Vice President John Dramani Mahama has encouraged Nigeria to exert its influence and leadership as the largest and most populated country in Africa to champion the integration of West African countries adding that Nigeria stands to benefit more in that regard in terms of trade and economic growth. He was speaking at the opening ceremony of an unprecedented training seminar organized for members of the ECOWAS parliament in Accra. The objective of the training is to consolidate further the knowledge ECOWAS parliamentarians have of the strengths and limitations of their institution as compared to that of their national parliaments. The seminar which begun on February 27 runs till March 7 and is expected to bring together personalities from the sub-region’s parliament as well as the Speakers of the national parliaments of ECOWAS member states. Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Honorable Justice Joyce Bamford-Addo in a goodwill message said there is the urgent need for ECOWAS states to create synergies in place of rivalries and commit to the course of accelerated sub-regional integration.