THE Director-General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Professor Mansur Bako Matazu, has been re-elected into the executive council of the WMO.
Matazu, who has been a member of the executive council since his assumption of office, was unanimously elected to represent Regional Association I (Africa) of WMO alongside Kenya, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Eswatini, South Africa, Egypt, Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire.
The NIMET DG’s election, which is for a period of four years, was held during the 19th session of the WMO Congress.
The World Meteorological Congress is the highest decision-making body of the World Meteorological Organisation, comprising 193 members’ states and Territories referred to as Members.
During the congress, members went through various technical documents and took decisions to make “our land, atmosphere, and water safe, including the Early Warning for All Initiative of the United Nations, which WMO leads.”
As it is the tradition of the organisation to elect a new Secretary General at the ongoing Congress, after going through several rounds of ballots, Argentina emerged as the President of the organisation replacing Germany whose tenure elapses after the Congress.
In a similar vein, United Arab Emirates, Ivory Coast, Ireland and India emerged as the First, Second and Third Vice Presidents respectively.
Other Members elected into the Executive Council representing the remaining five Regional Associations of the WMO are China, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Republic of Korea, United Arab Emirates, India, Peru, Guyana, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, United States of America, British Caribbean, Curacao & St. Maarten, Jamaica, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Tonga, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Romania, Czech Republic, Norway, Italy, Turkey, and France.
The next financial year of the WMO begins from January 2024 when the tenure of the current WMO Secretary General would have expired.
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