President Bola Tinubu, through his representative, Vice President Kashim Shettima, addressed world leaders during the General Debate of the ongoing 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (#UNGA79) at the UN headquarters in New York, United States on Tuesday.
Tinubu, in his second UN speech as Nigerian president, focused on issues such as counterterrorism, climate change, hunger, multilateralism, debt forgiveness, advocacy for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, and others.
Here are ten major points from the lengthy speech below:
1. Call for deepened multilateral relations
Tinubu urged world leaders to strengthen cooperation and inclusivity among member states to address global challenges like terrorism, poverty, hunger, and climate change.
The Nigerian leader reminded the world leaders that the United Nations stands for multilateralism which represents inclusiveness, anchored on the tripod of peace, sustainable development and human rights.
2. Criticism of nationalism
He warned that the pursuit of individual national priorities is undermining global efforts to resolve common challenges and emphasised the importance of collective action.
“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,” Tinubu said.
3. Permanent UN Security Council seats for African nations
Tinubu advocated for the reform of the UN Security Council to include permanent seats for Nigeria and other African countries, arguing that Africa deserves equal representation.
“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,” he said.
4. Call for financial reform and debt forgiveness
The chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) pushed for a new global financial architecture, advocating for debt forgiveness for developing countries to enable sustainable development.
“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.
5. Highlighting global challenges
Tinubu emphasised global issues like terrorism, climate change, food insecurity, and inequality, calling for collective global action to address them.
6. Focus on economic development and democracy
He linked the rise of unconstitutional changes of government in Africa to economic instability, stressing the need for economic development to sustain democracy.
The Nigerian leader 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.
7. Corruption and illicit financial flows
Tinubu called for the recovery of stolen assets and urged international cooperation to fight corruption and prevent illicit financial flows from developing to developed nations.
“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.
8. Climate change action
He warned about the dangers of climate change and called for the international community to adhere to commitments made at COP meetings, citing recent devastating floods in Nigeria.
9. Global security threats
He emphasised that terrorism and violent extremism are existential threats to global peace and development, calling for concerted efforts to combat these issues.
“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.
10. Support for UN reform:
Tinubu reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to multilateralism and called for comprehensive reforms to strengthen the UN’s relevance in addressing modern global challenges.
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