EcoPar at 25: Ex-Speaker Tunis Bags Award, Urges African Leaders on Good Governance

Dr. Sidie Mohamed Tunis, former Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament (EcoPar) has been honoured with an award of excellent service by the parliament at the commemoration of 25th anniversary of the legislative body for ECOWAS on Thursday in Abuja.

The former speaker was recognized alongside other past speakers and founding fathers of the regional parliament as part of the silver jubilee celebration.

Speaking to the Press on the sideline after receiving the award, Dr Tunis, a member of the Sierra Leone Parliament, urged African leaders to embrace good governance as a critical vehicle to achieving sustainable peace, security, and development across the continent.

According to him, the continent was in dire need of transformational leadership that prioritizes national progress, and the well-being of citizens over personal or political gains, in order to foster inclusivity, tackle poverty, corruption and underdevelopment.

He stressed that “Leaders in Africa, especially the sub-region must ensure good governance, and number one step is to have free and fair elections. When you have free and fair elections, the good governance doesn’t stop there; there is a need to effectively tackle corruption.

“When leaders fail to provide basic amenities for their people, such as functional health centres because of corruption, they’re going to be disgruntled, coupled with the fact that the elections they are looking forward to is rigged, then you are calling for trouble,”

The former speaker decried the spate of unconstitutional takeover of governments in the sub-region and the continent at large, adding that although the development was condemnable, bad leadership was fueling it.

According to him, “ I strongly believe bad governance and corruption are two key factors that are responsible for most of the coup d’états that we have in the sub- region.

“If you have a situation where presidents are supposed to do two terms, and by the time they are in the middle of their second term, they want to tamper with the constitution so that they can extend their stay in power, that’s a constitutional coup.

“The only difference between them and the military is the fact that the military have guns, but they also are staging a coup on the constitution.

“No military coup can succeed without the support of the civilians; so if the civilians are disgruntled because of corruption and bad governance, they will support it,” he said.

Dr Tunis, the longest-serving Member of the Sierra Leonean Parliament, has extensive experience in legislative politics and governance both at the national and regional levels, having previously served as Majority Leader and Leader of Government Business in the Fifth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone.

He currently represents Constituency 101 in Pujehun District, under the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), where he is championing significant development initiatives that have positively impacted his people.

A strong ally of President Julius Maada Bio, Dr Tunis is widely speculated and considered as a strong potential candidate for the presidency of Sierra Leone in the 2028 elections, particularly as a flagbearer for the SLPP, a position political observers across the sub-region believe he is well equipped for, considering his years of service at different levels of governance.

Confirming the reports to newsmen in Abuja, Dr Tunis said, “ In the first place, anybody can have an ambition and have the ambition to become president, yes, because it’s a natural progression.”

“But at the moment, to be very honest with you, my focus is really not on that, I may have the ambition, but my focus is on the president’s agenda-for him to succeed.

“I am in the same party with the president so, if he succeeds, I will use that success story as a campaign agenda for me. So, my focus is really on the president, to support him to deliver on his campaign promises to our people,” he said.

Dr Tunis served as a senior member of the Sierra Leone delegation to the ECOWAS Parliament prior to his election as the Honourable Speaker, a position he held from March 2020 to March 2024.

As Speaker, Dr Tunis championed the policy of regional integration and worked diligently to bring the ECOWAS Parliament closer to ordinary citizens, a vision that was notably realized when the Parliament hosted its 2nd Extraordinary Session of 2021 in Winneba, the Efutu Traditional Area in Ghana, marking the first time in the Parliament’s history that such a session was held outside of its headquarters.

He passionately championed the ECOWAS Parliament’s esteemed legacy of peacekeeping, mediation, and parliamentary diplomacy, engaging with African Heads of State and numerous international leaders to foster peace and stability in the region. Recognizing the vital importance of peace and democracy in the region, Dr. Tunis remained actively engaged with stakeholders in areas where democratic values are under threat and the rule of law seems subverted.

As an ardent advocate for democracy and its foundational principles, Dr Tunis showed vigorous support for the direct election of ECOWAS Parliament members, a significant milestone aimed at transforming the institution into a truly democratic legislative body. He made substantial progress in this regard during his tenure as Speaker, beginning with the establishment of a Special Parliamentary Committee dedicated to advancing this transformative vision.

He passionately worked to ensure a special budget for the operations of the parliament, including ensuring the promotion and support for women in politics, generally across the region.

Under his watch as Honourable Speaker, the ECOWAS parliament secured landmark collaborations with national institutions and national parliaments across the sub-region, as well as robust rapport between the commission, the court, and the ECOWAS parliament.