President Bola Tinubu has called on the UN Security Council to grant Nigeria and other African nations permanent seats to enhance its relevance and credibility.
As the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of States and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), President Tinubu made this statement while addressing global leaders during the General Debate of the ongoing 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters in New York, United States.
He said, “Some permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have offered encouraging, if tentative indications of support on the issue of reform of the Council. We welcome the change in tone and urge an acceleration in momentum to the process.
“The Security Council should be expanded, in the permanent and non-permanent member categories, to reflect the diversity and plurality of the world. We fully support the efforts of Secretary-General Guterres in this regard.
“Africa must be accorded the respect that it deserves in the Security Council. Our Continent deserves a place in the permanent members category of the Security Council, with the same rights and responsibilities as other Permanent Members.”
President Tinubu also urged world leaders to reaffirm their commitment to multilateralism by strengthening relationships among United Nations (UN) member states based on the principles of inclusivity, equality, and cooperation.
He emphasized that this approach is the best way to ensure global action against the existential challenges facing the international community.
Represented by his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima, at the high-level annual global event, President Tinubu lamented the troubling trend towards singularity and nationalism, which he believes undermine efforts to achieve peaceful and collective solutions to global issues such as terrorism, climate change, poverty, food crises, hyperinflation, nuclear proliferation, and overwhelming debt.
The Nigerian leader reminded attendees that the UN embodies multilateralism, founded on inclusiveness and built on the pillars of peace, sustainable development, and human rights.
He expressed concern over the main objectives of the UN and its ability to maintain the organization’s relevance and resilience, warning that its foundational principles of inclusivity, equality, and cooperation are at risk of being compromised.
According to him, “Today, these pillars of our organisation are threatened. They risk being broken by the relentless pursuit of individual national priorities rather than the collective needs of the nations that are assembled here today.
“While commitment to multilateralism offers us the surest guarantee of global action to address the existential challenges we face, singularity and nationalism are undermining the aspirations towards the peaceful and collective resolution of such challenges.
“From last year’s summit, and indeed from previous years, we have carried over the numerous challenges of terrorism, armed conflict, inequality, poverty, racial discrimination, human rights abuses, food crises, hunger, irregular migration, piracy, global pandemics, hyper-inflation, nuclear proliferation, grinding debt burden, climate change, and a host of other vexations.
“The continued manifestation of these challenges testifies to our failings rather than to any lofty achievements on our part. Billions of dollars are being committed to the prosecution of wars and the fanning of the embers of conflict.”
He reaffirmed what he termed “Nigeria’s steadfast commitment to the deepening of multilateralism,” just as it did 65 years ago when it “joined the United Nations as the 99th Member-State.
“We remain committed to that “desire to remain friendly with all nations and participate actively in the works of the United Nations”, as expressed by our founding Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.”
President Tinubu also lamented what he described as the return of unconstitutional changes of government and forceful military coups in some African countries, saying these coups attest to how fragile democracy could become when it is not supported by economic development and sustained peace and security.
This, he said, should be of utmost concern in deliberations at the high-level segments of the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly, as the forceful changes of government have led to “the impatience in cities and villages at the sometimes slow and grinding turn of the wheel of democracy.
“Our people need employment. They need decent livelihoods. They desire good and affordable education and healthcare for their children and families. They need to live in healthy, safe and secure environments. They need hope and they need opportunity,” he added.
President Tinubu also called for reforms in the international financial architecture and a transparent multilateral trading system, expressing hope that “the adoption of the “Pact for the Future” will change the narrative, reposition economies and translate into concrete measures that provide solutions to the challenges faced by developing and least developed countries.
“It is for this and other reasons that we reiterate the call by countries, especially of the global South, for reform of the international financial architecture and promotion of a rules-based, non-discriminatory, open, fair, inclusive, equitable and transparent multilateral trading system,” he noted.
Emphasising the dangers of digressing from multilateralism, the Nigerian leader also drew the UN’s attention to the global debt burden undermining the ability of countries and governments to meet the needs of their citizens, trade barriers and protectionist policies destroying the hopes for nations, and the uncontrollable competition discouraging motivation and hampering global investments.
Specifically, he asked the UN to prioritise debt forgiveness for Nigeria and other developing countries from creditors and multilateral financial institutions.
“Similarly, we must ensure that any reform of the international financial system includes comprehensive debt relief measures, to enable sustainable financing for development. Countries of the global South cannot make meaningful economic progress without special concessions and a review of their current debt burden,” he stated.
The Nigerian leader called for the recovery of the proceeds of corruption and illicit financial flows, maintaining that the return of such funds to countries of origin “is a fundamental principle of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
“Therefore, the international community must promote practical measures to strengthen international cooperation to recover and return stolen assets and to eradicate safe havens that facilitate illicit flows of funds from developing countries to the developed economies,” he added.
On insecurity, President Tinubu noted that the menace is plunging citizens into untold hardship and misery that, in turn, affects the people’s confidence in democracy, emphasizing that bringing back confidence in democratic rule and constitutional order is the duty of the international community.
“We cannot build durable societies with the threat of terrorism, banditry and insurgency growing in our countries and regions. Indeed, violent extremism remains an existential threat to both national and international peace, security and development. We are making concerted efforts to contain and roll back this threat,” he said.
President Tinubu, however, assured that the “High-Level African Counter-Terrorism Meeting” hosted by Nigeria in April 2024, along with its outcome—the “Abuja Declaration”—is set to provide solutions to the challenges posed by terrorists and insurgents.
He also cautioned against the perils of climate change, calling it a significant driver of insecurity that presents a serious challenge to sustainable development. He recalled the devastating floods in Nigeria that submerged vast areas, including one of the country’s largest cities, Maiduguri, in the North-East.
The Nigerian leader urged the international community to adhere to the commitments made during various COP meetings, noting that failing to do so would merely delay the inevitable, as no nation is immune to the impacts of climate change.
President Tinubu observed that conflict prevention was the primary purpose for establishing the UN and expressed regret that the task of preventing conflicts has become increasingly difficult. He lamented that even the condemnation of violence and civilian casualties, along with calls for ceasefires, are often viewed as controversial.
He identified several root causes of conflict, including poverty, hunger, ignorance, inequality, exclusion, and other forms of injustice, citing the conflicts in Sudan and the ongoing war in Gaza and other Palestinian territories as examples.