Concord Times (Freetown)
Olusegun Ogundeji
4 July 2008
Sierra Leone and Nigeria are currently locked in a diplomatic stalemate at the UN Headquarters in New York on who gets one of the seats reserved for West Africa as a non-permanent member of the Security Council.
A US-based news agency reports that Sierra Leone is determined to contest with Nigeria for the seat, which is currently held by Burkina Faso, next year.
The Security Council is made up of 15 members, five of which are permanent members and do not require reelections. The remaining ten are non-permanent members elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms and not eligible for immediate re-election.
Of the 10 non-permanent seats, Africa normally gets three seats which are presently held by South Africa (till the end of 2008), Burkina Faso and Libya (till next year).
The election to replace Burkina Faso is billed for next session of the General Assembly.
The report says UN diplomats normally apply the consensus route for such elections based on the principle of reciprocity and some informal rotational arrangement.
It added that at the just concluded African Union meeting in Egypt, African foreign ministers tried to resolve the matter between Nigeria and Sierra Leone among other issues but it was left unresolved. The foreign ministers later agreed to try again at another meeting whose date and time is yet to be disclosed.
Sources explained that Sierra Leone had been elected to the UN Security Council only once between 1970 and 1971, while Nigeria had been elected thrice in 1966-67, 1978-79 and 1994-95.
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