Strategic Board

H.E. Ambassador Martin Uhomoibhi

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi was born 3 November 1954 in Nigeria. He graduated from Nigeria's University of Ibadan in 1976 with a bachelor's degree in history. He also holds a master's in history and political science from the University of Ibadan and a D. Phil. from Oxford University in Modern History and International Relations.

From 1977 to 1984, Ambassador Uhomoibhi was a lecturer in diplomatic and African history at the University of Ibadan. He began his diplomatic career in 1984 by joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a Senior First Secretary. From 1993 to 1995, he served as coordinator and alternative representative of Nigeria to the Security Council in New York. From 1995 to 1999, Ambassador Uhomoibhi served as Nigeria's Special Assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. In 1999, he was the Consul-General of Nigeria in Atlanta, with responsibility for United States-Nigeria relations in the south eastern United States. From 2000 to 2003, Ambassador Uhomoibhi was Minister and Deputy Head of Mission to the Nigerian Embassy in Addis Ababa while he served as his country's representative to the African Union and to the Economic Commission for Africa. From July 2003 to January 2004, he was Deputy Director and Head of Division for Inter-African Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria. From 2004 to 2007, Ambassador Uhomoibhi was the acting Director of the Office of the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Then he became the Nigerian ambassador to Switzerland and Nigeria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva. From September 2007, he was also the President of the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization. Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi is best known as the former President of the United Nations Human Rights Council. His term as President was from 19 June 2008 to 18 June 2009.