Before this reporter was invited to South Africa a little more than a month ago, the Pan-African Parliament also known as PAP had a vague semblance of value to her. Despite the intensity with which she endeavours to get informed about current events in the media, PAP had not made much sense. The parliamentary body has since its birth five years ago, been shrouded in mystery to the majority of Africans seeking answers to their numerous questions about developmental issues in the continent.

The Pan-African Parliament was established in March 2004, by Article 17 of The Constitutive Act of the African Union, as one of the nine organs provided for in the treaty establishing the African Economic Community signed in Abuja Nigeria, in 1991.

The parliament, which has its seat in Midrand, South Africa was established to serve as a platform for Africans and their grass-roots organisations to be more involved in discussions and decision-making on continental issues. It sits in two sessions yearly and its members are elected by universal adult suffrage.

Currently, the body exercises oversight and has advisory as well as consultative powers, which will last for the first five years of its existence. After this initial time period, it will exercise full legislative powers. Its 230 Parliamentary representatives are elected by the legislatures of the 46 participating AU states rather than being directly elected in their own capacity.

PAP has as President, Hon. Dr. Idriss Ndele Moussa of Chad and four Vice-Presidents - Nigeria's Hon. Bethel Amadi; Uganda's Hon. Mary Mugyenyi; Algeria's Hon. Laroussi Hammi and Hon. Joram Gumbo from Central African Republic.

Every session, as part of making the existence of the parliament known Africa- wide, young journalists - under 30s - from a minimum of ten African countries are invited for an on-the-job-training with the PAP. This ensures that while they cover the activities of the sessions, they will also be educated on ethics of journalism in parliamentary reporting.

For the First Ordinary Session of the Second Parliament, THISDAY was chosen to represent Nigerian journalists at the proceedings. At the end of the session, the fact that PAP is largely unknown is in fact shocking since out of the fifty seven countries in Africa, forty six of them are represented in the Parliament. That should be enough reason why PAP should be popular. But sadly, that is not the case. It therefore raises the questions: "Is the Parliament proactive? If it is, would Africa not know?" These and other questions haunted this reporter as she left for South Africa.

Africa has been battling with a host of developmental and economic issues for a long time and the session prioritised the most recent ones; namely climate change, South Africa's hosting of the 2010 soccer World Cup, crisis in Guinea, Western Sahara, Niger and Sudan; women issues; the transformation of the parliamentary body to a legislative one as well as the PAP Budget for 2010.

The Parliament opened the session in Midrand on the 26th of October; with an encouragement from South African President, Jacob Zuma for African leaders to exert themselves more to regional integration; assuring of his country's commitment to that cause.

"We must pay greater attention to the economic integration of our continent our economic development is hampered by the barriers we ourselves have constructed along the lines of the colonial maps. As a consequence, we find ourselves divided into more than 50 different markets, with a multiplicity of trade and investment regulations, manufacturing standards, currencies, and jurisdictions," he noted.

According to Zuma, regional integration would lead to improved infrastructure as well as enhanced scientific development and technological innovation across Africa. He also called on reluctant African countries to quickly ratify the AU Protocol establishing the PAP, further adding that the body would help foster conflict-resolution on the continent.

"The pan African parliament can no longer delay a detailed discussion leading up to specific resolutions and recommendations to the AU. If these issues are not discussed, there would be very little point for the existence of this parliament" he added.

On his own part, PAP President, Dr. Moussa Idriss Ndele of Chad said that the body, as a legislature, would work towards ensuring a free and democratic Africa. "Let's build a united PAP so that we can become a parliament with full legislative powers to exercise oversight and ensure that (all) governments pursue African Union programmes."

Speaker, Nigeria's House of Representative, Dimeji Bankole also at the occasion, endorsed the motion to transform the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) into a legislative body for it to have a powerful voice. According to him, change is what the continent needs to develop as an integrated region. "The decision to transform the Pan-African Parliament into a full-fledged legislative body is a most welcome development which must come to fruition. We must begin to do things differently and in line with international best practices in the interest of the people of African continent."

Members of the parliament from different African countries lent their weight to the motion and decried the situation where the executive arm of the Africa Union holds absolute veto power, adding that it defeats the purpose of PAP.

As days went by, this reporter's education about the African Union and PAP became extensive as further issues were brought to bear. She discovered that the problems that plague the governments in the African continent also affect the PAP- financial misappropriation for instance.

As part of the deliberations for the session, the Committee on Monetary and Financial Affairs of the Parliament presented a report on the proposed PAP budget to the House. A total of USD 22,351,781 was proposed; broken down as follows: Operational Budget, excluding new staff cost, was put at USD 17,452,267 while the Programme Budget was for USD 4,899,514.

Earlier in the year, this reporter heard of the financial scandal that rocked the House and waited patiently for confirmation. That came from the person of the Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Chief Fortune Chirambira of Zimbabwe. He actually mentioned names of suspected culprits of the embezzlement. This controversial move did not go down well with a lot of members in the House but in his own defence, he said: "I do not see if you can do a satisfactory report if you do not mention names. In fact, we have over-whelming evidence that things like these happened. The management (auditors) was made up of professionals from business and law. Where we were specific about names and amounts, we have heaps and heaps of evidence that supports what we published and presented."

According to him, "It was evident that monies were being withdrawn but there were no records of what the funds were meant for and who they were meant for."

Another issue that was deliberated upon is the forth-coming 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The soccer fiesta, which is making its debut on African soil, has raised world-wide attention. The Local Organising Committee (LOC) was summoned by the Parliament to intimate it on the state of preparations so far.

Ms. Tumi Dlamini, Head, International Relations of the LOC disclosed that the preparations have reached an advanced stage with the final stadium expected to be handed over in January next year.

According to her, nine out of ten stadia and about 20 specific training venues had been completed and were in the process of being handed over to FIFA for inspection. "Construction of the stadia has gone on very well, without incidents. All the dates set have been met, except for the Cape Town stadium because it had litigation issues at the beginning," Dlamini said. She however insisted that "it will be ready by January (2010) to give us enough time to test it, since the World Cup is only starting in June."

Members of the House wanted to know how security will be beefed to forestall incidences that could give Africa a bad name. Dlamini said that "the government of South Africa, together with the Organising Committee, is very serious about security measures. There's a commitment to ensure all is well. Government has so far spent approximately 1.3 billion Rand on security".

That presentation brought a collective sigh of relief to the parliamentarians who, like other Africans are aware of litigations that have sought to distract preparations for the World Cup.

Human rights, provision of justice and conflict resolution were also discussed as motions involving Western Sahara, Guinea Conakry, Niger and Sudan were adopted to act as a checks to abuses currently being experienced by the citizens of those countries.

A majority of sixty-eight members of the Parliament (PAP) adopted the motion to exert pressure on the government of the Kingdom of Morocco to release the seven human rights activists that were "abducted . . . upon their return from visiting their families in the Saharawi refugee camps."

The issue of climate change was also at the front burner for debate. For the first time, according to the parliamentarians, Africa is united in their unshaken position to keep the Kyoto Protocol alive. They maintained that contrary to speculations making the rounds that the continent is divided in the matter of compensation due Africa from developed countries, the position on climate change still stands.

In Africa, issues concerning women and children still serve as a source of concern for leaderships in the continent. For this particular session of the Parliament, women issues were given priority attention when it adopted a report calling for the immediate abolishment of harmful traditional practises in Africa, mainly female genital mutilation (FGM).

Hon. Mary Mugyenyi, Second Vice President of the PAP on behalf of the Parliament's Women Caucus, made this call because the practise has "continued to affect the safety of African women and children."

This adoption was part of deliberations resulting from The Women's Platform Action Plan in Africa; an initiative that has organized three women conferences, the first of which was organized by the Parliament of South Africa in Cape Town in 2006. In October 2009, the third one held and had its theme as "Women Parliamentarians Against Harmful Traditional Practices in Africa: in Particular Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting".

Although the days were long and exhausting, this reporter had a whole new experience as she became thoroughly educated in the existence and importance of PAP to the African dream. But the education raised other questions, exposing the negligence of Nigerian legislators. Why, for instance, was there less attendance of Nigerian MPs? Do they think that the session is of no relevance? How would PAP affect Nigerians if their representatives do not show up at the proceedings? How would Nigeria's voice be heard?