The election of a new IPU President provides useful moment for the National Assembly, contends KEN HARRIES Nigeria’s President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, was at his parliamentary diplomacy best at the 153rd Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Arusha, Tanzania, on Friday, 9 October 2026. He reached deep into his parliamentary tool kit to muster support for Mr. Milton Dick, Speaker of Australia’s House of Representatives, who emerged as the organisation’s 32nd 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 event offers a timely opportunity to examine the place of Nigerian parliamentary diplomacy in global affairs. The significance of the election for Nigeria extends beyond the person of the successful candidate. It lies in Nigeria’s diplomatic engagement in support of his candidacy, its efforts to rally parliamentary partners around a shared choice and the opportunity to translate those relationships into enduring national and continental influence. The Nigerian dimension of this development centres on Akpabio, who is also Chairman of the National Assembly and a member of the IPU Executive Committee. His position within the organisation gives Nigeria an institutional platform from which to contribute to its direction and cultivate relationships across its membership. Before the election, Mr Dick visited Abuja to solicit the support of the Nigerian Parliament. Akpabio assured him of Nigeria’s backing and pledged to advocate for his candidacy within the African Group of the IPU. The engagement also addressed stronger Nigeria–Australia cooperation in mining, agriculture, education, renewable energy, technology, security and capacity building. Support for an international candidacy thus became an occasion to explore a broader bilateral relationship. That engagement illustrates an important principle of parliamentary diplomacy: influence is often exercised before a vote is cast. It begins with consultations, the cultivation of confidence, the identification of shared interests and the ability to bring stakeholders into a common conversation. In multilateral institutions, where countries bring competing priorities and perspectives to the table, the capacity to facilitate consensus can be consequential. Nigeria’s support and its commitment to mobilising African backing belong within that diplomatic context. The election was conducted by secret ballot; its result does not disclose how individual delegates voted or permit a precise calculation of Nigeria’s contribution. Nigeria’s initiative can therefore be recognised without attributing the outcome to any single country. The importance of the initiative lies in Nigeria’s willingness to move from institutional presence to purposeful engagement: taking a position, reaching out to partners and helping build support around it. The Inter-Parliamentary Union’s relevance to Nigeria is practical. Peace and security, migration, climate change, economic inequality, technological disruption and the protection of democratic institutions cannot be addressed exclusively through domestic legislation. They require international cooperation, to which parliaments contribute through legislation, oversight, representation and the exchange of policy experience. Parliamentary diplomacy also creates channels of communication that can remain useful when political differences complicate relations between governments. The deliberations in Arusha reflected this broader purpose. The Assembly’s theme—Enhancing good governance and empowering communities through inclusivity, trust and opportunities for all—connected international parliamentary dialogue to the everyday responsibilities of legislatures: ensuring that public institutions respond to the people they represent. One of the most important dimensions of the Nigerian engagement is the effort to mobilise support through the African Group of the IPU. The Group comprises 52-member parliaments, providing a substantial platform for continental cooperation. Its size, however, should not be mistaken for an automatic voting bloc or agreement on every issue. Nigeria’s demographic scale, regional relationships and experience in multilateral engagement give it a basis for contributing to such coordination. But leadership within a continental grouping must be earned through consultation, credibility, respect for other members and a willingness to pursue shared objectives beyond individual contests. Nigeria’s engagement at the IPU is not occurring in an institutional vacuum. The National Assembly’s wider international parliamentary relationships provide channels for legislative cooperation, capacity building and regional dialogue. Akpabio’s membership of the IPU Executive Committee adds a further dimension to that engageme
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