Nigeria loses bid for re-election into IMO Category ‘C’ Council

In spite of high hopes, Nigeria did not scale through with her fifth attempt for a re-election into the ‘Category C’ Council seat of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

However, other African nations including Kenya, Egypt and Morocco got elected, while South Africa, Kuwait and Peru lost as well. And the new entrants  are Vanatu, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

The list of new members of Category ‘C’ has Bahamas, Belgium, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and Vanuatu.

For the Category ‘A’, members include: China, Greece, Italy, Japan, Norway, Panama, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States with the largest interest in providing international shipping services.

While winners in Category ‘B’ are: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates, which have the largest interest in international seaborne trade.

The Council is the executive organ of IMO and is responsible, under the Assembly, for supervising the work of the Organization. Between sessions of the Assembly, the Council performs the functions of the Assembly, except that of making recommendations to Governments on maritime safety and pollution prevention.

For the records, Nigeria last got elected into the IMO Council in 2007, when Barrister Temisan Omatseye was serving as Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

In 2011, Nigeria renewed moves for a re-election to the Council, but had always failed despite its contributions to maritime transport.

The newly- elected Council will meet, following the conclusion of the 32nd Assembly, for its 126th session on December 15, 2020 and will elect its Chair and Vice-Chair for the next biennium.

The 32nd Assembly of IMO is meeting in London at IMO Headquarters from 6 -15 December 2021.

All 175 Member States and three Associate Members are entitled to attend the Assembly, which is IMO’s highest governing body.

The intergovernmental organizations with which agreements of co-operation have been concluded and international non-governmental organizations in consultative status with IMO are also invited to attend.