By BANNERNEWS Reporter, Calabar
A legal practitioner and public commentator, Justice Osai Ahiakwo, has urged the Federal Government to take a clear position on the reported Nigerian candidature for the position of United Nations Secretary-General.
Ahiakwo made the call in an analysis on the ongoing process to select a successor to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, whose second term ends on December 31, 2026.
He said Nigeria should determine whether the reported candidature of Nigerian Akasoba Zainab Duke-Abiola meets the required international standards and, if so, consider mobilising diplomatic support for her.
According to him, the succession process is not simply about filling an international office but involves extensive diplomatic negotiations among UN member states. Under Article 97 of the UN Charter, the Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.
Ahiakwo noted that no woman had served as UN Secretary-General since the organisation was established, making gender representation one of the issues featuring prominently in the current succession process.
The UN’s official list of candidates currently includes former Senegalese President Macky Sall, former Costa Rican Vice-President Rebeca Grynspan, Guyana’s UN Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett, Ecuador’s former foreign minister María Fernanda Espinosa, former IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi, former Ugandan diplomat Olara Otunnu and Ivonne A-Baki.
However, Ahiakwo’s analysis associates Duke-Abiola with the succession contest while acknowledging that her name does not currently appear on the UN’s official list of formally nominated candidates.
He said the immediate issue for Abuja was whether the Federal Government considered the Nigerian candidature sufficiently qualified and credible to warrant official consideration and diplomatic backing.
Ahiakwo said any serious Nigerian bid would require extensive diplomatic engagement with African governments, the African Union, ECOWAS, countries of the Global South and, critically, the five permanent members of the Security Council.
He noted that Africa had produced two former UN Secretaries-General — Egypt’s Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Ghana’s Kofi Annan — but no African woman had occupied the position.
The legal practitioner, however, stressed that regional or gender considerations should not replace merit, saying a candidate must possess leadership ability, diplomatic experience, integrity, independence and the capacity to command confidence across competing geopolitical interests.
Ahiakwo said Nigeria could not determine the outcome of the process single-handedly but should not remain passive if a credible Nigerian candidature was formally presented, urging the Federal Government to make a deliberate foreign-policy determination and decide the extent to which it was prepared to deploy the country’s diplomatic capital in support of it.
