Godswill Akpabio
Akpabio rewrote the script in parliamentary diplomacy. And for the first time in over five decades, Nigeria took her pride of place in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)…
Senator Godswill Akpabio has taken his legendary oratory and cognitive brilliance out of Nigeria, far beyond Akwa Ibom, the National Assembly, and even Africa. As governor of Akwa Ibom, he was without a doubt, an uncommon transformational leader. Among governors of his era, he was an A-grader. Building infrastructure and upskilling human capital in every sector. Affordable healthcare was his passion. Providing qualitative education and promoting sports development became the emblems of his development agenda. He turned Akwa Ibom into a spectacle and a sports tourism destination. Though he was governor from 2007 to 2015, the stadium he built in Uyo at the twilight of his tenure, the Nest of Champions, remains till this day the best stadium in Nigeria. That stadium together with the hotels his policies helped to establish in his state, has made Akwa Ibom Nigeria’s football mecca, a football tourism resort. Truly, Akpabio was an uncommon governor who wrought uncommon transformation that turned a once-upon-a-time regular Nigerian state into a global epicentre of social and commercial transactions.
Fast-forward to 2023 when Akpabio became President of the 10th Senate and Chairman, National Assembly. A new dawn. A fresh vigour and essence he brought. Akpabio rewrote the script in parliamentary diplomacy. And for the first time in over five decades, Nigeria took her pride of place in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the global watering hole of parliaments worldwide. IPU was founded in 1889 by Frederic Passy and Randal Cremer with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. With membership status growing, currently 184 parliaments are members, the IPU has over the years deployed parliamentary diplomacy to promote gender equality, inclusivity, peace, democracy, youth empowerment, climate action and sustainable development around the world.
Nigeria was elected into IPU executive committee in 1964. Long years of military rule ensured it lost that status with all its privileges. Nigeria was readmitted into the noble union in 1999 when democracy was restored. But 24 years into the 4th Republic, no Nigerian parliamentary leader ever made it into the executive committee of IPU, a feat achieved last in 1964. It took an uncommon leader with uncommon gravitas and proven record of brilliance right from his student days to break the jinx. In October 2023, Akpabio, just months into his stewardship as leader of the National Assembly, broke through the ceiling that has kept Nigeria out of the elite executive Committee of IPU. At the 147th IPU Assembly in Luanda, Angola, he was elected into the executive committee, a good 59 years after a Nigerian last occupied a place in the hallowed club of the IPU. A national milestone in global parliamentary representation.
Being elected as a member of the IPU executive committee is not an accident. Neither a happenstance. It comes with careful planning, strategic liaison, and networking among the member nations in a manner that makes them notice your depth of knowledge, parliamentary dexterity, and value networth. The IPU executive committee has only 18 members including the president of the union, 15 members elected from different geopolitical zones, one person from the female forum and one from the youth forum of parliamentarians. No Nigerian parliamentary leader ever made it to this elite club since 1964 but Akpabio did in 2023, bucking a trend and showing once again that he’s a proven outlier.
For Akpabio, it was neither a personal victory nor a landmark for self-aggrandisement. It was Nigeria’s victory, gain and honour. It means that Nigeria will always be present at the discussion and policy tables where issues of peace, climate action, sustainable development, human rights, women equality, youth empowerment and inclusivity are being discussed. It means global respect for Nigeria through the lens of parliamentary diplomacy.
Ever since the event of October 2023, Akpabio has not only been showing presence at IPU, he has been making impact, pointing the global parliamentary body to the intentional efforts of Nigerians to sustain democratic rule in their country. He has preached both national peace and multi-lateral cohesion. His voice for global and national temperance earned him the 2025 International Peace Award for Global Parliamentary Leadership from the Global Peace Movement International (GPMI). It was a fitting reward for a peace-maker and befitting honour for a global soothing voice.
Akpabio has carried the Nigeria parliamentary banner with cultured dignity to the admiration and acclamation of his colleagues in the IPU. Now, you know why he was recognised and nominated into the IPU World Conference Preparatory Committee, a 16-member Preparatory Committee which planned the Sixth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament that took place from 29 to 31 July 2025 at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland.
Nigeria’s parliamentary voice is waxing louder both in decibel and in diplomatic authority. Akpabio has placed the country at a vantage position that the world can no longer ignore. And you wonder why Mr. Milton Dick, the Speaker of Australia’s House of Representatives, had to make Nigeria one of his campaign hubs while seeking election to lead the IPU at the 153rd Assembly earlier this month, at the Arusha summit in Tanzania. Mr. Dick was in Nigeria to consult with Akpabio who pledged not just Nigeria’s support but a pan-Africa backing of his candidacy. And in Arusha, Dick won with 56% of the votes to become the 32nd IPU President. Akpabio remains one of the X-factors in Dick’s victory.
In parliamentary diplomacy, value is critical. Integrity, pedigree, listening capacity, elasticity in networking, and emotional regulation are credible currencies. Akpabio has them all. This has not only earned him a place of honour in the IPU, far more than any parliamentarian in Nigeria’s democratic history, it has placed Nigeria as a premium member of the IPU and a voice the world now respects in the global parliamentary diplomacy ecosystem.
On the global canvas, Nigeria through the voice of Akpabio has advocated for respect for human rights, positive climate change actions, protection of children and women’s rights, cessation of wars especially in the face of the hostilities in the Middle East.
Akpabio’s sterling performance at the global parliamentary front yields a rare opportunity for the National Assembly to engage on a broader spectrum with the rest of the world on issues bordering on capacity building, firming the foundations and walls of democracy and deepening multilateralism and exchange programmes that promote good governance.
It is a win-win for Nigeria as it tries to strengthen its democratic structures, build institutions and foster collaboration among the tiers of government. Getting into the IPU executive and actively participating in the choice of who leads the union, presents Nigeria the occasion to peer review other jurisdictions especially well established and older democracies. This is a prospect Nigeria never had before – to be not just a member, but an insider, to be the thought leaders in a club of parliaments of 184 nations.
