised to become more democratic.
During his appearance on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, August 19, Mr. Ablakwa made a statement affirming that the Parliament does not endorse or condone coups or military takeovers.
The MP stated that the West African nations do not want ECOWAS to go back to the days when military juntas ran the government. He said that the people should be able to choose their leaders and get rid of them when they fail to fulfil what they want.
“I must say we are all opposed to military takeovers; nobody supports coups. When these coups occur, we in Parliament are the first casualties.We will instantly become unemployed, we will be jobless, so I cannot come here and speak in favour of military takes.”
“They (ECOWAS) are not empathetic to the people, they don’t use good governance tools; they don’t listen to the masses, they even use their democratically elected office to undermine institutions, compromise the judiciary, entrench themselves, and engage in what you may want to call constitutional coups, and that has been the bin in the sub-region.”
Mr. Ablakwa said, “Indeed if you look at the ECOWAS membership, only two countries have not had coups. Only Cape Verde and Senegal, so you can understand what ECOWAS itself has been, credibility crises, lacking moral rights,” he stressed.
“I do not think that military intervention is what will stem the tide; rather, they should look at the causative factors. All of this bad leadership comes from people using democracy to entrench themselves and kill their people,” he added.
