By Stephen Ubanna
Ahead of the upcoming International Maritime Organization, IMO, a maritime agency of the United Nations, UN, elections into the council in London, United Kingdom, UK, slated between November 8, 2025 to Nov.12, 2025, to fill the 40- member council spread in categories A, B and C, Seats, in accordance with the provisions of the Articles 16 and 17 of the Convention, Nigeria and 25 other countries which have special interests in maritime transport, navigation, which have filed their applications to seek election in the biennium council were said to have intensified their campaigns. at the internal level to secure votes.
Note that the 25- other member States Of the over IMO 170 members that are expected to slug it out alongside Nigeria for the Category C, Seat in their different regions includes the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belgium, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Moroco, Oman, and Pakistan.
This is in addition to the countries of Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand and Turkiye. Of the 26 countries spread across Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South American Continent, only 20 of the maritime nations would be elected into the 2026/2027, council while the remaining six other countries that would lose out would have to go back to the drawing t board to prepare for another election into the council.
The election into the IMO category C, had been thrown open over the years ‘’ to ensure the representation of all major geographic areas of the world compared to the category A and B, council Seats.
There is no gain saying the fact that the countries going for the IMO category council election do not possess ‘’the maritime strength of providing international shipping services across the world’’. Moreso, council -members in the IMO category A and B, have limited membership of 10 each.
Take for instance for the category A, council Seat which ought to have 10 council members, but the leadership of the IMO, was said to have received 11 applications from maritime giants like China, Japan, Republic of Korea, United Kingdom, UK, Norway, Italy, Greece and the North America countries of the United States, US, Panama and the Russian Federation, a country currently at war with the neighbouring Ukraine allegedly instigated by the EU and the US. The last that was not the least of countries that had filed application to contest election into the group is Liberia, a country in the African Continent.
The situation is the same in the IMO category B council Seat, where 11 countries were said to have declared their Candidature for the 10 council Seat members. They are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and France, currently facing economic crisis as it no longer dominates the commanding heights of the Alliance of the Sahel States of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, economy in the exploitation of the region’s free gold, diamond, lithium, uranium and mineral resources, Germany and India.
Other countries which were said to have tendered their applications to contest for the IMO category B council Seat includes Netherland, Spain, Sweden and United Arabs Emirate, UAE.
Going by the preparations that had been put in place by the IMO, under the Leadership of Arsenio Dominguez, for the council election, the total number of maritime nations expected to be elected at the upcoming 34th session , going by the international Maritime Organisation Convention was put at 40, meaning that eight countries would have to drop out, one each from the categories A and B Candidatures while six others from countries that had from the category C Seat which had lost out as well during the election would have to leave the venue as well.
Nigeria had positioned itself as a possible category C, Candidate to replace the East African country of Kenya, which had defeated it the 2023, biennium election anchored on its Campaign, that’’ it is committed to inclusivity, equity and climate-resilient maritime development in an increasingly interconnected and environmentally vulnerable world’’.
The campaign strategy was said to have won a good number of maritime nations in Asia, Europe and the African Continent including some of the countries that were said to have voted Kenya in the 2023 biennium election, in the North and South American Continent.
This is an indication that Adegboyega Oyetola, a former governor of Osun state and now minister of marine and blue economy, as well as the inter-ministerial Campaign for Nigeria’s Campaign into the IMO council have actually done their homework to have penetrated many of the IMO-member nations. over 175- member- nations.
It would be recalled that in June 2025, minister Oyetola had had launched a high-level diplomatic campaign, described in international circles a- door- to door -campaign strategy in the IMO Headquarters in London, to garner valuable support.
Indeed, Nigeria has every reason to win the IMO category C council Seat this time around as it is ‘’working closely with many IMO -member- nations in the areas of shipbuilding, port modernization, green shipping technologies and intra-African trade’’.
Minister Oyetola was said to have also taken Nigeria’s bid the IMO council Seat Campaign to New York, US. At a recent reception hosted at the Nigeria Huse, in New York, on the margins of the 80th session of the UN, General Assembly, the minister who had presented Nigeria’s bid for the IMO council election before Diplomats and Representatives of several IMO member States was said to have them to understand that ‘’the Candidature of Nigeria was not just an inspiration but a solemn pledge of partnership’’.
He was said to have assured the Diplomats and the IMO Representatives that Nigeria will be guided by’’ the basics of responsible Leadership, regional cooperation and stronger contributions to global governance if elected into the IMO council’’.
Appealing to the IMO member states to give their votes to Nigeria with a huge maritime endowment, which includes 853 km coastline, 10,000 inland water ways and Exclusive Economic Zone, EEZ, on the Gulf of Guinea, a corridor of immense global commercial importance, he asserted that ‘’it would be a vote a vote for responsible Leadership’’.
He may have gladdened the heart of the Foreign Diplomats and IMO Representative at the Nigeria House Reception in New York, when he stated that ‘’Nigeria ‘s ports remain an important vital gateway for trade in the West and Central African subregions’’, while its shipping industry which had been one of the largest in the African Continent has been growing in lips and bounds over the years.
Minister Oyetola could beat his chest both within and outside the country that for the past three years there had not been any recorded case of piracy in Nigerian waters while incidences in the Gulf of Guinea had been drastically reduced to the barest minimum which was said to have restored confidence in Nigeria waters and the Gulf of Guinea and further underscored ‘’Nigeria’s role as a guarantor of maritime security and safety in the region’’.
