The Chairman of the Human and Constitutional Rights Committee and the African Bar Association, Sonnie Ekwowusi, said President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet signed the 20-year Samoa agreement without approval by members of the National Assembly.
Ekwowusi disclosed this on Friday during an interview with Arise News, stating that it violates Chapter Two of Nigeria’s constitution and contradicts Chapter Four, Eighteen, and Thirty-Eight of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
[Sic] The issue of the Samoa agreement is a harrowing one because I was involved in the negotiations on whether Nigeria would sign or not, and before 15th November 2023, when some countries signed the Samoa agreement, Nigeria had made its position known that it was not going sign, Ekwowusi said.
He added that it was because of the provisions in articles 2.5, 29.5, 62.2, 88, and 97 of the partnership agreement, which Nigeria disagreed with.
However, on June 28, 2024, an unnamed diplomat of President Tinubu’s cabinet signed the agreement without the approval of members of the National Assembly nor with the knowledge of the Committee on International Treaties.
The Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, confirmed it was signed at the OACPS secretariat in Brussels, Belgium, while dismissing the clauses of LGBT conditions attached to the agreement.
Findings revealed the Samoa agreement replaces the Cotonou agreement and will serve as the guiding legal framework for the next twenty years between the European Union (EU) and its 27 Member States and the 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS).
On paper, the agreement focuses on human rights, democracy and governance, peace and security, human and social development, inclusive, sustainable economic growth and development, environmental sustainability and climate change, and migration and mobility.
On the surface, it appears fine, but the clauses or inclusion of the provisions that warrant accommodation of same-sex marriage, which, according to Ekwowusi, becomes binding to the EU interest, are contrary to the interest of Nigeria as claimed by the Tinubu-led administration.
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