Precious Nwonu, Enugu
Nigeria has renewed its demand for permanent representation for Africa on the United Nations Security Council, with Vice President Kashim Shettima calling for a reform of the global body to reflect the realities of the 21st century.
Shettima made the call on Thursday in New York while delivering Nigeria’s national statement at the 81st United Nations General Assembly on behalf of President Bola Tinubu.
The Nigerian delegation argued that the existing structure of the Security Council no longer reflects the distribution of global power and influence, noting that Africa remains without a permanent seat despite its significant role in international affairs.
Nigeria called for at least two permanent seats for Africa, with the same rights and responsibilities enjoyed by existing permanent members, including veto powers for as long as the veto remains in existence.
It also demanded five non-permanent seats for African countries on the Security Council.
Shettima said Nigeria was prepared to take on greater responsibilities within the international system, citing the country’s contributions to peacekeeping and regional security efforts in Africa.
He referenced Nigeria’s involvement in peace and security operations in countries including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Darfur, Mali and The Gambia.
The Vice President also highlighted the roles of the Economic Community of West African States, the African Union and Gulf of Guinea partnerships in promoting mediation, democratic governance, counter-terrorism and maritime security.
On development, Shettima identified inadequate financing as one of the major obstacles confronting sustainable development, particularly in developing countries facing significant debt-servicing obligations.
Nigeria therefore called for reforms to the international financial architecture, greater access to concessional financing and debt sustainability frameworks that take the development needs of poorer countries into account.
The Vice President also advocated innovative financing mechanisms involving private capital, blended finance, South-South cooperation and strategic partnerships.
On climate change, Shettima rejected what he described as a false choice between economic development and climate action.
He said developing countries should be allowed to industrialise, reduce poverty and expand access to energy while pursuing low-carbon development supported by technology transfer, capacity building and climate finance.
He reiterated Nigeria’s commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2060 and outlined the country’s focus on renewable energy, clean cooking, gas as a transitional fuel, climate-smart agriculture and nature-based solutions.
Shettima also addressed the growing influence of artificial intelligence, calling for technology to be directed towards improving human welfare rather than fuelling conflict.
He said Nigeria was investing in digital infrastructure, broadband connectivity, innovation, research and technology entrepreneurship while urging international partners to collaborate with the country’s young population.
The Vice President further called for stronger international cooperation against terrorism, organised crime, cyberattacks and illicit financial flows.
He said Nigeria’s experience in combating Boko Haram, ISWAP and other armed groups had demonstrated that military responses alone were insufficient without education, economic opportunities, accountable governance and protection of citizens’ rights.
Turning to conflicts around the world, Shettima called for urgent diplomatic action to address crises including the war in Sudan.
He urged all parties to respect international humanitarian and human rights law, protect civilians and ensure humanitarian assistance reaches those in need.
Nigeria also reaffirmed its support for peaceful dispute resolution, dialogue, mediation, peacebuilding and institution-building under the UN Charter.
Shettima said the African Continental Free Trade Area remained an important opportunity to deepen regional integration, strengthen intra-African trade, promote industrialisation and attract investment.
He called for greater value addition to Africa’s natural resources, arguing that the continent should move beyond its traditional role as an exporter of raw materials.
The Vice President concluded by calling for a more inclusive and effective United Nations, saying international cooperation remained essential to addressing conflicts, climate change, technological transformation, development financing and other global challenges.
Full Text of Nigeria’s Statement At The 81st UN General Assembly
The Secretary-General of the UN, the Deputy Secretary-General, Excellencies, Heads of State and Government, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I extend my warmest congratulations to you, Mr. President, on behalf of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on your election as President of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly, and assure you of Nigeria’s full cooperation and support.
I commend your predecessor’s stewardship of this Assembly. I also salute the Secretary-General, His Excellency Antonio Guterres, and the Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed, for steering the United Nations through storms that have sharpened our awareness of the cause of inaction.
None of us can pretend that conflicts within our borders or in lands far beyond them do not exact a price from us. Such is the reach of our interdependence. Such is the agency of this Session’s sacred duty to restore trust in the international institutions we establish to reconcile our differences and advance our common interests.
The persistence of conflicts across the world recalls the purpose for which the United Nations was founded, to spare succeeding generations the devastation of war. We must, therefore, return to the founding principles of dialogue, mutual respect, and collective responsibility.
Nigeria stands by the Charter and its promise of a world in which diplomacy prevails over coercion, cooperation over isolation, and international law over arbitrary exercise of power.
Mr. President, the reform of this institution must begin with the reconstitution of the Security Council, for the world of 2026 cannot remain captive to the distribution of power in 1945. Africa cannot continue to fill the council’s agenda while remaining absent from its permanent membership.
Nigeria demands, in accordance with the Ezulwini Consensus and the CFTA Declaration, at least two permanent seats for Africa, with all the rights and responsibilities of permanent membership, including the veto, for as long as it exists, and five non-permanent seats in total.
The authority to speak for humanity carries an obligation to represent it. Nigeria stands ready to assume greater responsibility on the strength of obligations honoured and sacrifices made over decades in the service of peace. From Liberia and Sierra Leone to Darfur, Mali, and The Gambia, we have committed personnel and resources when international solidarity required action.
Through ECOWAS, the African Union, and our Gulf of Guinea partnerships, we continue to advance mediation, democratic governance, counter-terrorism, and maritime security.
Mr. President, our foreign policy rests on the same conviction that guides our economic reforms. Through sound macroeconomic management, stronger institutions, private sector development, and strategic public investment, we seek to give practical meaning to our sustainable development commitments.
This purpose binds our national advancement to our continent’s progress and to our responsibility to contribute to a peaceful, equitable, and prosperous world. We understand that governments and multilateral institutions earn trust when their decisions improve lives. Yet, none of these gains will matter if we turn a deaf ear to the trace gathering around our borders and further appeal.
We inhabit the only planet known to sustain human life, and as long as that scientific path holds, we cannot pretend that we are insulated from conflicts as well. Geography offers no exemption from the consequences of a fractured world.
Mr. President, we reject the false choice between development and climate action. Developing countries must industrialise, eradicate poverty, and expand energy access through low-carbon pathways supported by technology transfer, capacity building, and climate finance.
Africa contributes less than four per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions, yet we have disproportionate consequences. Nigeria remains committed to the Paris Agreement and an equitable energy transition that reflects historical responsibility and capacity while protecting people’s right to development.
Under our energy transition plan, we are working towards net-zero emissions by 2060 while expanding access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy. This approach combines renewable energy, clean cooking, and gas as a transitional fuel, with climate-smart agriculture and nature-based solutions.
Finance must be governed by equity and shared responsibility, rather than charity, with international commitments translated into accessible, predictable, and adequately funded mechanisms that enable developing countries to pursue climate action without compromising development objectives.
Excellencies, we refuse to surrender our technological future to paranoia. An invention can be destructive or beneficial depending on the purpose it serves and the judgment of those who use it. A knife can take life in the hands of an assailant and can save one in the hands of a surgeon.
We can deploy artificial intelligence to wage war or use it to transform healthcare, agriculture, governance, and economic productivity. Much of the anxiety surrounding AI reflects the distrust we have allowed to grow amongst us.
Nigeria is investing in digital public infrastructure, broadband connectivity, innovation systems, research institutions, and technology entrepreneurship. We invite the world to work with our inventive, resourceful, and enterprising young people to direct AI towards humanity’s advancement rather than its destruction.
Mr. President, one of the greatest obstacles to sustainable development is inadequate financing. Many developing countries devote substantial resources to debt servicing at the expense of education, healthcare, and infrastructure.
Nigeria therefore calls for reform of the international financial architecture, wider access to concessional financing, and debt sustainability frameworks that recognise developmental needs. We also support innovative financing through private capital, blended finance, South-South cooperation, and strategic partnerships for sustainable development, climate adaptation, and resilient infrastructure.
Nigeria further recognises the African Continental Free Trade Area as one of the continent’s most transformative opportunities. It can strengthen regional value chains, expand intra-African trade, promote industrialisation, and attract investment.
Africa must move beyond its historical role as an exporter of raw materials for greater value addition, manufacturing, technological innovation, and knowledge-driven growth. Our abundant natural resources must become engines of shared prosperity rather than sources of perpetual dependency.
Mr. President, no nation, however formidable its defences, can secure itself completely against dangers sustained beyond its borders. Terrorism, organised crime, cyber attacks, and illicit finance exploit the gaps between our national responses, drawing strength from the divisions that weaken collective action.
Nigeria’s prolonged struggle against Boko Haram, ISWAP, and other armed groups has taught us that military victories require enduring foundations in education, economic opportunity, accountable governance, and communities whose rights and dignity are protected. Development cannot take root while violence repeatedly uproots livelihoods, and peace cannot endure while injustice and exclusion replenish the ranks of those who threaten it.
Our common security, therefore, demands cooperation equal to the reach of the trade before us. We must exchange intelligence, strengthen institutional capacity, interrupt the financing of violence, and prevent weapons from crossing borders that our responses too often fail to cross.
The turmoil in the Sahel illustrates how insecurity in one territory can imperil its neighbours, displace populations, and frustrate commands, regional integration, and democratic governance. As a founding member of ECOWAS, Nigeria upholds regional solidarity and African leadership in resolving these challenges, reinforced by principal international partnerships.
No country can claim lasting safety while the forces capable of destabilising it retain sanctuary, resources and recruits elsewhere.
Excellencies, Nigeria remains committed to the peaceful settlement of disputes under the United Nations Charter. The conflicts in Sudan and other war-torn countries demand urgent diplomacy to address their humanitarian, economic, and geopolitical consequences.
All parties must uphold international humanitarian and human rights law, protect civilians, and facilitate humanitarian access. Negotiated settlements must respect sovereignty and territorial integrity. Within and beyond our continent, no claim of security can justify starving children, denying relief to civilians, or erasing communities from the land they call home.
We should all be afraid of a world in which we can no longer tell the victim from the aggressor. When our investment in propaganda shields perpetrators from justice to the point that telling the truth becomes a crime, the promise of this institution stands betrayed.
We place our faith in diplomacy because military victories alone cannot secure lasting peace. Dialogue, reconciliation, and inclusive political processes must give people a stake in ending violence and preserving the agreements that follow.
The United Nations must therefore strengthen peacekeeping and give greater attention to peacebuilding, mediation, institution building, and sustainable development. Prevention must command greater resources and political attention.
Mr. President, Africa is ready for the future. Our resilience, our ingenuity, our useful population, our natural wealth, and our expanding markets can make us a major driver of global growth in this century. The African Continental Free Trade Area offers exceptional scope to deepen regional integration, accelerate industrialisation, and strengthen our place in global value chains.
Developing countries must be recognised as indispensable partners, whose contributions to global solutions and shared prosperity extend far beyond their need for assistance. Such a partnership requires a United Nations that evolves with the aspirations of the present and future generations, institutions that adapt, preserve their relevance, those that resist change imperil it.
Nigeria remains optimistic because history shows that countries acting with common purpose and determination can overcome obstacles once considered insurmountable. Our generation has the privilege of shaping the future and the responsibility to answer for it.
Those who follow us will judge our courage in evolving outdated institutions, building cooperation across divisions, protecting the planet, and directing technology responsibly.
Mr. President, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Nigeria pledges cooperation over confrontation, dialogue over division, hope over fear, and partnership over isolation. These choices must shape institutions that respond to the legitimate aspirations of all. Restoring trust requires us to honor our obligations to one another, and to manage the changes before us with justice, wisdom, and compassion.
The world looks to this Assembly for leadership, and our debates must lead to action worthy of that expectation. Nigeria believes that the humanity we share is stronger than the divisions we have met, and that cooperation remains wider than conflict.
A reformed, inclusive, and effective United Nations is indispensable to the peaceful, just, and sustainable world that future generations deserve. Whatever our differences, I repeat, whatever our differences, we must remember that humanity is our oldest citizenship, and peace is the inheritance we owe every child.
I thank you for your kind attention.
Thank you.
