President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has urged the United Nations to either embrace sweeping reforms or risk losing relevance.
The president made the call in his address to the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.
Represented by his Vice, Kassim Shettima, the president highlighted four key reform demands, starting with Nigeria’s call for permanent UN Security Council membership.
“Nigeria must have a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. This should take place as part of a wider process of institutional reform. The United Nations will recover its relevance only when it reflects the world as it is, not as it was,” he stated.
Tinubu stressed Nigeria’s transformation from a colony of 20 million people, absent from the tables where decisions about our fate were taken to 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.
He also expressed deep frustration with the pace of international progress on critical issues, from nuclear disarmament to Security Council reform.
The Nigerian leader equally proposed radical reforms to the global financial system, calling for new mechanisms to address the sovereign debt crisis plaguing developing nations.
He described the ongoing human suffering in the Middle East and other regions as stains on our collective humanity.
