Remarks at Inaugural Meeting of the Organising Committee of the WTO-Mock Summit 2010

Remarks at Inaugural Meeting of the Organising Committee of the WTO-Mock Summit 2010

 

• Good Evening! Today Saturday 16 January, 2010, about five weeks after the display of the 2009 WTO-Mock Summit, i hereby formally inaugurate the organising committee of the 2010 summit.
  
• Those who are not part of us are very surprised how we could come out with a performance of international standard as we did some weeks a go.
  
• Some of the audience had left with impression that an international organisation came to tell and trained us how to do it.
  
• The reality is that we organised by our selves, by our own efforts and by our own capacity of thinking to always come up with ideas to make it a beautiful performance.
  
• If you watch us even if is from distance you could say that there are two major tasks of joint processes before we finally came out with the art.
  
• One of these is the intellectual which involves readings; researches; debates; working group discussions; etc. to generate ideas and positions on the issues. When you see participants giving reports, or trade representatives giving positions of various countries, they are submitting correct policy statements of the countries represented.
  
• This task is not a small one. It involves working to earn a credit value in your course of study in the university. Because i deliberately turned a Three Hundred Level course – POL 3314 to cover issues about WTO-linked to development. Also some WTO-Mock Summit actors as space and regulation allows are picked to be under my final year research project supervision in order to choose areas for their thesis on WTO-Linked to development issues. There is also a briefing paper for study by participants.
  
• Secondly is the coordination and administration of the tasks of the performance. This has three phases:
  
  • Pre-Summit
    
  • During the summit and
    
  • After the summit
    
• The terms of reference of this committee are:
  
  • To raise fund to organise get-together for graduating members of the WTO-mock summit group 2009, during convocation in April, 2010
    
  • To raise fund for 2010 WTO-Mock Summit
    
  • To publicise the group and work towards professional media coverage of 2010 performance
    
  • To find the means and ways of life coverage of the 2010 WTO-Mock Summit
    
  • To work towards 2008 declaration of convening a meeting of all those who had played a role in WTO-Mock Summit since 2005
    
  • To provide logistics for all activities for 2010 summit
    
  • Any other thing that may arise
    
• Members of this committee are:
  
  • Lawi Isa Abdullahi        Chairman
    
  • Surajo Mohammed        Member
    
  • Abubakar Salihu        Member
    
  • Maryam Suleiman        Member
    
  • Basiru Musa            Member
    
  • Isa Mohammed        Member
    
  • Sule Suleiman            Member
    
  • Aminu Salisu            Member
    
  • Aliyu Sheme            Member
    
  • Collins Yovke            Member
    
  • Mohammed Naziru Halliru    Member
    
  • Abdul Ganiyu Rufa'i Yakubu    Member
    
  • Usman Yahaya        Member
    
  • Fate Bukar Fate        Member
    
  • Hamza Tijani            Member
    
  • Binta Mohammed Kurmawa    Member
    
  • Ahmed Goma            Member
    
  • Hamidu Salaudeen        Member
    
• However, the committee in consultation with the Director could incorporate anybody who has a great potentiality of making a contribution towards the success of the summit.
  
• I hope you are going to emulate the outgoing organising committee. As there are some outstanding qualities of members of 2009 committee which must be stated for others to copy. These include:
  

1. They have voluntarily offered themselves for self-less service that from the beginning up to this moment i have not seen any quarrel or conflict between them on course of carrying all responsibilities on the summit.
   
2. Subsequently, they have worked as collective like members of the same family to attain a goal of the family i.e. the summit.
   
3. There is maximum transparency financially and in all other respects such that i got the kind of people i want work with and we have worked smoothly and naturally.
   
4. They never forget ideas that we discussed and everyday are holding other ideas that would make our play more successful
   

• These are few things to say about 2009 Team and hope you will surpass it in order to continue to grow.
  
• The work given to this committee is because you all deserve it. It is by merit. Those of you who are leaders of NAPSS are not for that reason that you are chosen to be members of this committee. Indeed NAPSS is the promoter of WTO-Mock Summit Group, as most of the participants are its members. However, like the 2009 committee had done you too should not mixed up the group with the Association, so that you don't close the possibility of getting support from any other students association as well as resource persons from other faculties
  
• That being the case, it is important to give you the origin of WTO-Mock Summit. Personally i do not want to talk about myself, particularly not about what i have done to train my students to prepare them to capture the world a head of them. But for some clarifications. In this regard it should be noted that the WTO-Mock Summit is not initiated by any group of students, not by NAPSS or by Department of Political Science.
  

  
   

  It was initiated by me as a class exercise to demonstrate and illustrate the militarisation of global trade under WTO Regime, in my class of military and politics 2004/2005 session. From there the ideas were further developed and refined and i selected who were to be the actors, who displayed the art in wider Bayero University, Community.
  

• From the beginning there was cool reception from the Department of Political Science and the NAPSS. Nevertheless, we forged a head and continued. Since then every year new ideas are being formed, actors are selected from across all departments, trained to come out with WTO-Mock Summit.
  
• On a question somebody has sent to me that what would be the focus of 2010 summit, it is too early to say. As the mock exercise is built on the real development in the real WTO
  

  
   

  A Nigerian Newspaper carried a story and a press conference by a Minister that Ministerial conference of the WTO would hold in 2010. Yes! It may hold but it may also not hold.
  

  
   

  The reality of the WTO is that it is still sick trying to wake up to conclude its "Doha Round" negotiation. It is clear up to the last consultations in Geneva, the negotiations were not packaged. As Pascal Lamy said it "...the deal everybody wants isn't going to happen, and that a" we, all take what we can get" attitude now prevails.
  

• But whatever would happen there is going to be intensive consultations and mini meetings. It is well known in history that the GATT had gone sick for many years and the negotiations which has changed it to WTO started in 1986 which only concluded with Uruguay Round in 1994.
  

  
   

  And with this we would be following what happens, if there is no progress the subject matter of the 2010 mock summit will be consultative conference on "Doha Round" Issues. But if "Doha Round" is concluded the Mock Summit will be the same.
  

  
   

  Finally, let me say that before the end of examination, an outline of the main issues on the "Doha Round" would be released. And a tentative list of names of actors too.
  

  
   

  M.M. Yusif
  

10/01/2010