The election of a brand new IPU President gives helpful second for the National Assembly, contends KEN HARRIES
Nigeria’s President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, was at his parliamentary diplomacy finest on the 153rd Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Arusha, Tanzania, on Friday, 9 October 2026. He reached deep into his parliamentary instrument package to muster assist for Mr. Milton Dick, Speaker of Australia’s House of Representatives, who emerged because the organisation’s thirty second President, securing 56 per cent of the votes in a three-candidate contest. Dick succeeds Dr Tulia Ackson of Tanzania, whose three-year tenure concluded with the Assembly.
The occasion provides a well timed alternative to look at the place of Nigerian parliamentary diplomacy in international affairs. The significance of the election for Nigeria extends past the particular person of the profitable candidate. It lies in Nigeria’s diplomatic engagement in assist of his candidacy, its efforts to rally parliamentary companions round a shared selection and the chance to translate these relationships into enduring nationwide and continental affect.
The Nigerian dimension of this growth centres on Akpabio, who can be Chairman of the National Assembly and a member of the IPU Executive Committee. His place throughout the organisation provides Nigeria an institutional platform from which to contribute to its course and domesticate relationships throughout its membership.
Before the election, Mr Dick visited Abuja to solicit the assist of the Nigerian Parliament. Akpabio assured him of Nigeria’s backing and pledged to advocate for his candidacy throughout the African Group of the IPU. The engagement additionally addressed stronger Nigeria–Australia cooperation in mining, agriculture, training, renewable power, know-how, safety and capability constructing. Support for a world candidacy thus turned an event to discover a broader bilateral relationship.
That engagement illustrates an essential precept of parliamentary diplomacy: affect is commonly exercised earlier than a vote is solid. It begins with consultations, the cultivation of confidence, the identification of shared pursuits and the power to convey stakeholders into a typical dialog. In multilateral establishments, the place international locations convey competing priorities and views to the desk, the capability to facilitate consensus could be consequential.
Nigeria’s assist and its dedication to mobilising African backing belong inside that diplomatic context. The election was performed by secret poll; its outcome doesn’t disclose how particular person delegates voted or allow a exact calculation of Nigeria’s contribution. Nigeria’s initiative can due to this fact be recognised with out attributing the end result to any single nation.
The significance of the initiative lies in Nigeria’s willingness to maneuver from institutional presence to purposeful engagement: taking a place, reaching out to companions and serving to construct assist round it.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union’s relevance to Nigeria is sensible. Peace and safety, migration, local weather change, financial inequality, technological disruption and the safety of democratic establishments can’t be addressed completely by way of home laws. They require worldwide cooperation, to which parliaments contribute by way of laws, oversight, illustration and the trade of coverage expertise.
Parliamentary diplomacy additionally creates channels of communication that may stay helpful when political variations complicate relations between governments. The deliberations in Arusha mirrored this broader function. The Assembly’s theme—Enhancing good governance and empowering communities by way of inclusivity, belief and alternatives for all—related worldwide parliamentary dialogue to the on a regular basis tasks of legislatures: making certain that public establishments reply to the folks they symbolize.
One of crucial dimensions of the Nigerian engagement is the trouble to mobilise assist by way of the African Group of the IPU. The Group includes 52-member parliaments, offering a considerable platform for continental cooperation. Its dimension, nonetheless, shouldn’t be mistaken for an computerized voting bloc or settlement on each difficulty.
Nigeria’s demographic scale, regional relationships and expertise in multilateral engagement give it a foundation for contributing to such coordination. But management inside a continental grouping should be earned by way of session, credibility, respect for different members and a willingness to pursue shared targets past particular person contests.
Nigeria’s engagement on the IPU is just not occurring in an institutional vacuum. The National Assembly’s wider worldwide parliamentary relationships present channels for legislative cooperation, capability constructing and regional dialogue. Akpabio’s membership of the IPU Executive Committee provides an additional dimension to that engagement, putting Nigeria inside an essential a part of the organisation’s governance construction.
Such positions provide entry to discussions, relationships and institutional processes. But entry is just the start line. The actual check is whether or not it produces advantages that may be recognized and sustained.
Those advantages could embody stronger legislative cooperation, improved oversight practices, exchanges on financial reform and digital governance, and better visibility for Nigerian and African coverage priorities. Where discussions concern training, know-how or funding, parliamentary relationships might help open doorways and encourage follow-through by the related public establishments and private-sector companions.
The distinction between illustration and outcomes is essential. A parliament could attend high-level assemblies and occupy positions inside worldwide our bodies, but fail to grasp their full worth if engagement is episodic, poorly coordinated or disconnected from home priorities.
The election of a brand new IPU President gives a helpful second for the National Assembly underneath Akpabio’s management to consolidate its parliamentary diplomacy.
First, participation in worldwide establishments needs to be linked to outlined nationwide targets. Policy briefs, negotiation priorities and mechanisms for reporting outcomes would give delegations a clearer mandate and allow the legislature and the general public to evaluate what their engagements obtain.
Second, consultations with African parliamentary companions ought to proceed past electoral contests. Common positions don’t require uniformity on each query. They require the self-discipline to determine shared pursuits, respect variations and coordinate the place cooperation can ship sensible worth.
Third, worldwide parliamentary relationships ought to feed into home legislative work. Exchanges on price range scrutiny, public accountability, digital governance, local weather laws and institutional transparency change into helpful when the teachings are examined by related committees and tailored to Nigerian circumstances.
Fourth, the skilled capability supporting parliamentary diplomacy needs to be strengthened. Research, worldwide legislation, protocol, strategic communication, negotiation and regional experience are indispensable to efficient engagement. Personal relationships can open doorways, however establishments should maintain the work past the tenure of particular person workplace holders.
Finally, Nigeria ought to measure the outcomes of its worldwide engagements. The related questions are whether or not it superior identifiable pursuits, secured commitments, opened avenues for cooperation or contributed to enhancements in legislative observe and governance.
These measures would give continuity to the diplomatic initiative surrounding Dick’s candidacy and assist embed parliamentary diplomacy extra firmly inside nationwide technique.
Milton Dick’s emergence as President of the IPU provides Nigeria a second to mirror on the strategic potentialities of parliamentary diplomacy. Akpabio’s engagement with the Australian Speaker and his dedication to mobilising African assist illustrate the significance of session and relationship constructing in multilateral affairs.
The nation has a possibility to train affect by way of the purposeful use of its democratic establishments and management. Its parliament can function a bridge between home priorities and worldwide deliberations, between nationwide pursuits and continental cooperation, and between political illustration and the sensible work of multilateral engagement.
In the ultimate evaluation, diplomacy is just not merely the artwork of being current the place choices are made. It is the capability to contribute meaningfully to the conversations that form these choices, whereas remaining devoted to the pursuits and tasks one represents.
For Nigeria, the duty is to show institutional entry into strategic engagement, strategic engagement into sensible cooperation, and sensible cooperation into lasting public worth.
That is the promise of parliamentary diplomacy—and the usual by which Nigeria’s affect within the worldwide parliamentary neighborhood ought to finally be judged.
· Harries Esq is an Abuja- based mostly growth communication professional.
