Memounatou Ibrahima, a member of the Togolese Parliament, has been elected as the first female Speaker of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament.
She was elected on Thursday in plenary during the 2024 Second Extraordinary Session of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament in Kano, Nigeria.
This is the first time that a female has held the post since the establishment of the first legislature of Parliament in 2000.
Memounatou Ibrahima was the third deputy speaker of the fifth legislature of the Parliament.
She is taking up the baton from the Nigerian leader of delegation, Senator Barau Jubrin who was elected the First Deputy Speaker at the inauguration of the Sixth Legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament on April 4th, 2024, had to act as the Speaker to avoid creating vacuum of leadership at the Community Parliament.
After Sierra Leone, the position of Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament was zoned to the Togo under Article 24b of the Supplementary Act relating to the Enhancement of the Powers of the ECOWAS Parliament, which provides that “the position of Speaker shall be allocated to Member States by the Authority in line with an established rotation system based on the alphabetical order of States.”
