Biography
The second son of former parliamentarian Audi Dabwido, Dabwido worked in public insurance before entering politics. He was a founding member of the Naoero Amo party, and was elected to the Parliament of Nauru at the 2004 elections, defeating Nimrod Botelanga to win the seat of Meneng. Re-elected at the 2007 and 2008 elections, he became a member of the parliamentary faction supporting President Marcus Stephen, and was made Minister for Telecommunications in Stephen's government in 2009 where he presided over the introduction of mobile phones to Nauru. Again re-elected at the 2010 elections, Dabwido joined the opposition faction in November 2011 after Stephen resigned as president, and was replaced by Freddie Pitcher. After moving a motion of no confidence in Pitcher, he was elected president by the parliament, with nine votes supporting his nomination and eight votes opposing.
Dabwido's first major international meeting as president was at the 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, as a representative of the Pacific Islands grouping of Small Island Developing States (SIDS). In his speech during the opening plenary, Dabwido evaluated the potential problems faced by islands in the Pacific Ocean resulting from rising sea levels. Reiterating the SIDS objective for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to prevent further global climate change, he called for the development of a legally binding protcol alongside the Kyoto Protocol, with reference to "mitigation actions for developing countries" and the Bali Action Plan. Dabwido supports the re-opening of the Australian-tax-payer-funded asylum seeker processing centre in Nauru, which is supported by the opposition Liberal Party of Australia but opposed by the governing Australian Labor Party. In June 2012, Dabwido sacked his cabinet after seven months in office, citing difficulty in passing the Constitutional Amendment Parliamentary Amendments Bill, a proposed constitutional reform bill that would alter the number of members of parliament, introduce an Ombudsman Commission, and introduce a code of ethics for parliamentarians. In his new Cabinet, he filled the positions of Minister for Public Service, Minister for Police & Emergency Services, Minister for Home Affairs, and Minister for Climate Change. On behalf of Nauru, Dabwido made his first address to the United Nations General Assembly during the general debate of its sixty-seventh session, in September 2012. During his speech, he urged the UN to address climate change more directly, as well as criticising the ineffectiveness of multilateralism. Dabwido did not stand for re-election, and was replaced by Baron Waqa after the 2013 parliamentary elections.
Read more about this topic: Sprent Dabwido
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