Ho, March 8, GNA - The chief of a non-
governmental organization has appealed to the media to
galvanise ECOWAS citizens into pushing their governments
towards faster integration of the sub-region. "The new vision, which seeks to move ECOWAS
from an ECOWAS of States to an ECOWAS of People,
requires the involvement and full participation of civil society
groups and stakeholders, especially the Media," Mr Sam
Dodoo, Executive Director of 93Media Response" said on
Tuesday at a workshop for journalists. The workshop was in collaboration with the ECOWAS
Commission and the European Union. The NGO aims at promoting socio-economic development
through advocacy, communication and social mobilization,
gave the exhortation at a workshop for Journalists in the Volta
region in Ho. Mr Dodoo said the media in Ghana seemed to have
stayed aloof from the regional integration process due perhaps
to lack of information. He said it was for this reason that the ECOWAS
Commission had established an ECOWAS Unit within the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs where journalists could obtain
information. He urged the Media to make ECOWAS Integration
an election issue to push political parties to commit to it. He said individual ECOWAS citizens, institutions
and the business community stood to gain tremendously from
integration which should not be delayed any further. The participants called for the decentralization of the
ECOWAS Unit to the Regions and Districts to be easily
accessible to the media outside Accra.