By Nkiruka Nnorom with agency reports
The federal government yesterday renewed its bid for a permanent seat at the United Nation’s Security Council as a wider process of institutional reforms, citing the country’s growing population and its status as a stabilising force in regional security and a consistent partner in global peacekeeping efforts.
This is even as South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, called for end to trade weaponisation, saying that trade policy volatility was destabilising the global economy.
Speaking during the general debate of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City, USA, President Bola Tinubu, said Nigeria’s population has grown to more than 200 million, while the nation’s military had participated in 51 out of 60 United Nations peacekeeping operations since her independence in 1960.
Represented by Vice-President, Kashim Shettima, Tinubu also called for urgent action to promote sovereign debt relief and access to trade and financing for emerging economies, proposing a new and binding mechanism to manage sovereign debt.
He emphasized the need for countries hosting minerals to benefit fairly from those resources through investment, partnership, local processing, and jobs, while advocating for a dedicated initiative to bring together researchers, private sector, governments, and communities to close the digital divide and promote access to technology.
“United Nations will recover its relevance only when it reflects the world as it is, not as it was. Nigeria’s journey tells this story with clarity. When the UN was founded, we were a colony of 20 million people, absent from the tables where decisions about our fate were taken; today, we are a sovereign nation of over 236 million, projected to be the third most populous country in the world, with one of the youngest and most dynamic populations on earth.
“A stabilising force in regional security and a consistent partner in global peacekeeping, our case for permanent seat at the Security Council is a demand for fairness, for representation, and for reform that restores credibility to the very institution upon which the hope of multilateralism rests.
“This is why Nigeria stands firmly behind the UN80 Initiative of the Secretary-General, and the resolution adopted by this Assembly on 18 July 2025, a bold step to reform the wider United Nations system for greater relevance,
efficiency, and effectiveness in the face of unprecedented financial strain. “We support the drive to rationalise structures and end the duplication of responsibilities and programmes, so that this institution may speak with one voice and act with greater coherence,” he said.
President Tinubu reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to peace, development, unity, multilateralism, and human rights, emphasizing the importance of collective action and cooperation in resolving global challenges.
Speaking further, he condemned the ongoing Israeli assault in Gaza and advocated for a two-state solution through recognition of the state of Palestine, as a pathway to resolve the on-going war in Gaza.
President Tinubu said: “We are despised by terrorists because we choose tolerance over tyranny. Their ambition is to divide us and to poison our humanity with a toxic rhetoric of hate. Our difference is the distance between shadow and light, between despair and hope, between the ruin of anarchy and the promise of order. We do not only fight wars, we feed and shelter the innocent victims of war. This is why we are not indifferent to the devastations of our neighbours, near and distant.
“This is why we speak of the violence and aggression visited upon innocent civilians in Gaza, the illegal attack on Qatar, and the tensions that scar the wider region. It is not only because of the culture of impunity that makes such acts intolerable, but because our own bitter experience has taught us that such violence never ends where it begins.
“We do not believe that the sanctity of human life should be trapped in the corridors of endless debate. That is why we say, without stuttering and without doubt, that a two-state solution remains the most dignified path to lasting peace for the people of Palestine. For too long, this community has borne the weight of moral conflict.
For too long, we have been caught in the crossfire of violence that offends the conscience of humanity.
“We come not as partisans, but as peacemakers. We come as brothers and sisters of a shared world, a world that must never reduce the right to live into the currency of devious politics. The people of Palestine are not collateral damage in a civilisation searching for order. They are human beings, equal in worth, entitled to the same freedoms and dignities that the rest of us take for granted.”
South Africa’s Ramaphosa urges end to trade weaponization
Meanwhile, South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, called for end to trade weaponisation, saying that ttrade policy volatility was destabilizing the global economy.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, Ramaphosa said, “It is concerning that geopolitical shocks and unprecedented trade policy volatility are destabilising the global economy. In fact, trade is now being used as a weapon against a number of countries in the world,” Ramaphosa said. “
Ramaphosa emphasised the need to strengthen the link between trade and development, particularly for nations in the Global South.
He condemned unilateral trade practices and called for fair, transparent trade rules that allowed developing countries to compete equally.
He also stressed that for the continent of Africa and the broader Global South to realise their development goals, better access to capital was critical. “We must ensure developing nations can access adequate financing to achieve sustainable development,” Ramaphosa said.
Ruto calls for W\Bank, IMF reforms, says lenders punish Africa with heavy interest rate
Addressing the high level assembly, Kenya’s President, William Ruto, addressed the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the war in Sudan, the need for institutional reforms at the UN and among international lenders, such as the IMF and the World Bank, the security situation in Haiti, and the world’s simmering geopolitics.
President Ruto blasted international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, IMF, and the World Bank for “unfairness” toward Africa.
He said the lenders tended to give more money to wealthier nations, while “punishing” Africa with heavy interest rates, little loan amounts, and many conditions.
Ruto expressed Kenya’s grave concern over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and called for a permanent ceasefire and respect for international law.
“Only through such a process can the vision of a two-state solution, where Israel and Palestine live side by side, be realised in peace and in security,’’ he said.
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