President Bola Tinubu has issued a forceful call for the United Nations to undertake radical reforms, including granting Nigeria a permanent seat on the Security Council, warning that the institution risks sliding into irrelevance if it fails to adapt to the 21st century.
The demand was delivered by Vice President Kashim Shettima at the 80th UN General Assembly in New York, where Tinubu criticized the organization’s ineffective response to global conflicts, describing the human suffering in the Middle East and elsewhere as “stains on our collective humanity.”
“The United Nations will recover its relevance only when it reflects the world as it is, not as it was,” Tinubu stated, emphasizing that “Nigeria must have a permanent seat at the UN Security Council” as part of a wider overhaul.
Tinubu was equally unequivocal in his stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stating: “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.”
“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,” he asserted.
President Tinubu also outlined other key proposals to the UN, including a new global mechanism for sovereign debt relief and fairer partnerships for Africa’s critical minerals.
“Africa – and I must include Nigeria – has in abundance the critical minerals that will drive the technologies of the future,” he said, arguing that investment in local processing would boost both continental development and global stability.
Echoing the call for reform, Kenyan President William Ruto delivered a stark warning, drawing a parallel with the defunct League of Nations.
“Institutions rarely fail because they lack strong ideas. More often they drift into irrelevance when they do not adapt, when they hesitate to act, and when they lose legitimacy,” he said.
President Ruto also condemned the escalating violence in Gaza, urging an immediate ceasefire, the release of Israeli hostages, and a renewed commitment to a two-state solution.
The coordinated African position at the assembly highlighted a growing continental assertiveness. President Ruto declared that Africa was “no longer willing to wait on the margins of global governance” and demanded at least two permanent seats for the continent on the UN Security Council.
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