By Okey Ibeke and Enyeribe Anyanwu

When the current Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, and his protégé at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, arrived on the scene in 2015, election into the IMO Council was around the corner. But Nigeria could not contest the election that year. Their predecessors had put an embargo on Nigeria’s further participation in the IMO Council elections.

In fact, they had thrown in the towel after two consecutive losses in 2009 and 2011. Consequently, they decided to pursue other priorities and to put the house in order before making another bid instead of frittering away scarce resources in pursuit of the IMO Council seat.

But Amaechi and Dukuku on taking control saw everything differently. They saw the failure of Nigeria to be re-elected probably as a failure of strategy or not knowing the right thing to do. They saw it as Nigeria’s “lost glory in the comity of nations” which must be regained. As politicians, they felt they knew what must be done to achieve victory at the IMO elections. After all, was it not election?

Without batting an eyelid, they jumped into the vortex of the IMO election. Since it was too late to contest in 2015, they waited for the next election. Come 2017, they began preparations which included money consuming diplomatic shuttles, hosting of diplomats, organizing seminars and the like. But at the end of the day, Nigeria lost again, this time more resoundingly. This was after a whopping N300million had been frittered away in the preparations, lobbying and campaigns. What went wrong?

Read More : https://businessandmaritimewestafrica.com/imo-council-seat-between-illusion-and-reality/