Nigeria is pushing the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to name the country’s Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke as its Secretary-General, according to The Wall Street Journal quoting “people familiar with the matter.”

The paper said the move “could end a long-running leadership standoff at the cartel, but which could also be controversial at home.”

It disclosed that Nigeria’s delegation at OPEC has stepped up lobby for Alison-Madueke to get the OPEC top job, adding, however, that ministers from several other OPEC countries are “reportedly divided over new Nigerian leadership pitch” and that Alison-Madueke faces resistance from the Arab members.

Another report in The Telegraph said that “OPEC is riddled with internal divisions as it looks to nominate a new leadership. Abdulla Salem el-Badri, the group’s long-standing secretary general, had been due to step down two years ago but the group could not decide on a replacement. Iran has for years coveted placing one of its own senior oil officials at the head of the group’s secretariat in Vienna – a move that Saudi Arabia has vigorously opposed.”

News Express reports that Alison-Madueke’s sun has been shining at OPEC in the past few months. In early December of last year, she was appointed OPEC’s alternate president at the cartel’s 164th meeting in Vienna, Austria. The meeting had elected Dr. Abdel Bari Ali Al-Arousi, Minister of Oil and Gas of Libya as president of the conference for one year, with effect from January 1, 2014, alongside Alison-Madueke.

•Photo shows Petroleum Minister Alison-Madueke.