By Konima Barlay curated from APO News Feed.

His Excellency the President, Dr. Julius Maada Bio has departed the shores of Sierra Leone to attend The Authority of Heads of State within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The block will hold the sixty-second ordinary session in Abuja, Nigeria's administrative and political centre.

The Authority of Head of States and Government, is the supreme institution of ECOWAS and composes of Head of States and or Government of Member States. The Authority’s main duties are direction and control by taking all measures to ensure progressive development and realisation of its objectives through policies, guidelines, directives and co-ordination of the economic, scientific, technical, cultural and social policies of Member States.

This session’s Authority of Heads of State and Government will converge on Sunday, December 4, for a day’s discussion on myriad of issues including earlier reports from the held December 1-2 Council of Ministers’ meeting detailing encircling regional matters.

The event will also grace a pre-session engagement on foundational laying ceremony for the new ECOWAS Headquarters sponsored by the Chinese government after it won the bid to build the facility.

It is believed the economic nuances of such upfront gesture bid by the Chinese will only be known in the African-China relation in years to come.