Nigeria has played the last of its diplomatic cards ahead of next week’s crucial election into Category C of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Council.
Adegboyega Oyetola, the country’s minister of marine and blue economy, delivered an appeal to delegates at the IMO headquarters in London last week. The event, with up to 150 countries represented, was Nigeria’s last outreach effort to hopefully break a 12-year drought at the Council election on November 28.
Oyetola told ambassadors and maritime policymakers present that Nigeria is not just a contender but a country whose actions in maritime security, environmental responsibility and blue economy reforms have improved safety across the Gulf of Guinea and advanced global seaborne trade.
He said that Nigeria has recorded zero piracy incidents within its waters over the past four years, citing data from the International Maritime Bureau. According to him, regional cooperation and Nigeria’s Deep Blue Project have helped curb maritime crime, returning confidence to investors.
Nigeria has been involved with the IMO Council since the 1970s, with a history of both holding and losing a seat. It has had successful stints in the IMO Council in 1975, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007, and 2009.
But since losing its seat in the 2011 election by a single vote, Nigeria has engaged in a continuous push to regain a position on the Council, participating in subsequent elections in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021, all of which were unsuccessful.
Oyetola at the gathering tried to convince delegates that Nigeria’s bid for Council membership this year seeks to strengthen partnerships rather than prestige. He invited countries to lend Nigeria their “trust, friendship, and votes,” for a future where all coastal and seafaring nations, regardless of size, benefit from secure oceans and open trade routes. “The seas unite us far more than they divide us,” he added.
Nigeria also shared solidarity with member states recently affected by severe hurricanes and other natural disasters in the Caribbean and the Philippines.
