The high- level meetings and debates of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) open today at the UN Headquarters in New York, United States, with about 300 heads of states and governments, Vice Presidents, Ministers, and at least a Crown Prince in attendance. This is the 81st UNGA, the UN having been established in June 1945. The event itself began on September 8, with different forums having been held involving institutions, the private sector, and civil society organizations, underscoring the collective ownership, at a person-to-person level, of the programmes and objectives of the institution. What begins today is the debate among leaders about many of the central issues of our time. This 81stsession of UNGA will be against the background of increased tensions and uncertainties in the world, war in Gaza, Ukraine, the Middle East, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan, the increasing threat and fear of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the future of humanity, climate action and the urgency of environmental protection and safety, and the perennial questions about the legitimacy, effectiveness and representativeness of the United Nations.
The question is: can the UN stop conflicts and division and save the world? This year also brings to full term the tenure of the Portuguese diplomat and politician, Antonio Guterres, as UN Secretary General. With his tenure ending on December 31st, this would be his last UNGA as Secretary-General, a process is on-going to elect a successor. Nigeria’s Amina Jane Mohammed, Nigeria’s former Minister of Environment (2015 -2016) who was appointed as a Deputy Secretary General in 2017 by Antonio Guterres will also be stepping down after nine years of service at the UN. This UN Secretary General has had a good run – he has consistently established himself as an unrelenting advocate for peace, human dignity, a safer world, the protection of the international rules-based order, climate action, multilateralism and inclusiveness. He has served as a voice of reason in a turbulent decade. Amina Mohammed who holds the second highest national honour of Nigeria, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) has been a dependable, hardworking Deputy Secretary General, a great achievement for the centering of women and an outspoken promoter of skills acquisition and sustainable development goals. As she steps down from her international duties, Nigeria should be proud of her, and find new opportunities for her to continue to contribute to the growth and development of her country and the world.
The United Nations is at a crossroads. It is in crisis. It was established in 1945, to promote international peace, security, development and co-operation, essentially to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, after the horror of World War II. Over the years, the UN established institutions to promote these objectives within the framework of the brotherhood of humanity and multilateralism. But today, there is skepticism about whether or not the United Nations is still serving its original purpose. It suffers from a credibility and trust deficit. The world today is divided, fragmented, multilateralism is threatened. Old alliances are collapsing. Energy prices are rising. The international rules-based order is failing, as countries like the US, Russia, and Israel routinely disregard international law, with no enforcement mechanism to check them. The binding resolutions of the UN are breached with impunity by powerful states. The Permanent Members, known as the P-5 of the UN Security Council and their allies, if not surrogates, have imposed a curious ethic: that might is right in violation of the UN Charter. When they are not checkmating themselves: Russia vs the US, or US vs. China, they block whatever does not align with their power of control. Skeptics thereby argue that the UN General Assembly is at best an inefficient, debating society. But that same debate will begin today and it is worth listening to. Today, Guterres will welcome the UN community of 193 member-nations in an opening address, and there will be statements by US President Donald Trump and French President Emanuel Macron. On Wednesday, speakers will include Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and on Thursday, the Vice President of Nigeria, Senator Kashim Shettima, who is representing Nigeria. I will comment on Nigeria’s participation shortly. On Thursday, there will be country statements by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, to the discomfiture of New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani who had to be reminded by higher powers that he does not have the authority to stop Netanyahu from entering New York. Meanwhile, the same US Government that sees Israel as an ally and Netanyahu as a friend has stopped the Iranian delegation from entering the United States, for the second year in a row and President Mahmoud Abbas can only address the UNGA by video on Thursday. The treatment of Palestine which enjoys an observer status, along with the Holy See, is in violation of the 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement.
Whatever may be the shortcomings of the United Nations, there is no doubt that the world still needs it, perhaps now more than ever as a stabilizing force. In its 81 years, it has been a catalyst for development, in the defence of causes and projects that remind us at critical moments of the common humanity that binds us. Its many organizations may not have always saved the world from conflict, and war but they have proven to be strong intervention agencies in many areas: peacekeeping, support for vulnerable persons and institutions, health, humanitarian aid, education, support for women, climate action, sustainable development, a force for decolonization and the promotion of equity and justice. On all counts, the UN has been more successful than the League of Nations which preceded it. Not surprisingly the UN has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts through the UNICEF, ILO, IAEA, the UN Commission for Refugees as an institution, and its officials for their personal distinction. The fact that its relevance is still appreciated was made clear when US President Trump proposed the Board of Peace Initiative in January 2026 to oversee a peace plan for Gaza and promote peace building around the world. Many countries (including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Ireland, New Zealand, UK, European Union, and the Vatican) declined membership because of Trump’s claim that the Board could potentially replace the UN. The United Nations Security Council in its Resolution 2803 had welcomed the BoP but Trump had proposed himself as the Board’s President for Life! Even the about 27 countries that joined Trump’s Board have not expressed a desire to abandon the UN.
What is established as a growing concern among many UN members is the demand for a reform and restructuring of the institution, a subject of interest and discussion over the decades, which is likely to feature again prominently in the debates. The Allied Powers that established the UN (US, UK, France, China and Russia) were the victors of World War II, but the landscape of power has since changed in a multi-polar reality, and the question has been the need to change the structure of the UN to reflect the new reality and recognize the new powers that have emerged. The UN Security Council is dominated by the Permanent Five who exercise a veto power. By the 1970s, Third World nations whose numbers had increased in the UN formed a Group of 77, and began to assert influence. Successive Secretary Generals responded by introducing one form of reform or the other. Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1992 -1996) initiated a reform of the UN secretariat. In 2011, Ban Ki-Moon established a Change Management Team to work on a reform agenda. His successor, Kofi Annan worked along the same lines. This last Sunday, the outgoing Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for permanent African representation on the Security Council and sweeping reforms to global governance structures. The sentiment among major regions like Africa and Latin America is that they are excluded. Others have called for the expansion of the Security Council, or that the UN headquarters should be taken away from New York. Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan are also asking for permanent seats, the G4 Nations are asking for a modernization of the Security Council. The UN Security Council is considered anti-democratic, unrepresentative, and inequitable. But there are two obstacles. Any reform will require the approval of two thirds of the UN membership which may be difficult to get. The P5 with their veto power also do not want any reform. They are not willing to give up their power. When Kofi Annan appeared to be serious and determined about the restructuring of the UN bureaucracy to address charges of inefficiency, the US threatened to withdraw its UN dues. The US has always behaved like the primary power in the UN, a hegemonic, self-assertion that has seen its worst expression under President Trump’s unilateralism.
The UN today is an assembly of divided interests. It is therefore instructive that Nigerian Vice President, Senator Shettima, who is leading the Nigerian delegation this year, as he did in the last two sessions- 79th and 80th – has said that Nigeria’s focus will be guided by its national interest, commitment to multilateralism and President Tinubu’s call for reforms of global institutions. This should be a good pitch, and on national interest, that should be an opportunity for the Tinubu administration to project itself on the global stage, this being an election season. But rather than seek to contribute to the debate, Nigerian opposition politicians have been more concerned by the fact that President Tinubu is not attending the UNGA. This should not be an issue. Nigeria loses nothing by being represented by its Vice President. Besides, Senator Shettima has proven to be well-suited for international engagements as has been seen in his appearances on the world stage at such events as the World Economic Forum, this same UNGA, the African Union and most recently at the BRICS summit in New Delhi, India, where on every occasion he acquitted himself honorably. And by the way, President Tinubu is not the only Head of State who has sent a delegation. He is in the same company as China’s President Xi Jinping, who meets President Trump on Wednesday but will be represented at UNGA by his Deputy. President Putin of Russia and Prime Minister Narendra Modi won’t be there either. With Vice President Shettima in New York, President Tinubu who has been away on a working leave for three weeks should actually be on his way back home, and not tarry any longer in Europe!
As the debates begin at the UN General Assembly, the future of the UN and humanity itself should remain in focus as encapsulated in the theme: “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations That Delivers for All.” The process for finding a successor to Antonio Guterres is already in motion. It is important to choose the right candidate: a Secretary General that will inherit the institution with its merits and imperfections but with the capacity, strength and vision to draw it closer to its original mandate and rebuild trust. At the end of a third straw poll, a secret, informal vote, held last Friday, out of the eight candidates who indicated interest in the office (including two from Africa- former Senegalese President Macky Sall, and Uganda politician, Olara Otunnu), the race has now been reduced to three leading candidates – Costa Rica’s Rebecca Gryspan, followed by Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana, and Argentina’s Rafael Grossi. The winning candidate will need at least nine votes in the 15-member Security Council and must not be vetoed by any of the Permanent Five. The removal of this autocratic hold on the UN by a minority is the most urgent task before the UN in addition to the menace of war and the emerging threat of Artificial Intelligence. The UN Charter is also in need of a review to delete certain provisions in Chapter XIII of the Charter, and the now obsolete “enemy clauses” in Articles 53 and 107.
