Mr Raphael Godlove Ahenu, the Chief Executive Officer of Global Media Foundation (GloMeF), has implored member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to respect the bloc’s protocols.
According to him, ECOWAS was a critical body which if well-positioned, could help citizens of member countries to progress economically.
However member states were flouting the protocols, making their implementation a challenge, he said.
Mr Ahenu, also the founder of GloMeF, a human rights and anti-corruption media advocacy non-governmental organisation, made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani on the sidelines of the Regional Sensitisation Workshop on ECOWAS Protocols for State and Non-state Actors in the Bono Region.
It was organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in collaboration with the Media Response and the Bono Regional Coordinating Council.
He reminded member states that ratifying or appending their signature to any protocol indicated their acceptance to comply with it and urged them to ensure that the protocols were integrated into their laws to benefit all citizens of the member states.
Mr Ahenu also emphasised that citizens of member states lacked knowledge about the protocols and laws of ECOWAS and appealed to parliamentarians, who represented the country at the ECOWAS parliament to periodically educate the citizens about their activities and gather feedback to make the protocols more implementable.
Speaking on the role of citizens, civil society organisations, media, chiefs, the public and private sectors about the implementation of the ECOWAS protocols, Mr Dasmani I. Laary, Senior Editor and the Eastern Regional Manager of the GNA, explained the protocols were a set of regional agreements and treaties that aimed to promote economic, political and social integration among member states.
Mr Laary, also a PhD Candidate of migration studies at the University of Ghana, emphasised that all these stakeholders had a vital role to play in the implementation of the ECOWAS protocols, saying by working together, they could help promote regional integration, economic growth and development in the region.
