By Jimmy Fatunbi
President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has described his election into the Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, as an enormous opportunity for Nigeria.
Speaking to newsmen on arrival from the summit, which held in the Angolan capital, Launda, Akpabio said his election would impact positively on the country through the creation of employment and developmental opportunities for young Nigerians, who are seeking to become diplomats.
“A lot of employment opportunities would be created, a lot of offices would be opened; sub national offices would be opened and a lot of young Nigerians who wish to be diplomats will have the opportunity of working there.
“This will also attract foreign direct investments in the area of training and retraining and capacity building, not just for legislature but for people who are in different fields. The benefits are enormous, so we thank God for it”, he stated.
Akpabio pointed out that his election was a major political victory for the country as Nigeria had been missing at the decision making table of the union for the past 59 years.
He said “On the issues of the IPU, we went there and the delegation realized that Nigeria had not been at the table. Like the deputy speaker of the the House of Representatives said, it was a joint delegation of both the Senate and the House of Representatives and he was the first to point out that. And when we looked at the decision makers of the IPU, we realized that the highest organ is the Executive Committee and Nigeria was last seen there in 1964.
“It is actually not a small thing when you take cognizance of the fact that it is a global body and it’s not only one country that votes. The anglophone and francophone sections of West Africa and the rest of Africa decided to come together for a common agenda because of the minority status of the English speaking west African countries”.
Speaking further, Akpabio noted, “We had to appeal to our brothers and sisters from West Africa and thereafter, we went towards the global community, and at the end, I was given that opportunity and was unanimously elected a member of the Executive Council. It’s for a three year tenure.”
He dedicated his election at the IPU to President Bola Tinubu, who he said was a key part of the crucial decisions Nigeria took at the summit.
“I give glory to God and I think it is something we should dedicate to the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu because, it was happening at the same time. We were consulting with and briefing the president on what was going on and at the point of taking very critical decisions, we made sure that he was fully involved as president of the country.”
The Inter Parliamentary Union also elected the Speaker of the Parliament in Tanzania, Tulia Ackson as President with the backing of Nigeria.
