By Omar Bah
The National Assembly Member for Baddibu Central, Sulayman Saho, and member of the Pan African Parliament, has urged the institution to compel African presidents to respect term limits.
Addressing the parliament at its current meeting in South Africa, Saho said the high prevalence of coups in Africa could be attributed to overstay in power.
“To avoid this, the Pan African Parliament must compel African presidents to respect term limit to avoid instabilities and coups. If we don’t address the issues of overstay in power, the continent will find it difficult to address these challenges,” he said.
He argued that the current crop of African leaders has no or little respect for good governance and human rights.
“Corruption is at a high gear with little or no effort to address it,” he said.
Agenda 2063
Commenting on the Africa Agenda 2063, a set of initiatives proposed and currently under implementation by the African Union, Hon Saho said parliaments around the continent and governments have a big role to play to ensure the realisation of Agenda 2063.
He said political parties also have a role to play in popularising the agenda.
“I think it is important that political parties include Africa Agenda 2063 in their party manifestos and programmes to ensure that their programmes and policies aligned with the continental agenda. That is the only way we would be able to address the challenges we face as a continent,” he said.
Hon Saho said the domestication of Agenda 2063 cannot be achieved without the support of the executive.
“The executive must be more willing to invest into this laudable agenda because we cannot have the parliamentarians trying to take these things to the doorstep of the citizens when the executive is unwilling to support,” Saho added.
He added that parliaments alone will not be able to realise these dreams without the support of the executive. “When I say the executive, I mean the president – we need to work hand-in-glove to see to it that this agenda is achieve because if we are not convinced by the agenda, it would not achieve its target,” he said.
He urged the African Diaspora to also actively participate to support the realisation of the agenda.
