TheCable

Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house of representatives, has congratulated President Bola Tinubu on his election as the chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). 

Tinubu was elected at the 63rd ordinary session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government in Bissau, the capital city of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau.

In a statement issued by Musa Krishi, his adviser on media and publicity, Abbas said Tinubu‘s election as ECOWAS chairman indicates that leaders in the sub-region repose confidence in him.

He also said they trust him to deploy his wealth of experience in public administration in spearheading sustainable socio-economic plans for the bloc.

He said Tinubu will work with other ECOWAS leaders to turn things around in the sub-regional body.

“I congratulate his excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on his unanimous adoption as the chairman of ECOWAS in the just concluded 63rd Ordinary Session,” Abbas was quoted as saying.

“It is an affirmation of President Tinubu’s popularity beyond Nigeria and among his colleagues in West Africa.

“There are no doubts that the African sub-region will witness exemplary leadership with the Nigerian President as ECOWAS chairman.”

Tinubu is the eighth Nigerian leader to be elected chairman of ECOWAS — Buhari headed the body twice, as military head of state and then as a democratic president.

The ECOWAS summit in Guinea-Bissau was Tinubu’s first international outing on the African continent since he became Nigerian president on May 29.

ECOWAS was formed in 1975 and currently has 15 member states with a combined population of 387 million and nominal GDP of $816 billion.

The member states are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.