There is a cold diplomatic war between Nigeria and Britain over the leadership of the United Nations Department of Political Affairs as a new secretary-general takes over next month, Empowered Newswire reports.
With the completion of the tenure of Africa�s Kofi Annan as the Secretary-General of the UN by the end of this month, member-states of the United Nations have been angling to get plum jobs under the new leadership of South Korea�s Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon. Ki-moon has been appointed the successor of Annan and will assume duties on January 1, 2007.
One of the mostly contested UN plum jobs is the one currently held by Nigeria�s former External Affairs Minister, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari. He was appointed as Head and Under-Secretary-General of the UN Department of Political Affairs only last year by Annan. Gambari replaced the British, Sir Kieran Prendergast, who held the position for about five years before then.
The British are known to prefer the headship of the UN Political Affairs Department because they regard themselves as the best political and administrative technocrats in the world. This is because of the British experience of colonial rule over a vast area of the world. Many nations at the UN flatly disagree with this British view and consider it racially deterministic.
When Annan removed a British and picked an African for the job, the British, according to diplomats, were not happy.
While the appointment of a new secretary-general was in progress, the British were said to have conditioned their support for Ki-moon on his restoration of the DPA back to the hands of a British citizen.
But Nigeria, working through the African Group and other friendly nations in the UN has also been lobbying to prevail against Britain�s determination to offset Nigeria�s hold on the office.
It is believed that Nigeria�s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Aminu Wali, has discussed the issue with President Olusegun Obasanjo with a view to ensuring that Nigeria does not lose out to Britain.
Ban Ki-moon�s press officer, Ms. Soungah Choi, said the new UN Secretary-General has not fixed a date to announce the appointments of top UN officials under his leadership. She added that the process of such appointments were in progress.
She, however, confirmed that the new secretary-general would be sworn in on December 14, 17 days ahead of the time he would officially take over as the new secretary-general.
Normally when a new UN secretary is appointed, he/she picks new heads of departments. And the bigger the country, the bigger their chances of getting plum jobs.
Although Ki-moon will not take over after his swearing in on December 14, his arrival in New York in the last few weeks has heightened the level of anxiety with many of the top UN political appointees unsure of their fate.
UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, had said UN undersecretaries were expected to stay with the outgoing secretary-general until the end of the year. They are also expected to stay at their posts after the transition until the new secretary-general will decide their fate.