… Demands veto power, five non-permanent seats as Nigeria pushes sweeping global reforms
By Abu Adamu
President Bola Tinubu has mounted a fresh push for the restructuring of the United Nations Security Council, declaring that Africa must be granted at least two permanent seats with full privileges, including veto power, if the global body is to retain its legitimacy in a rapidly changing world.
Tinubu said it was no longer defensible for Africa to remain without permanent representation on the UN’s most powerful decision-making organ, despite the continent’s population, contribution to global peacekeeping, and the frequency with which African security crises dominate the Council’s agenda.
The President made Nigeria’s position known in his address to the General Debate of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday, delivered on his behalf by Vice President Kashim Shettima.
He demanded at least two permanent Security Council seats for Africa, carrying all the rights and responsibilities enjoyed by the existing permanent members, as well as a total of five non-permanent seats for the continent.
Tinubu anchored Nigeria’s demand on the Ezulwini Consensus and Sirte Declaration, which articulate Africa’s common position on reform of the Security Council.
“The reform of this institution must begin with the reconstitution of the Security Council, for the world of 2026 cannot remain captive to the distribution of power in 1945,” the President declared.
He added that Africa could no longer continue to fill the Council’s agenda while being excluded from its permanent membership.
Tinubu insisted that the proposed African permanent members must enjoy the same privileges as the current permanent members, including veto power for as long as the veto remains part of the UN system.
“The authority to speak for humanity carries an obligation to represent it,” he said.
The Security Council currently has 15 members, comprising five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States — and 10 non-permanent members elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms.
Tinubu said reforming that structure had become central to restoring confidence in multilateral institutions and ensuring that the UN reflects contemporary geopolitical realities rather than the balance of power that emerged from the Second World War.
Beyond Security Council reform, the President urged world leaders to confront the persistence of wars, unilateral aggression, and growing nationalism, warning that conflicts could no longer be treated as distant problems without consequences for other nations.
He called for a renewed commitment to dialogue, international law, mutual respect, and collective responsibility, saying the continuing eruption of conflicts around the world was a reminder of the fundamental purpose for which the United Nations was established.
“Nigeria stands by the Charter and its promise of a world in which diplomacy prevails over coercion, cooperation over isolation, and international law over the arbitrary exercise of power,” Tinubu said.
The President pointed to Nigeria’s decades of peacekeeping and conflict-resolution interventions in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Darfur, Mali, and The Gambia as evidence of the country’s commitment to international peace and security.
He said Nigeria remained prepared to shoulder greater responsibilities in promoting stability in Africa, working through the Economic Community of West African States, the African Union, and partnerships in the Gulf of Guinea to advance mediation, democratic governance, counter-terrorism, and maritime security.
Tinubu also drew attention to Nigeria’s long battle against Boko Haram, ISWAP, and other armed groups, arguing that terrorism had demonstrated the limitations of purely national responses to threats sustained across international borders.
He said military operations alone could not produce lasting peace without education, economic opportunities, accountable government, and respect for human rights.
On Sudan and other conflict zones, the President called for intensified diplomacy to tackle the humanitarian, economic, and geopolitical consequences of prolonged warfare.
“We should all be afraid of a world in which we can no longer tell the victim from the aggressor,” Tinubu said, warning against propaganda that obscures responsibility for conflicts and shields perpetrators from accountability.
The President also pressed for changes to the international financial architecture, arguing that inadequate financing and heavy debt-servicing obligations were undermining development across poorer countries by diverting resources away from education, healthcare, and infrastructure.
He called for wider access to concessional financing and debt-sustainability arrangements that take the developmental needs of emerging economies into account.
On climate change, Tinubu rejected what he described as a false choice between economic development and climate action, maintaining that developing countries must be allowed to industrialise, eradicate poverty and expand energy access while pursuing lower-carbon development.
He reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to the Paris Agreement and the country’s Energy Transition Plan, under which it is targeting net-zero emissions by 2060 while expanding affordable and reliable energy access.
The President said Africa continued to bear a disproportionate burden from climate change despite contributing less than four per cent of global emissions, arguing that technology transfer and adequate climate financing were critical to a just transition.
Tinubu also placed artificial intelligence and digital development on Nigeria’s international agenda, saying the country would not allow fear to determine its technological future.
He described AI as a tool whose impact ultimately depends on human choices and said Nigeria was expanding digital public infrastructure, broadband connectivity and technology entrepreneurship to position its young population for the emerging global economy.
Turning to domestic reforms, Tinubu said Nigeria was pursuing its sustainable development objectives through disciplined macroeconomic management, stronger institutions, private-sector expansion and strategic public investment.
He nevertheless warned that domestic progress could not insulate any country from the consequences of global instability, climate shocks, terrorism or economic disruption.
Tinubu said the credibility of governments and international institutions ultimately depended on their ability to improve people’s lives and respond effectively to common threats.
He reaffirmed Nigeria’s support for the peaceful settlement of disputes under the UN Charter and called for stronger African leadership, backed by principled international partnerships, in resolving the continent’s security challenges.
For the President, the survival and relevance of multilateralism would ultimately depend on whether institutions created eight decades ago could adapt to present realities.
“A reformed, inclusive and effective United Nations is indispensable to the peaceful, just and sustainable world that future generations deserve,” Tinubu said.
“Whatever our differences, we must remember that humanity is our oldest citizenship, and peace is the inheritance we owe every child.”
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