Distinguished speakers from across the African continent shared positive messages of solidarity at the Opening of the Second Ordinary Session of the sixth Pan-African Parliament (PAP), which took place today at the seat of Parliament in Midrand, South Africa.
The Ordinary Session is being guided held by the African Union (AU) theme for 2023: “Accelerating the Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)”. “I commend the organisation of this parliamentary session, which comes in perfect harmony with the African Union theme for the year 2023,” said Hon. Naama Mayara, Speaker of the Moroccan House of Councillors.
“We also express our support for all serious parliamentary initiatives, which aim to strengthen institutional cooperation and joint thinking on ways to emerge from continental parliamentary cooperation models that keep pace with the bilateral and multilateral dynamics, especially in order to face the challenges related to food security, water scarcity, the growing dangers of terrorist groups, armed movements and militias, combating the exploitation of children in armed conflicts, clandestine migration and human trafficking.
Rt.Hon. Mayara also mentioned that institutional development carried out by the AU will not succeed without concerted joint efforts and strengthening unity and stability in all countries of the continent.
Speaker of the Senate of the DRC, Rt. Hon. Modeste Bahati Lukwebo, encouraged PAP to play an important role in advocating for peace, stability and development of African states. “Parliamentarians have the duty to endow our respective countries with legislations and lead our executive government to set up policies which favour or allow state solidarity at the level of our continent. The Pan-African Parliament must lead efforts in promoting peace and security on our continent. I would like to express gratitude support at the regional and continental levels to restore peace in the Eastern part of the DRC,” he said.
Rt. Hon. Amason Jeffah Kingi, Speaker of the Senate of Kenya, highlighted that the ongoing session has set the pace for the third Pan-African Parliamentarians Summit on Climate Policy and Equity scheduled for 16 and 17 May.
“The Summit will deliberate and build consensus on the most ideal responses to a phenomenon that has wreaked havoc like we’ve never seen before. As a continent we have to increasingly look inwards to come up with the best solutions that not only benefit our continent, but that will also ensure we uphold past agreements, pacts and treaties to which we are signatories to meet required threshold,” he said. He further stated that as a continent that has relatively low carbon emissions compared to the industrialised nations, Africa should seize the window of opportunity to aggressively pursue carbon credit compensation.
Meanwhile, Hon. Senanu Koku Alipui, the Second Rapporteur Committee on Agriculture speaking on behalf of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon Sidie Mohamed Tunis, said the acceleration of the AfCFTA brings Africa closer to achieving the dream of a truly economically integrated continent. “This is one of goals of the under 2063 Agenda, aiming at achieving the African we want. The onus is on us to start negotiating Bilateral and multilateral agreements to boost intra and African trade and eliminate unhealthy trade barriers,” he added.
