court. 3. The Defendants, namely, the Council of Ministers, the Community Parliament, and the ECOWAS Commission, all of which are Institutions of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), neither appeared in court nor were they represented. 4. The Applicant complains of violation of the Revised Treaty, by the advertisement of the post of Secretary General of ECOWAS Parliament and by the decision allocating such post to the Republic of Guinea. 5. He requests for the annulment of Regulation C/REG.5/06/06 of the Council of Ministers allocating the post of Secretary General of ECOWAS Parliament to Guinea, and equally asks for the annulment of all acts resulting from the said Regulation. I. Presentation of the Facts and Procedure 6. The Applicant, who is a promoter of Asher's Initiatives Limited/GTE, filed his Application on 1 June 2007 at the Court Registry, for the purposes of asking the Court to declare as unlawful Regulation C/REG.5/06/06 made by the ECOWAS Council of Ministers, allocating the post of Secretary General of the Community Parliament to Guinea, previously held by Nigeria. 7. The following essential details do stand out from the said Regulation: - The post of Secretary General of ECOWAS Parliament is allocated to the candidate presented by the Republic of Guinea; - The Guinean candidate is appointed as an exceptional case to the category of statutory appointees for a term of office of four (4) years non renewable. - Upon expiration of the tenure of the Guinean candidate appointed to the post of Secretary General of the Community Parliament, the said post shall be classified in the category of professional cadre on Director Grade (D2), and the filling of vacancy concerning this post shall be made by advertisement throughout all the Member States. 8. According to the Applicant, the post of Secretary General, within the structure of ECOWAS, falls into the category of professional cadre. He avers that the post of Secretary General is a permanent appointment on D2 professional status; and that it is not a statutory appointment offered on a rotational basis, and can therefore not be allocated to any particular Member State. 9. He relies on C/REG.20/12/99 abolishing the quota system of allocating posts within ECOWAS Institutions and asserts that by virtue of Article 12 (b) of the ECOWAS Staff Regulations, and Article 18(4) of the Revised Treaty, vacancies for permanent posts shall be filled by competitive recruitment procedure. For the Applicant, Guinea, with financial contribution of only 0.77% from the 2006 ECOWAS financial year, occupied two managerial positions within the institutions of ECOWAS, and that there is no justification for taking the post of Secretary General of the Parliament away from Nigeria and giving it to another country. 10. He adds that restricting the application to the nation of Guinea, as evidenced by the vacancy announcement of the post of Secretary General of ECOWAS Parliament in the 30th April 2007 edition of This Day newspaper, amounts to an act of injustice against him as a Community citizen, which deprives him and his immediate constituency of the right to apply for the post, and that the same applies to the other citizens and constituencies within the Community. 11. Considering that he is the Principal Partner of the law firm Oserada and Oserada (Asher's Chambers) and the promoter of Asher's Initiatives LTD/GTE, the Applicant avers that the Council Decision referred to above constitutes an impediment to the regional perspective of his company, and runs counter to the provisions of Article 3 of the Revised Treaty of ECOWAS, specifically in its paragraphs 2 (b), (c), (f), (g), (o), as well as Articles 18(5) and 5(1), (3) of the same Treaty. He equally cites the African Charter on Human and People's Rights in its Articles 13 (1), (2); 19; 22(1), (2) and Chapter A9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 (Ratification and Enforcement Act). 2