The Nigerian representative of the African Union Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union (AU-ECOSOCC), Oba Olasunkanmi John has tackled the second country representative, Tunji Ashaolu over alleged abuse of office and constitution of an illegal National Standing Committee.
He said the committee which was unilaterally constituted by Ashaolu runs contrary to the AU statute.
In a statement issued and signed by him, Mr John stated that a representative cannot single-handedly constitute any committee without the consent of the other.
According to him, the Council’s statute states that the constitution of any national cluster among the CSOs must be a bye-election and not by appointment to ensure transparency in the composition of the clusters.
His words: “My attention has been drawn to a purported launching of a national standing committee for AU ECOSOCC Nigeria by Tunji Asaolu.
“I want to use this opportunity to inform Nigerians that the launch is illegal, false and null. And also to inform all that the supposed committee members that the mandate of the national chapter AU ECOSOCC is to network Civil Society Organizations in the national to popularize AU programs and policies.”
The Article 10, Section 1 of the AU-ECOSOCC Statute, obtained by the Tribune Online, revealed that “The Standing Committee shall be elected by the General Assembly and shall be composed of eighteen (18) members as follows:
(a) The Presiding Officer and the other members of the Bureau; (b) The Chairpersons of 10 Sectoral Cluster Committees; (c) Two (2) representatives of the Commission.”
As Nigeria Representatives, Oba explained that the team is mandated to contribute, through advise, to the effective translation of the objectives, principles and policies of the AU into concrete programmes, as well as the evaluation of these programmes; undertake studies that are recommended or deemed necessary by any other organ of the Union and submit recommendations accordingly.
However, he concluded that the purported national standing committee for AU-ECOSOCC “is not known to the AU ECOSOCC Constitutive Act and its formation in any member state is illegal.
“Hence all those appointments are advised to cease from parading themselves as members of the national chapter or do anything in the name of the chapter as that would be an impersonation,” he stated.
He further stressed that a petition has been sent to the Inspector General of Police and the Director-General of SSS to this effect.
When contacted, the embattled AU-ECOSOCC Nigerian representative, Dr Ashaolu told the Nigerian Tribune that contrary to claims, the National Committee members were elected and not appointed.
He maintained that the committee was set up with the knowledge of relevant authorities within the AU Secretariat.
“The process has been on. It started in June. Everybody applied through a Google application. nobody wrote any letter to anyone saying you are appointed. I have a list of everyone who applied and the secretariat at the headquarters is also aware of this because they were notified,” he added.
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