….Debt Relief, Trade Access Key To Global Peace, Nigeria Tells UNGA
President Bola Tinubu has called for urgent reforms to the global financial and multilateral order in Nigeria’s national statement delivered on his behalf by Vice President Kashim Shettima at the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States.
Tinubu urged the UN to establish a new binding mechanism for sovereign debt relief that would allow developing nations to escape what he described as an “economic straitjacket”.
Shettima, who represented Tinubu at the UNGA80, said a fairer international system was key to securing peace, development, and the protection of human rights.
“The chaos that shadows our world is a reminder that we cannot afford the luxury of inaction. We would have been consumed by our differences had there been no community such as this to remind us that we are one human family,” Shettima said, adding that Nigeria’s faith in multilateralism was rooted in “an undying faith in the redemption of humanity.”
Congratulating the Assembly’s new president, Cameroonian diplomat Philémon Yang, and commending Secretary-General António Guterres for his leadership, Nigeria stressed that the UN’s 80th anniversary must be a “moment of truth” rather than “a sentimental retreat into nostalgia”.
Shettima outlined four urgent priorities Nigeria believes are essential to renew multilateralism.
They include a permanent seat for Nigeria on the UN Security Council and a new global mechanism for sovereign debt relief and better access to trade and finance.
Others are fair benefit-sharing for resource-rich countries and closing the global digital divide.
On Security Council reform, Shettima said, “The United Nations will recover its relevance only when it reflects the world as it is, not as it was. 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. Our case for a 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.”
On sovereign debt, he urged the creation of “a sort of International Court of Justice for money”, insisting that “we need urgent action to promote debt relief – not as an act of charity but as a clear path to the peace and prosperity that benefits us all.”
He argued that debt dependency and raw material exports were holding emerging economies back and called for reforms to strengthen the international financial architecture.
On natural resources, the VP said Africa could not afford a repeat of the extractive exploitation that had fuelled instability in the past.
“I believe that we will strengthen the international order when those countries that produce strategic minerals benefit fairly from those minerals, in terms of investment, partnership, local processing and jobs,” Shettima told delegates.
On digital equity, he pressed for a global initiative to close the technology gap, saying, “The digital divide must close. As our friend the Secretary-General has said, ‘A.I.’ must stand for ‘Africa Included’.”
Nigeria also restated its commitment to peacekeeping and regional security, noting that the country had contributed troops to 51 of 60 UN peacekeeping missions since independence. Shettima warned, however, that military force alone could not defeat terrorism.
“From this long and difficult struggle with violent extremism, one truth stands clear: military tactics may win battles measured in months and years, but in wars that span generations, it is values and ideas that deliver the ultimate victory,” he said.
Speaking on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Shettima reaffirmed Nigeria’s support for a two-state solution.
“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,” Shettima declared.
He also condemned violence against civilians in Gaza and elsewhere, warning, “Violence never ends where it begins.”
Shettima described climate change as “not even solely an environmental issue. It is about national, regional, and international security. It is about irregular migration. Truly, this is an ‘everyone issue’.”
He said Nigeria was working with the UN to ensure climate funds deliver real impact in areas such as education, resilient housing, and access to technology, while stressing that Africa was ready to seize new opportunities for trade and investment if financial reforms allowed.
“For none of us is safe until all of us are safe. The road ahead will not be easy, and we know there are no quick fixes to the trials that test the human spirit. Yet history reminds us that bold action in pursuit of noble ideals has always defined the story of the United Nations,” he said, adding, “Nigeria dedicates itself fully and without reservation to that noble cause.”
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