PAP Bureau Election: Senator Na’Allah favoured to emerge Vice President from West Africa

The Western Regional Caucus candidate for Vice President of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) during the suspended May 2021 PAP election session, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah has declared his intention to seek the endorsement of the Western Caucus to contest for the position of Third Vice President.

This was disclosed by Senator Na’Allah in an exclusive interview with the African Parliamentary News on Thursday.

The candidates for the election as President (only the Northern and Southern Regions) and Vice Presidents must emerge from their respective regional caucuses in a process scheduled to take place on Tuesday 28 June 2022 while the election proper will take place on Wednesday 29 June 2022.

It would be recalled that Western Regional Caucus had endorsed Senator Na’Allah for the Vice Presidential position in May 2021 along with Hon.  Haidara Aichata Cisse of Mali, a country that is currently under suspension from the African Union due to unconstitutional change of government. But the election session was suspended on 01 June 2021 due to disagreement over the application of the principle of rotation in the election of the president of the parliament.

With the suspension of Mali from the AU, the coast is clear for Senator Na’Allah to emerge the Third Vice President from the Western Region.

According to the modalities for the election released by the Office of Legal Counsel of the African Union Commission (OLC), Parliamentarians whose countries are under AU sanction for non-payment of statutory contributions or unconstitutional changes of government in accordance with Articles 23 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union shall not be eligible to vote.

Article 30 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union states that Governments which shall come to power through unconstitutional means shall not be allowed to participate in the activities of the Union.

Na’Allah is a member of Nigeria’s delegation to the Pan-African Parliament and had served in the House of Representatives from 2003 to 2011 before his election to the Senate in 2015 and was reelected in 2019.

He obtained a Bachelor of Law degree in 1985 from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria and was called to bar in 1986. He is also a trained pilot, having received his pilot’s license at the age of seventeen (17).

Senator Na’Allah had served as the Majority Leader of the Senate and is currently the Chairman of the powerful Senate Committee on Air Force.

#Pan-African Parliament       #PAP         #PAP Bureau Election  

#Senator Na’Allah       #African Union    #AU  #Constitutive Act

#African Union Commission   #AUC