From Benjamin Mensah, GNA Special Correspondent, Abuja

Abuja, Nov. 17, GNA - Ghana could not secure a position on the leadership of the Bureau of the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) Parliament and is now seeking to chair one of Committees of House.

The leadership positions were a Speaker and four Deputy Speakers. Former President of Niger, Ousmane Mahamane was on Tuesday elected the new Speaker of the 108-member Parliament to succeed Professor Ali Nouhoum Diallo of Mali for the next four years.

The four Deputy Speaker positions, which add up to that of the Speaker to constitute the Bureau went to Nigeria; Cape Verde; Benin and Sierra Leone, after lengthy consultations at the inaugural session of the Second ECOWAS Parliament, underway at Abuja, the administrative capital of Nigeria.

Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, Ghana's Majority Chief Whip, who is also Leader of Ghana's delegation to the session, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), that Ghana is seeking to chair the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Legal and Judiciary, in addition to the Committee of Transport and Communication, which she already chaired.

He said considerations for the Deputy Speaker were based on nationality, language and gender adding that Ghana could secure two positions since she had the second largest membership of eight after Nigeria which had 35 members.

Mr Bonsu said by a general consensus, the fourth slot for the Position of Deputy Speaker, which was to be picked among, Ghana, Gambia and Sierra Leone, went to Sierra Leone, because the Authority of Head of States of ECOWAS had agreed that Sierra Leone ceded her position of Speaker to Niger.

Other considerations that made Sierra Leone pick the fourth position were that she did not have a high profile position within the ECOWAS set up, had two votes against one for Ghana, and her candidate was much more senior in the Parliament than Ghana's candidate, in the person of Mr Bonsu, who is also the MP for Suame.

Mr Bonsu said the Parliament was considering increasing its committees from nine to 14 to create smaller size committees to enhance efficiency to impact positively on governance.

He said the increase was necessary as the Heads of States, Council of Ministers and other institutions in the Sub-Region were now obliged to consult the Community Parliament for advice on issues of Fundamental Human Rights, Free Movement of Goods and Services, Interconnection of Communication Networks and Telecommunication Interconnectivity.

The Leaders also consult the Parliament on Energy, Research on Science and Technology as well as National and Social Integration. President John Agyekum Kufuor at the last meeting of ECOWAS Heads of State, got Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas of Ghana elected as the First Commissioner of the newly created ECOWAS Commission.