Hon. Lucia assumes duty as Acting PAP President

The 3^rd Vice President of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), Hon. Lucia Maria Mendes Goncalves Dos Passos from Cabo Verde on Tuesday, officially assumed the role of Acting President of the Pan-African Parliament in line with the decisions of the 44^th Session of the Executive Council that took place from 14 – 15 February 2024 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Clerk of the Parliament, Ms. Lindiwe Khumalo was also recalled from suspension and resumed duties as the Clerk of Parliament on Tuesday. In the same vein, the Acting President, Hon. Lucia Passos directed Mr. Jan Jalloh to desist from holding himself as Acting Clerk/ OIC DC FAHR and revert to his position as Senior Documentation Officer.

In a related development, the Acting President Hon. Lucia Passos on Tuesday convened a meeting with Senior Management, including the Clerk of Parliament, the Deputy Clerk of Legislative Business, and the Acting Deputy Clerk (FAHR) (who also returned to his position), to address pressing operational matters and the implementation of all directives from the Executive Council.

The Acting President also instructed the Secretariat to initiate preparations to engage with the Office of the Legal Council of the African Union to chart a course for the organization of elections to fill vacancies in the Pan-African Parliament Bureau following the decisions of the Executive Council.

Gayo’s plot to defy the AU fails

Meanwhile, attempts by the Second Vice President of PAP, Hon. Dr. Ashebir Gayo to once again, hijack the leadership of the PAP in defiance of the Executive Council decision has finally hit the rocks. Our correspondent reports that Dr. Gayo through his appointed Acting Clerk, Mr. Jan Jalloh had scheduled a meeting with the staff of the Parliament for Wednesday to brief them of his plans to conduct election on 28 February 2024 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia even after the Executive Council had decided that the election should be held in March at the precincts of the Parliament in Midrand, South Africa.

Unfortunately, by the time Dr. Gayo showed up at PAP with his side-kick Hon. Miles Sampa on Tuesday to gain access to the President’s office where he had installed himself since 23 August 2023, the Acting President Hon. Lucia had already assumed leadership of PAP, recalled the Clerk and met with Staff. Consequently, Dr. Gayo with his group were prevented from gaining access to the President’s office.

Our correspondent recalls that Dr. Hon. Gayo had invited some Members of PAP to Ethiopia during the just concluded AU Summit on the guise that they would be part of PAP’s delegation to the AU Summit. But when they got to Ethiopia, the agenda changed to how to prosecute Gayo’s plan to hold on to the leadership of PAP. Part of the plan was a purported resolution of the Eastern Region demanding that the AU should allow the Eastern Region to retain the Acting President position.

That Gayo sponsored purported Resolution of the Eastern Region indeed, put to rest, all doubts that the complaint about the Amended Rules of Procedure of PAP, was indeed, a complaint against the incorporation of the principle of rotation into the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament. Part of the said purported resolution read: “CALLS UPON the Executive Council to uphold the right of the Eastern African Caucus to as per Rules of Procedure 2011 and as per existing practice of the PAP”.

The Resolution also urged the prevention of any external interference in the affairs of the PAP, to maintain PAP’s independence and “to safeguard the integrity of its decision-making processes”. Incidentally, it was the Dr. Gayo and his group that invited the AUC Chairperson into the internal affairs of PAP and got the Rules of the Parliament suspended in order for him to become the Acting President. Having achieved his goal, he now calls on the same body that he invited, not to interfere in what he now describes as the internal affairs of PAP.

But as the saying goes, he who fetches ant infested firewood invites the lizard to a feast.