By Eric Elezuo

Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu, at the general debate of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, reawaken the call for a representation of Nigeria on the United Nations Security Council.

The Nigerian President, who was represented by his Vice, Kashim Shettima, insisted that time has come for Africa to have a louder voice in world affairs, and such could be actualized by a seat in the United Nations Security Council, the highest decision making arm of the world body.

He reiterated that Nigeria, as an African giant, is poised to take up the role.

Below are excerpts from the speech as presented by Vice President Shettima:

“We are here to strengthen the prospects for peace, development and human rights.

“Madam President, I want to make four points today to outline how we can do this:

“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 Nigerian leader noted that the United Nations would recover its relevance only when it reflects the world as it is, not as it was.

“Nigeria’s journey tells this story with clarity: 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.

“A stabilising force in regional security and a consistent partner in global peacekeeping.

“Our case for 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.”

Pledging solidarity to UN80 Initiative, the president intoned that “A bold step to reform the wider United Nations system for greater relevance, efficiency, and effectiveness in the face of unprecedented financial strain.

“We support the drive to rationalise structures and end the duplication of responsibilities and programmes, so that this institution may speak with one voice and act with greater coherence.

“None of us can achieve a peaceful world in isolation. This is the heavy burden of sovereignty. Sovereignty is a covenant of shared responsibility, a recognition that our survival is bound to the survival of others.

“To live up to this charge, we must walk hand in hand with our neighbours and partners. We must follow the trails of weapons, of money, and of people.

“For these forces, too often driven by faceless non-state actors, ignite the fires of conflict across our region,” the President said.

He added, “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.

“We are despised by terrorists because we choose tolerance over tyranny. Their ambition is to divide us and to poison our humanity with a toxic rhetoric of hate.

“Our difference is the distance between shadow and light, between despair and hope, between the ruin of anarchy and the promise of order. We do not only fight wars, we feed and shelter the innocent victims of war.

“This is why we are not indifferent to the devastations of our neighbours, near and distant.

“This is why we speak of the violence and aggression visited upon innocent civilians in Gaza, the illegal attack on Qatar, and the tensions that scar the wider region.

“It is not only because of the culture of impunity that makes such acts intolerable, but because our own bitter experience has taught us that such violence never ends where it begins.”

Meanwhile, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) faulted Tinubu’s push for Nigeria to secure a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, describing it as misplaced while insecurity continues to claim lives across the country.

ADC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, in a statement on Sunday, argued that President Bola Tinubu cannot push for expanded global roles while allegedly neglecting the primary duty of safeguarding lives and property within Nigeria.

He noted that Nigeria has long advocated for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

“The African Democratic Congress finds it absurd that the Tinubu administration could be requesting a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council even as bandits slaughter Nigerians at home and take control of some of the nation’s territories. We, however, wonder how a government that cannot ensure peace or security at home could demand a seat at the table where global security is negotiated and expect to be taken seriously.

“Only last Friday, gunmen, yet again, attacked a mosque in Yandoto village, Zamfara State, and massacred worshippers while abducting several others. Only a few weeks ago, in the same Zamfara State, no fewer than 45 Nigerians were killed, with entire villages sacked and dozens abducted.

“This was after a similar attack in Katsina State had left about 47 dead and several more injured or taken hostage. In just two months, more than 140 Nigerians have been murdered in Katsina and Zamfara alone. As of May 2025, Amnesty International reported over 10,000 lives lost in Nigeria to attacks by various armed groups. These are not numbers, they were human beings, they were Nigerians that this administration had promised renewed hope.

“Only last month, the ADC alerted the public that armed gangs in Zamfara State had extorted over N56 million from farmers as a precondition to access their farmlands. Indeed, with the level of brigandage going on in that state, we are compelled to ask whether Zamfara is still part of Nigeria. Because when non-state actors collect taxes, control access to farms, and kill with impunity, they are no longer mere criminals, they are a parallel government.

“What is happening is not a mere failure of security. It is clear evidence, written in blood and piles of innocent bodies, of a government that has lost control. In any serious country, these situations would have triggered resignations, emergency meetings, and a strategic overhaul. Here, it only receives routine condolence tweets from presidential propagandists.

“This is why we find it patently absurd that the same administration, under whose watch Nigerians are being massacred without let or hindrance, and under whose watch sundry bandits have taken control of parts of the nation’s territory, could stand before the world and ask to be admitted to the highest level of security conversations in the world.

“Fortunately, the rest of the world can see beyond the fine speeches in New York, they see that parts of our country have turned into killing fields, they see that in our country, lives could be brutish, nasty, and short.

“Nigeria’s request for a Security Council seat would indeed remain laughable until our government demonstrates both the capacity and the willingness to secure the lives of its own people.

“Leadership on the global stage must begin with responsibility at home. You cannot be asking to be admitted into the club of those who take the lives of their citizens seriously, while the very land you govern is soaked with the blood of the very people you have sworn to protect while you do nothing.”

The ADC further denounced Tinubu for reportedly missing the commissioning of Nigerian military officers for a second consecutive year.

It continued, “The Nigerian Defence Academy held the passing-out parade and commissioning of 874 officers into the military last Saturday, but the Commander-in-Chief was once again missing in action.

“With the dire security situation in the country, we would have expected the President to seize the occasion to inspire and charge the new officers to give their best in protecting the country and its people.

“We would have expected the President to seize the opportunity of being in Kaduna, at the apex military training institution in the country, to reassure the people of northern Nigeria of his commitment to protect them and their children, to give hope to Zamfara and Katsina, as well as other northern states under siege. But no, instead, the Commander-in-Chief chose to travel to his beloved Lagos to commission the renovation of the National Arts Theatre.

“What all this signals is that this administration is plagued by misplaced priorities. The President has become a passive spectator, watching from a safe distance, while villages burn and prayers end in gunfire.

“With its tragic indifference, this administration could indeed end up creating the dangerous perception that some lives in Nigeria matter less than others.

“A President that was quick to declare a state of emergency over a political crisis in Rivers but has nothing to say about the existential crisis in Zamfara and Katsina cannot claim to believe that all lives matter.”

The quest for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council has remained in the front burner for Nigeria as successive governments have tried in vain to make it a reality.

Would Tinubu succeed?