H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf tasks ECOWAS Parliament on championing the cause of West African women

H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of the Republic of Liberia has tasked the ECOWAS Parliament to continue its efforts of championing the cause of West African women.

The former president made the call when she received the Rt. Hon. Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Hon. Sidie MohamedTunis who lead the delegation of ECOWAS Parliament on a courtesy visit to her residence in Monrovia.

The visit was necessitated by the successful completion of the delocalized joint committee meeting of the ECOWAS Parliament which held from 13 to 17, April 2021 under the theme, “Empowerment of Women in the West-African Sub-region”.

The meeting of the Joint Committee on Social Affairs, Gender and Women Empowerment, Education, Science and Culture, Health aimed at proffering solutions to issues affecting women in the sub-region.

Madam Sirleaf lauded all the efforts and initiative of the leadership of the ECOWAS Parliament in driving forward the cause of the West African women, to ensure their inclusion across all sectors especially increased representation in the politics.

“I am pleased to see many women in this gathering and that brings me to say that except for Senegal, our countries have not done well in politics and we need to do more. We cannot do it unless you lead us. I will need to recognize the value and contributions of women to the peace, security and development”.

She also admonished Honorable Tunis not to relent in the giant strides of championing the cause of women. “So, I will call upon you as the head of the Parliament to be a champion for ensuring that as we go into elections in all of our countries, we have a minimum of 30 per cent representation of women.

Speaker Tunis thanked the former president for making out time to give audience to the ECOWAS Parliament. While eulogizing her position as the first woman president in the continent and emphasizing on the encouragement it gives for the cause of women, he pointed out that the meeting in Monrovia was a huge success and promised never to relent in fighting for the empowerment of women in the sub-region.