ECOWAS Commission trains young journalists

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament has pledged to collaborate with media practitioners across the region to achieve the desired level of information flow on its activities.

This is to achieve a more responsive representation of the people of the ECOWAS Community, a release from the Secretariat, made available to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said.

The ECOWAS Parliament, which is in its fourth life, is also looking forward to building synergies with sister institutions for greater access to information on how its sessions and decisions can benefit the people of West Africa.

Mr Bertin Some, the ECOWAS Parliamentary Affairs Director, disclosed this in Abuja when journalists from the region visited the Parliament at the end of a training programme which includes a study tour of ECOWAS institutions.

Mr Some briefed the journalists on the status of the various units and said it’s plenary was the highest deliberative body, assisted by the Bureau, standing committees and the General Secretariat.

Madam Seija Sturies, the Resident Representative of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Nigeria, during the closing ceremony, thanked the journalists and commended the fellowship for the collaboration that allowed the ECOWAS Commission to educate the journalists to better inform the people about its activities.

Mr Henry Nwagboso from the Library and Documentation Unit, who represented Mrs Sandra Oulate Fattoh Elleingand, the Director of Communication, ECOWAS Commission, expressed the hope that participants would make good use of the knowledge acquired.

He urged the media to ensure wide dissemination and sensitisation of citizens towards the achievement of “our common goals as members of the ECOWAS Community.”

The participants suggested the need for more capacity building programmes and unhindered access to information regarding ECOWAS activities for journalists within the sub-region.

They said the engagement of the younger generation in both the internet and social media must be leveraged in all member countries if ECOWAS was to achieve its goal of becoming an ECOWAS of the people.

Participants were drawn from Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote D’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Leone and Togo.