By Bill W. Cooper
The elections of the two Bomi County Senators, Edwin Melvin Snowe and Alex Tyler, as the Senate representatives to the ECOWAS Parliament have raised serious questions about who will represent Bomi in their absence.
Senators Snowe and Tyler were both, yesterday, elected on a white ballot as the Liberian Senate Representatives to the ECOWAS region for the next six years by their colleagues.
During the January 15, 2024 Senate Leadership Elections, the Senators also elected to leadership, Sens. James Biney, Chair on Executive; Abraham Darius Dillon, Chair on Foreign Affairs; Albert Chie, Chair on Public Works, and Augustine Chea, Chair on Judiciary.
Others were Sens. Prince Moye, Chair on Ways, Means, Finance and Budget; Momo Cyrus, Chair on Defense and Security; Gble-bo Brown, Chair on Rules, Order and Administration; Nathaniel McGill, Chair on Education, and Dabah Varpilah, Chair on Health.
Meanwhile, Sen. Amara Konneh was elected as Chair on Public Accounts and Audit; Prince Johnson, Chair on Internal Affairs, while Francis Dopoe and Crayton Duncan were both sent to the International Parliamentary Union.
The ECOWAS Parliament headquarters, situated in Abuja, Nigeria, and also known as the Community Parliament, is one of the Institutions of ECOWAS for West African Countries.
Also, it is the Assembly of Peoples of the Community serving as a forum for dialogue, consultation, and consensus for Representatives of the people of West Africa, with the aim of promoting integration.
It was established under Articles 6 and 13 of the ECOWAS Revised Treaty of 1993. The initial Protocol establishing the Parliament was signed in Abuja on August 6, 1994, as it also provided for the structure, composition, competence, and other matters relating to the Parliament.
The Parliament is composed of 115 seats. Each Member State shall have a guaranteed minimum of five seats. The remaining 40 seats shall be shared on the basis of population.
But the two Bomi County Senators’ elections to the ECOWAS Parliament has since created a stir among prominent citizens, including political analysts, who are now left to ponder over who will represent the people of Bomi at the Senate in their absence.
They argued that the two Senators’ decisions to have gotten elected to the ECOWAS Parliament is a further violation of the Constitution, which, they said, calls for at least a Senator from each county to be in session at all times to push the interest of his or her county during times of debate on the Senate floor.
A prominent son of Bomi County, Charles Brown, in reaction, described his two Senators’ actions as being ‘devilish and counterproductive to the development, growth, and forward march of Bomi’.
Brown explained that the two Senators’ decisions, if not reconsidered, will drastically affect Bomi in terms of developmental initiatives, as well as further dangling the future representation of the county in the national political discourse.
According to him, it is regrettable that these Senators, elected to push the interest of the people of Bomi, would sit and allow such a decision, only intended to benefit themselves, at the detriment of the sons and daughters of the county.
He, however, clarified, “I don’t want my action to be misconstrued because of political reasons, but with due respect, our senators’ decisions are not in the interest of the people of Bomi because we elected them to serve us at the Senate and not at ECOWAS.”
Meanwhile, Brown has called on his senators to ensure that one of them relinquishes their appointment to the ECOWAS Parliament or else face serious uprising from the people of Bomi.
He stressed, “We are giving them 7 hours ultimatum for one of them to relinquish their appointment, and if that is not done within this timeframe, we, the people of Bomi, will stage a citizens’ uprising against them because Bomi deserves better and nothing less.”
