The Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, Mr. Christophe Dabire, made the call when the ECOWAS Delegation on Joint Committee on Political Affairs, Peace, Security and APRM, Gender, Women Empowerment, Social Protection, Legal and Judicial Affairs visited him.

Mr. Dabire said corruption was a phenomenon that must be curbed for the sustenance of development in the region.

He said said that corruption and terrorism has caused major setback for the region, stating that all necessary contributions from the committee would be needed to fight this menace.

“The issue of terrorism has gone beyond the national borders and we need to come together to counter it, corruption have eaten the gains of development and ECOWAS have a key role to play in fighting against it.

“The level of corruption is dangerous for our national economy, if we don’t fight against it, we won’t have development or growth. So, we need to eradicate it in our sub-region and tackle the phenomenon of corruption because it’s dangerous for development,” the Prime Minister said.

According to Mr. Dabire, the Members of Parliament should come up with useful deliberations that can be implemented to address the issue of gender and corruption.

He said that regional integration was very important for the region and ECOWAS has a big role to play in representing the people outside the region.

The Prime Minister commended the solidarity shown by the delegation, stating that Burkina Faso was ready to collaborate with ECOWAS to fulfill its mandate.

The Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament, Moustapha Cisse-Lo, said that the ECOWAS delegation visit was to show their solidarity, to condemned various attacks and condole with those who lost their lives to terrorism attacks.

Mr. Cisse-Lo said that his team has just five months left to end their tenure, that it wants to ensure that the issue of Single Currency and women representation was achieved.

“ECOWAS is a regional Organisation, working for the interest of the people in the Sub-region, we want to laud the government and the Burkina Faso parliamentarian for playing an effective role in the region.”

“The objective of this delegation is in line with the vision of ECOWAS to enhance integration and fight against corruption,” he said.

Mr. Cisse-Lo, however, called on the Burkina Faso government to ensure that in the next election Burkina Faso women should have 30 per cent representation in the regional Parliament.

He said that each member state should ensure that at least three female were selected amongst those to represent them in the ECOWAS Parliament.(VON)