By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria has been re-elected as a Part-II member of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Council for a new three-year term.
This was disclosed by Mr James Odaudu, the Special Assistant on Public Affairs to the Minister of Aviation, Mr Hadi Sirika, in a statement on Sunday, saying Nigeria garnered 149 votes to be elected to the ICAO council for the 15th consecutive time.
The re-election, he said, took place at the plenary session of the ongoing 41st General Assembly of the organisation in Montreal, Canada.
In his reaction, the Minister of Aviation said the increased number of countries that supported Nigeria showed its rising profile amongst member nations.
Mr Sirika, who is the leader of the Nigerian delegation at the Assembly, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his continued support to the aviation sector, which he said has translated into the numerous achievements being celebrated by the global aviation community.
The Minister described the election as the icing on the birthday cake for Nigeria, having taken place on its Independence Anniversary day.
Also speaking on the re-election of Nigeria into Part 2 of the ICAO Council, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Canada, Ambassador Adeyinka Asekun, congratulated Sirika and all those whose contributions resulted in the achievement.
He said it was a thing of pride for him as an individual and the High Commissioner to be part of the double celebration for the nation, the election, and the Independence Anniversary happening on the same day.
As part of the celebrations of the country’s Independence, the Nigerian Mission, led by the Minister, hosted delegates from all the countries at the Assembly for a reception.
ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano recognised nine states’ significant progress in improving safety and security oversight systems by awarding them with Council President Certificates.
The President of the Council also took the opportunity to acknowledge Nigeria’s exceptional level of effective implementation of ICAO safety and security standards, one of the highest in the world, reflecting the organization’s “No Country Left Behind” initiative, with the ICAO support provided to States for the implementation of ICAO policies, global plans and SARPs.
ICAO is funded and directed by 193 national governments to support their diplomacy and cooperation in air transport as signatory states to the Chicago Convention (1944).
Its core function is to maintain an administrative and expert bureaucracy (the ICAO Secretariat) supporting these diplomatic interactions and to research new air transport policy and standardization innovations as directed and endorsed by governments through the ICAO Assembly or by the ICAO Council, which the assembly elects.
