The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) has finally gotten the approval to
exercise full functions as the legislative organ of the African Union (AU).
This followed the adoption of the Draft Protocol to the Constitutive Act of the African Union on the Pan-African Parliament as envisaged under Article 11 of the existing protocol at the recently held 23rd ordinary session of the General Assembly of the AU on June 27, at Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.
Before now, the functions of the PAP to the AU had been basically advisory but with the ceding to it of full legislative powers, the PAP can now function as the voice of the people of Africa in matters concerning continental integration and shared development amongst all Africans.
Headed by Bethel Amadi of Nigeria, the PAP had been passing through a gradual but arduous process of assuming legislative functions since its establishment in March this year. But through hard work, the Amadi leadership of the PAP was able to galvanize the support of all relevant collaborative agencies that needed to make input into the final granting of legislative functions to the PAP.
The approval of the new status of the PAP at the Malabo session followed the adoption of the Draft Protocol by the first ministerial meeting of the specialized Technical Committee on Justice and Legal Affair of the AU at an earlier meeting between May 15 and 16, this year.
In taking the decision, the committee upheld the widely held view across the continent that PAP needed to be given the mandate to draft model laws in subject areas so as to meet the evolving aspirations of the people of Africa in sundry areas such as policy harmonization, unhindered intra-African trade, movement of people, goods and services, intra-continental infrastructure, climate changes, facilitation of remittances across the continent to address poverty, etc.
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