APPN Steering Committee: Olu Ibekwe elected Chairperson as Nkoale Ts’oana emerges Vice Chairperson

The Steering Committee of the African Parliamentary Press Network (APPN) on Friday, conducted elections to select its chairperson and vice chairperson.

Olu Ibekwe, Dean of the Nigeria Country Caucus was elected Chairperson while Nkoale Joseph Ts’oana, Dean of Lesotho Country Caucus was elected vice chairperson.

Olu Ibekwe

Ibekwe who publishes the African Parliamentary News (www.africanparliamentarynews.com), an online newspaper has been engaged in parliamentary media activities especially the Pan African Parliament since May 2009. He was in March elected Dean of the APPN Nigeria Caucus.

Ts’oana is a Lesotho based seasoned journalist with well developed skills and experience in media fraternity and has worked in different tasks, providing coverage on Parliament, Court and Politics. He is Chairperson, Media Sector, Technical Committee on Lesotho National Reforms and Deputy Chairperson, Media Institute of Southern Africa.

Nkoale Joseph Ts'oana

African Parliamentary Press Network (APPN), an Africa wide parliamentary media group was formed to monitor and provide enhanced visibility to the Pan-African Parliament, the regional parliaments as well as individual National Parliaments.

The APPN Steering Committee is made up of all the Deans of the Country Caucuses in the continent.

APPN was conceptualized by Parliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica), a Ghana based Parliamentary Monitoring Organization (PMO) with a vision of promoting Open Parliament across Africa.

The Executive Director of PNAfrica is Sammy Obeng while APPN Secretariat in Ghana is headed by the Programmes Manager, Mr. Gilbert Borketey Boyefio.

Consisting of journalists, media practitioners and media centered Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations (PMOs) across the continent of Africa who cover the workings of parliaments, APPN was put together in November last year after a media session on working effectively with the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), organized under the auspices of the PAP Civil Society Organizations’ forum with support from the Parliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica), Mzalendo Trust, Centre for Human Rights (CHR) of the University of Pretoria and the Pan African Parliament (PAP), to help the continental legislative body achieve its mandate.