Foreign affairs ministry queries ECOWAS Commission

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has queried the ECOWAS Commission for breaching established diplomatic channels of communication by writing directly to President Goodluck Jonathan. The query was contained in a strongly worded covering "note" returning the offensive letter to Jonathan, who is also the Chairman of ECOWAS. The ministrys letter marked Note No: ECO/1/NV/001/11, was obtained by THE PUNCH, on Thursday, in ministry took exceptions to the ECOWAS Commissions decision seeking to railroad the President into taking a decision. President of the Commission, James Gbeho, a Ghanaian, had in the letter dated November 19, 2011 informed Jonathan about the "allocation of a position to Nigeria."In the letter, Gbeho had asked the President to nominate three candidates from which one would be chosen to occupy the position of Commissioner, Political Affairs Peace and Security in the commission. When the Presidency sent the letter to the ministry, its (ministry) officials were furious.This development prompted the ministry to return the letter to the original sender with a covering note.The MFAs "note" reads in part, "The Ministry wishes to draw to the attention of the commission that its submission of the said letter is in violation of extant procedures as the ministry is yet to receive the decisions and outcomes of the Extra-ordinary Summit of 18 October, 2011 for onward transmission to its highest destination for accent."As the commission is obviously aware, the said letter in question should only be dispatched to Member States after the Decisions and Outcome of the Summit had been duly signed by the Chairman of the Authority and returned for further action. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs advises against any attempt to by-pass duly established channels of communications, procedures and processes in dealing with Member States. The referred letter is therefore being returned."
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