President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday called for on restructuring of the United Nations.
In his speech to the UN Assembly, Buhari said how to restructure the world body should be priority number one.
Nothing that “several ideas are out there”, he added that what must
be done is to get them together and agree on what works for majority of
the people of the world.
His full speech below…
The president of the United Nation’s General Assembly, Your
Excellencies, Heads of States and governments, Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
On behalf of the government and people of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, I congratulate you, Mr. President, on your election to preside
over the 72nd session of the United Nations’ General Assembly. I also
wish to express my country’s appreciation to the Secretary General of
the United Nations, Mr. Antonio Guterres, for his steady leadership and
this body’s dedication to the search for a peaceful and equitable world
through the charter of the United Nations.
Every year we gather here to deliberate on the affairs of the world.
Sometimes we implement what we talked about and move humanity an inch
closer to that ideal relationship as members of the world community.
At other times, we have our talks and end up not implementing
anything to the disappointment of millions and millions of people around
the world who look up to this body to provide leadership in a world
that is constantly oscillating between advancement and doom.
In all of these, we often forget that what we have accomplished in
the last 72 years is unprecedented in the annals of human history. The
world may be badly governed, but the fact that there is a form of
governance agreed upon by all is an accomplishment in and of itself. So,
I congratulate us all.
Mr. President, as we say in Nigeria, he who does not look ahead
remains behind. Our charge now is to aspire to make this world better
for the next generation. We, the generation that knows how the world was
before the United Nations was formed, must bequeath to those coming
behind us a better United Nations that would be in a position to deal
with the challenges of tomorrow. To accomplish that, we need to fast
forward the reformation long proposed in this chamber.
To restructure or not to restructure is no longer the question –
the United Nations must be restructured for it to remain relevant in
years to come. How to restructure the United Nations should be our
priority number one. Several ideas are out there. All that we need is to
get them together and agree on what works for majority of the people of
this world.
As a leader of one of the leading African nations, I want to see a
United Nation’s Security Council that is expanded to have one or two
African permanent members with veto powers. It is a fair thing to do –
one that will benefit the world by giving it a chance for a more
balanced outlook to matters of importance to us all. As we have learned
in Nigeria, sometimes you need to change in order to remain the same. It
is the first principle of renewal.
In the continent of Africa, the post-colonial era is going into a new
phase. In another generation, there would not be any African alive who
could remember when European powers once governed Africa. That emerging
generation is creating new challenges for the African order left behind
by the colonial powers.
My generation is managing that challenge with the hope of leaving behind
nation states that are less prone to crisis. We cannot continue to
pretend that conflicts that emerged as a result of our colonial heritage
have been resolved. Across our continent, they are still there. In some
cases, bad governance is exacerbating these conflict points.
Here are some of the things we are doing to make sure that we
bequeath to the upcoming generations of Africans a continent that is
healthy, wealthy and well grounded in law and order. We are close to
enshrining in the African Union’s creed the fundamental principle of
democracy, which says that a credible people’s mandate should determine
who governs any nation across Africa. We are taking it a step further by
pushing to make that mandate limited.
We believe that Africa has numerous talents and no man or woman
should be in the leadership saddle for an inordinate time. We are also
working hard to expand the African market and open it up for our people
to benefit from the free flow of goods, services and knowledge across
the continent. It is the only path to prosperity for over one billion
people in Africa yearning for opportunities to show the world the
potentials they have.
As Africans, we will continue to build partnerships across the world.
As we stretch our hands out for friendship, we do so with the
expectation that our hands would be met not with pity and charity but
with respect and dignity. Africans have a lot to offer the world, not
just its minerals and human potentials. We are committed to resetting
that old perception with a new one that proclaims Africa as a land ready
for business. Those who have taken the steps to invest in Africa can
attest to the mutual benefit that comes with it.
In areas of infrastructural developments, research and security, we
urgently need a respectable and mutually beneficial partnership with the
world. Integration of the continent and expansion of prosperity can
only come when there are good roads, constant electricity, clean water
and descent healthcare for our people. The United States government, The
European Union, private investors and non-governmental organizations
are getting involved in these ventures. Africa will continue to welcome
the world in every enterprise that will uplift our people.
It is only when we add value and build capital that we will reduce
the grim statistics of Africa’s child mortality rate from preventable
deaths. It is only then that we can reduce deaths on the Mediterranean
Sea of African youths running away from conflicts and poverty.
The challenge is ours. We accept the responsibility. As in the past,
we know that we do well when we share skills and expertise. That was how
we were able to work together with partners around the world to reduce
the AIDS epidemic. That was how, in the last two decades, we were able
to defeat diseases like polio, tuberculosis and ringworm in several
parts of Africa.
Africans have always been appreciative of the assistance we receive.
We have also paid back to the international community with our
involvement in Peace Keeping missions across the world.
Mr. President, on matters of security, there is no gainsaying that
when one part of the globe is insecure, all parts of the globe become
potential victims of that insecurity. The activities of several extreme
groups jeopardize not just the nation where they emanated but everyone
far and in-between.
The free movement of fighters and weapons has all but made the issue
of security a global problem. As we have learned in Nigeria, you
compromise the security of the whole when components of the sum are not
fully valued, appreciated and integrated with the whole.
We in Africa have been partners in the quest for a secure world. We
will continue to be committed to the mission until all threats to peace
across the world are eliminated. In Nigeria, we have degraded the
capability of the Boko Haram terrorist group.
We are on the path to eliminating the last of their safe heavens. We
have also secured the release of some of our abducted Chibok Girls. We
are working hard to secure the release of the rest and to finish the job
of closing the Boko Haram chapter and get the North East of Nigeria
back to a peaceful region that it used to be.
Along this line, Mr. President, we at the United Nations need to do
more to bring about a more equitable world where a large group of people
does not feel suppressed, undervalued and alienated. Last year, I
talked about the need for Palestinians to have their own state. Progress
has not been made on that matter in the past one year. It is one of
those problems that we must not punt to another generation.
Any glaring unfairness, like the Palestinian case, diminishes our
moral authority to preach and lecture the world on other cases. As we
have learned in Nigeria, our stubborn self-righteousness blocks our ears
from hearing the cry of those that we left on the fringe of society and
blocks our eyes from seeing and reading the handwriting on the wall.
In the urgent matter of the nuclear stand off with North Korea, we hope
that calm heads prevail. And as our ancestors say, that the disobedient
fowl does not wait to be put into a pot of soup before it obeys. We in
Africa hope that North Korea and, indeed, all the nations with nuclear
weapons will hasten to eliminate them all.
We don’t aspire to have nuclear weapons in the continent of Africa,
the cradle of mankind. We will preserve Africa in case the nuclear-armed
nations of the world decide to destroy themselves in their so-called
mutual assured destruction.
Should that happen, be assured that there will be a place in Africa
for those of you who will be lucky enough to survive your self-inflicted
annihilation. While we do not wish for that, we have this saying in
Nigeria that, “na when soldier slap you, you go sabi say police na your
friend.
Mr. President, Nigeria is always willing to work with the United
Nations and other international organizations to advance human progress.
May the United Nations continue on its challenging task of being an
instrument for peace, and may the goals that this General Assembly “for
peace and a decent life for all on a sustainable planet” be accomplished
in our time.
Thank you all for listening.
Muhammadu Buhari,
President, Federal Republic of Nigeria.