Parliamentary Independence Begins with Financial Independence: Understanding Articles 4(3), 6 and 10 of the PAP Protocol

By Olu Ibekwe

Articles 4(3), 6 and 10 of the Protocol Establishing the Pan-African Parliament (PAP Protocol) form a constitutional framework designed to safeguard political pluralism, parliamentary independence and institutional effectiveness. This analysis explains why Members' allowances should be financed through the African Union budget to promote equal participation, protect independent voting and preserve the autonomy of Africa's continental Parliament.

The debate over Members' allowances at PAP is often presented as a financial or administrative issue. In reality, it raises a far more fundamental question: how can the Parliament safeguard the political independence, equality and effective participation of its Members while enabling them to discharge their continental responsibilities?

The answer lies in reading three key provisions of the Protocol Establishing the Parliament together rather than in isolation. Article 4(3) requires that the representation of each Member State reflect the diversity of political opinions in its national parliament or other deliberative organ. Article 6 provides that Pan-African Parliamentarians shall deliberate and vote in their personal and independent capacity. Article 10 further provides that they shall be paid an allowance to meet expenses incurred in the discharge of their duties.

Viewed together, these provisions reveal a coherent statutory framework. Article 4(3) safeguards political pluralism in the composition of national delegations. Article 6 protects the independence of Members in the exercise of their parliamentary mandate. Article 10 provides the institutional support necessary to make that independence meaningful in practice. These provisions are therefore not isolated administrative rules; they are complementary constitutional guarantees intended to preserve the representative character, institutional autonomy and effectiveness of the Pan-African Parliament.

This statutory framework is particularly relevant in light of recent Executive Council decisions calling for the restoration of Members' emoluments and the strengthening of the Parliament's institutional capacity. The debate is therefore no longer simply whether Members should receive allowances. The more important question is whether the financing of those allowances reinforces or inadvertently weakens the constitutional principles established by the Protocol itself.

This article argues that the payment of Members' parliamentary allowances through the regular budget of the African Union is not merely an administrative or financial arrangement. Rather, it is a constitutional safeguard that gives practical effect to Articles 4(3), 6 and 10 by promoting political pluralism, protecting parliamentary independence, ensuring equality among Members irrespective of their political affiliation or the financial capacity of their Member States, and preserving the institutional integrity of Africa's continental Parliament.

The Constitutional Purpose of Article 10

Having established the constitutional principles of political pluralism and parliamentary independence, the next question is how the Protocol intended those principles to operate in practice. The framers of the PAP Protocol understood that a continental parliament cannot function effectively if its Members are expected to finance the discharge of their official responsibilities from personal resources. Article 10 was therefore designed to provide the institutional support necessary to make the guarantees contained in Articles 4(3) and 6 both practical and effective.

Unlike national legislators, Members of the Pan-African Parliament are required to undertake responsibilities extending beyond their domestic parliamentary duties. These include participation in plenary sittings, committee meetings, oversight activities, parliamentary diplomacy, legislative deliberations, consultations, election observation missions, fact-finding visits and engagement with citizens across the continent.

These responsibilities inevitably generate expenses. Article 10 was therefore included to ensure that Members would have the financial means necessary to discharge their functions effectively while serving the continental interests entrusted to them.

The provision is not intended to enrich parliamentarians. Its purpose is functional rather than personal and exists to ensure that financial constraints do not become an obstacle to effective parliamentary representation.

Is Article 10 Mandatory or Discretionary?

The language of Article 10 leaves little room for ambiguity. The Protocol provides that Pan-African Parliamentarians "shall be paid an allowance."

We are told that in legal drafting, the word "shall" ordinarily denotes a mandatory obligation rather than a discretionary power.

Had the drafters intended the payment of allowances to depend upon administrative convenience or political discretion, they could easily have employed permissive language such as "may be paid."

They did not. Instead, they imposed a clear obligation on the African Union to provide allowances enabling Members to meet the expenses associated with the discharge of their parliamentary duties. This interpretation is reinforced by the Executive Council's repeated attention to the issue.

Recognizing the practical consequences of reductions in Members' emoluments, the Executive Council, through Decision EX.CL/Dec.1288(XLVI) adopted in February 2025, requested the Permanent Representatives' Committee (PRC), through the relevant Sub-Committee, to review Decision EX.CL/Dec.1057(XXXV) on the harmonization of allowances and benefits in order to restore the emoluments of Members of the Pan-African Parliament.

That directive demonstrates that the Executive Council viewed the issue not as a matter of privilege, but as one affecting the effective functioning of the Parliament.

Article 6: The Constitutional Guarantee of Parliamentary Independence

Article 6 provides that:

"The Pan-African Parliamentarians shall vote in their personal and independent capacity."

This provision is one of the cornerstones of the constitutional architecture of the Pan-African Parliament. It establishes that, once designated and sworn into office, Members are expected to exercise independent judgment in the discharge of their continental responsibilities. Although they remain members of their respective national parliaments, they are not intended to function within PAP as delegates acting under political instruction or financial dependence. The Protocol therefore protects both the independence of parliamentary judgment and the institutional autonomy of the Parliament itself.

Independence Requires Financial Independence

There is an old saying: "He who pays the piper dictates the tune."

Although simplistic, the expression captures an important constitutional principle. Financial dependence can undermine institutional independence.

If Pan-African Parliamentarians are expected to exercise independent judgment under Article 6, they should not be placed in a position where the practical discharge of their parliamentary responsibilities depends upon the goodwill or financial discretion of external actors.

The independence guaranteed by Article 6 cannot be purely theoretical. It must also be supported by institutional arrangements that protect Members from financial pressures capable of influencing their performance of parliamentary duties.

Article 10 provides precisely that safeguard. It enables Members to perform their functions without having to depend upon ad hoc financial arrangements or external sources of support.

In this sense, Article 10 gives practical effect to Article 6. The two provisions are therefore complementary rather than separate.

Why Members' Allowances Should Form Part of the African Union Budget

The relationship between Articles 4(3), 6 and 10 of the Protocol carries an important constitutional implication for the financing of the Pan-African Parliament.

Article 4(3) requires that "the representation of each Member State must reflect the diversity of political opinions in each National Parliament or other deliberative organ." This provision is fundamental to the representative character of the Parliament. It envisages national delegations composed not only of members of the governing party but also, where applicable, members drawn from opposition parties and other political formations represented in the national parliament. In other words, the Protocol deliberately promotes political pluralism within national delegations.

Article 6 complements this principle by providing that Pan-African Parliamentarians "shall vote in their personal and independent capacity." Together, these provisions make it clear that, once designated and sworn into office, Members are expected to participate in the work of the Parliament as independent continental legislators rather than as delegates acting under political or financial direction.

Article 10 provides the practical mechanism for safeguarding that independence by requiring that "the Pan-African Parliamentarians shall be paid an allowance to meet expenses in the discharge of their duties."

Read together, these three provisions form part of a coherent constitutional framework. Article 4(3) guarantees political diversity in representation. Article 6 guarantees independence in deliberation and voting. Article 10 provides the institutional support necessary to enable Members to exercise that independence effectively.

This statutory design could be weakened if the financial ability of Members to participate in parliamentary activities depended primarily upon the discretion or financial capacity of individual Member States. As alluded earlier "he who pays the piper calls the tune." Whether or not such influence is actually exercised, a system in which national governments bear primary responsibility for financing their parliamentary delegations could create both the perception and the risk that financial dependence may compromise the independence which Article 6 seeks to protect.

The issue becomes even more significant when viewed through the lens of Article 4(3). Since the Protocol requires delegations to reflect the diversity of political opinions within national parliaments, some delegations will inevitably include members of governing parties alongside members of opposition parties. If participation in PAP activities were to depend upon funding provided at national level, there is a potential risk that financial support could be applied unevenly or become subject to domestic political considerations. Even where no such discrimination occurs in practice, the mere possibility of unequal treatment is inconsistent with the constitutional objective of ensuring that all duly designated Members participate in the Parliament on an equal footing, irrespective of their political affiliation within their home countries.

A further concern relates to the differing financial capacities of Member States themselves. If each State were expected to finance its own parliamentary delegation, the quality and consistency of participation in the work of the Parliament would inevitably vary according to national economic circumstances and budgetary priorities. While some Member States might readily support the regular participation of their delegations, others facing fiscal constraints could struggle to meet the associated costs.

Indeed, experience has shown that some Member States have, at various times, encountered difficulties in financing the participation of their delegations, resulting in reduced attendance during plenary sittings, committee meetings and other parliamentary activities. Such disparities undermine the representative character of the Parliament and diminish the quality of its deliberations by preventing the full participation of all Member States.

For these reasons, financing Members' allowances through the regular budget of the African Union is not simply a financial or administrative arrangement. It is a constitutional safeguard. It protects the independence guaranteed by Article 6, gives practical effect to the political diversity envisaged by Article 4(3), promotes equality among all parliamentarians regardless of their political affiliation or their Member State's financial capacity, and reinforces the institutional autonomy of the Pan-African Parliament as an organ of the African Union.

Viewed in this way, Articles 4(3), 6 and 10 are mutually reinforcing. Together, they establish a constitutional framework designed to ensure that the Pan-African Parliament remains politically representative, institutionally independent and operationally effective. A system in which Members' parliamentary allowances are financed through the African Union's approved budget is therefore not merely desirable; it is the funding model most consistent with the letter, purpose and spirit of the Protocol.

How Does PAP Compare with Other Regional Parliaments?

The principle that legislators should receive institutional support to discharge their parliamentary functions is neither unusual nor unique to the Pan-African Parliament.

Regional parliamentary institutions around the world provide financial support to their Members because parliamentary service necessarily involves official responsibilities that generate legitimate expenses.

Whether within the European Parliament, the East African Legislative Assembly, the ECOWAS Parliament or other regional parliamentary bodies, Members generally receive salaries, allowances or expense reimbursements established under the legal instruments governing those institutions.

The underlying principle is consistent. Parliamentary independence requires adequate institutional support.

The Pan-African Parliament is therefore not seeking exceptional treatment. It is operating in accordance with a well-established principle of parliamentary governance recognized across regional and international legislative institutions.

From Constitutional Principle to Institutional Practice

Articles 4(3), 6 and 10 together provide the constitutional foundation for an effective continental Parliament.

Article 4(3) ensures that the Parliament reflects the political diversity of Africa's national legislatures. Article 6 guarantees that Members deliberate and vote in their personal and independent capacity. Article 10 provides the institutional support necessary for Members to exercise that independence in practice.

These provisions are not isolated guarantees. They are mutually reinforcing constitutional principles designed to ensure that the Pan-African Parliament remains representative, independent and capable of fulfilling the mandate entrusted to it by the African Union.

Financial support for Members should therefore be viewed not as a privilege but as an institutional necessity that enables the Parliament to function as the Protocol intended.

Conclusion

The framers of the Protocol Establishing the Pan-African Parliament understood that parliamentary independence cannot exist without institutional support, and that political pluralism cannot be fully realized unless all duly designated Members are able to participate equally in the work of the Parliament.

Articles 4(3), 6 and 10 should therefore be read as complementary constitutional guarantees. Article 4(3) promotes political diversity in national delegations. Article 6 safeguards the independence of Members in deliberation and voting. Article 10 provides the financial support necessary to make those guarantees meaningful in practice.

Recent Executive Council decisions calling for the restoration of Members' emoluments and the strengthening of PAP's institutional capacity are therefore entirely consistent with both the letter and the spirit of the Protocol.

As the Seventh Bureau begins implementing the Parliament's institutional recovery agenda, the financing of Members' allowances through the regular budget of the African Union should be viewed not merely as a matter of financial administration, but as a constitutional safeguard that preserves parliamentary independence, promotes equality among Members irrespective of their political affiliation or the financial capacity of their Member States, and reinforces the institutional autonomy of the Pan-African Parliament as the continental representative institution of the peoples of Africa.