Nigeria and Sierra Leone are currently locked in a diplomatic stalemate over who gets one of the seats reserved for West Africa as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.
According to local media report last Thursday, Nigeria’s expectation to be honored by other African countries with an unopposed election is being threatened by Sierra Leone’s determination to contest for the same seat.
The UN diplomats normally apply the consensus route for such elections based on the principle of reciprocity and some informal rotational arrangement, according to the report.
Such negotiations are said to have failed in Nigeria’s bid to get an unopposed endorsement from the African group to seek the slot currently held by Burkina Faso.
The report said that at the just concluded African Union meeting in Egypt, African foreign ministers tried to resolve the matter between Nigeria and Sierra Leone but the issue was left unresolved.