By Uzor Odigbo
Though the four-year tenure of Dr Paul Adalikwu as the Secretary General of the Maritime Organisation of the West and Central Africa (MOWCA) which commenced in November 2021 is still running, TheNiche can authoritatively report that there are strong indications that owing to petty internal politics at the Federal Ministry of Transportation Abuja; Nigeria might soon lose that position to another West or Central African country.
Nigeria’s Dr Paul Adalikwu was elected Secretary General of MOWCA at the 16th Extra-Ordinary Session of the organisation in Accra, Ghana in November 2021, for a term of four years, renewable for a second term of four years.
By the MOWCA rules of civil procedure 1999, the home country of the serving secretary-general cannot swap the occupant with another person after a duly contested election. Such action violates Articles 16 and 73 of the MOWAC rules.
There are strong indications that some persons in the Federal Ministry of Transportation are making a surreptitious move to replace the current Secretary General, Adalikwu, with Mrs Nneka Obianyo, a director in the Ministry of Transportation.
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Sources close to the body told TheNiche that such action will cost Nigeria the office if the country fails to retrace such damaging steps before it gets to the attention of the members, especially the Francophone West and Central African countries who have always wanted to grab that office.
This charade, according to our source, is being arbitrarily carried out at the Federal Ministry of Transportation (the two Ministries carved out from the former Ministry of Transportation are still functioning under one Ministry), without recourse to the MOWAC rules.
The Maritime Organisation for West and Central Africa was created in 1975. It is an Intergovernmental Organisation for maritime cooperation which was originally known as the Ministerial Conference of West and Central African States on Maritime Transport.
In August 1999, it became the Maritime Organisation for West and Central Africa. The missions assigned to MOWCA are to promote cost-effective maritime transport services, maritime safety and security, information flow, capacity building of maritime transport actors, sustainable financing of the maritime transport industry and facilitation of transit transport to landlocked member states.
“The interim of the Secretary-General shall be entrusted to one of the Directors by the current Chairman. While awaiting the appointment of these Directors, one of the Secretaries General of the Specialised Organs designated by the current Chairman shall stand in for him” -Article 16.
“The Secretary-General shall be elected by the General Assembly for a four-year term of office, renewable once.”