By Raheem Ibrahim<\/b><\/p>\n
The Secretary-General of the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA), Dr. Paul Adalikwu, has revealed why the sub-regional body actively campaigned for Nigeria\u2019s return to the Council of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).<\/p>\n
Congratulating President Bola Tinubu and the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, on Nigeria\u2019s victory at Friday\u2019s IMO Council election, Adalikwu recalled the setback of Nigeria\u2019s absence from the council for 14 years.<\/p>\n
According to him, Nigeria\u2019s volume of maritime trade and its strategic influence in the Gulf of Guinea make the country a critical player in Africa\u2019s maritime ecosystem.<\/p>\n
He noted that the increased interest of the Nigerian government in maritime affairs\u2014evidenced by the creation of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy by President Tinubu\u2014reinforces the country\u2019s credentials as a key maritime nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMOWCA sees Nigeria as a country capable of speaking for other maritime nations in West and Central Africa, considering its deep involvement in multimodal logistics for trade\u2014linking rail to the Abuja airport, linking rail to the Apapa Port in Lagos, and operating dry ports in Kaduna, Kano, and Katsina, with more coming up nationwide,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the benefits of rejoining the IMO Council, Adalikwu explained that Nigeria can now participate in influencing global shipping rules and play a direct role in approving the IMO\u2019s work programme and strategic plan, which shape or halt new regulations over the next two years.<\/p>\n
He added that the victory opens opportunities to position national experts from council member countries in key IMO committees, protect national shipping fleets and registries from unfavourable regulations, and defend the country\u2019s flag-state interests where global maritime decisions are made.<\/p>\n
Adalikwu further noted that Nigeria\u2019s seat on the council guarantees access to technical assistance, training opportunities, and funding through the IMO\u2019s Technical Cooperation Programme, while boosting the country\u2019s diplomatic prestige through global networking with peer maritime nations.<\/p>\n
With council membership, Nigeria and MOWCA member states will also gain early access to regulatory proposals, enabling better preparation for emerging global maritime standards.<\/p>\n
Dr. Adalikwu expressed gratitude to all member states, as well as the governments of Indonesia and Singapore, for supporting MOWCA\u2019s campaign in securing Nigeria\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Raheem Ibrahim The Secretary-General of the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA), Dr. Paul Adalikwu, has revealed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18815,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18813\/revisions\/18815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}