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Buhari's Speech At The United Nations General Assembly by Adematae(m): 7:36am On Sep 29, 2015 |
Your Excellencies Heads of State and
Governments
Distinguished Delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like, Mr. President, on behalf of the
Government and people of Nigeria, to
congratulate you and your country on your
election to preside over the 70th session of the
U.N. General Assembly.
2. May I also express appreciation to your
predecessor, Mr. Sam Kahamba Kutesa and the
Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon both of
whom worked tirelessly to ensure proper
articulation of the post-2015 Development
Agenda and to maintain the focus and
commitment to the ideals of the United Nations.
I thank Mr. Ban Ki-moon for his recent visit to
Nigeria when we held very useful discussions.
Mr. President,
3. Fifty-five (55) years ago almost to the day,
my great predecessor, Nigeria’s first Prime
Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa stood
on this forum to declare Nigeria’s desire to
develop and maintain friendly relations with all
countries. He also assured the world of our
country’s commitment to uphold the principles
upon which the United Nations was founded.
4. Mr. President, my country, Nigeria, has lived
by this conviction, even when judgement went
against us in territorial disputes with our
neighbours. We respected those judgements
and abided by them as a mark of respect for
the rule of law and the charter of this
organization. Nigeria’s record in the U.N.
peacekeeping is second to none. I myself as a
young officer in the Nigerian Army did tours of
duty in Congo and the Lebanon.
5. Nigeria has contributed to U.N.
peacekeeping efforts in Ethiopia, Liberia, Sierra
Leone and Darfur. Furthermore, we are proud of
our contributions to other activities of the U.N.
including the Peace Building Commission, the
Human Rights Council and security sector
reform.
Mr. President,
6. We are gratified to note that most countries
have pledged commitment to the post-2015
Development Agenda and the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) with their means of
implementation. The successor frameworks of
the MDGs have come, Mr. President, with lofty
aspirations and if I may say so, heroic
assumptions! Nonetheless, they target
development cooperation by the international
community up to the year 2020. And they
deserve universal support.
7. This is because the SDGs mirror the hopes
and aspirations of much of the world.
8. I should stress that for the newly adopted
SDGs to be truly global, they must be practical.
In this regard, the SDGs’ core objectives of
poverty eradication and reducing inequalities
must be met within the framework of a
revitalized global partnership support by
concrete policies and actions as outlined in the
Addis Ababa Action Agenda.
9. Luckily, these two core objectives of the
SDGs are precisely at the centre of Nigeria’s
new Administration’s agenda. It must be
emphasized, Mr. President, that Foreign Direct
Investment supplemented where suitable by
Official Development Assistance as outlined in
the Addis Ababa Agenda are necessary, though
not sufficient, conditions for accelerated
development in countries that are trying to
catch up.
10. In this connexion, I would like to appeal to
industrialized countries to redeem their pledge
of earmarking 0.7% (nought point seven
percent) of their GDP to development
assistance. With the sole exception of the UK,
all concerned countries have, I am told to meet
the UN requirement. But, Mr. President, with
SDGs we have the opportunity to improve the
lives of people not just in the developing world
but in all nations.
11. The Secretary General himself has grouped
the SDGs into what he calls six “essential
elements” namely:
• Dignity
• Prosperity
• Justice
• Partnership
• Planet
• People
As a prerequisite to these and as we look at
history and remember the terrible events that
gave rise to the birth of the United Nations in
1945, I would like to propose a seventh:
• PEACE
12. Peace, Mr. President, is close to the hearts
of Nigerians, as we are in the front line in the
war on terror. Boko Haram’s war against the
people of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon
may not attract as much worldwide attention
as the wars in the Middle East but the suffering
is just as great and the human cost is equally
high.
13. This is a war about values between
progress and chaos; between democracy and
the rule of law. Boko Haram celebrates violence
against the weak and the innocent and
deplorably, they hide behind their perverted
interpretation of Islam. Boko Haram is as far
away from Islam as any one can think of.
14. Many of my colleagues attending this forum
would want to know how our new government
intends to tackle the huge problems the
government has inherited. Friends of Nigeria
and foreign investor partners will be
encouraged to know that the new Government
is attacking the problems we inherited head-
on.
15. We intend to tackle inequalities arising from
massive unemployment and previous
government policies favouring a few people to
the detriment of the many. We intend to
emphasize quality technological education for
development and lay foundation for
comprehensive care of the aged, the
disadvantaged and the infirm. But for now
terrorism is the immediate problem.
16. Accordingly, Mr. President, Members of the
General Assembly, the new Nigerian
Government which I have the honour to head,
moved with dispatch to put in a bold and
robust strategy to defeat Boko Haram. Nigeria
and her neighbours Cameroon, Chad and Niger
plus Benin are working together to face this
common threat within the regional framework of
the Lake Chad Basin Commission. We have
established a multinational joint task force to
confront, degrade and defeat Boko Haram.
17. We have driven them away from many of
their strongholds, killed or captured many of
their operatives or commanders and freed
several hundreds of hostages.
18. Mr. President, one of our major aims is to
rescue the Chibok girls alive and unharmed. We
are working round the clock to ensure their
safety and eventual reunion with their families.
Chibok girls are constantly on our minds and in
our plans.
19. Mr. President, terrorism is by no means the
major or the only evil threatening and
undermining the wellbeing of societies around
the world.
• Corruption
• Cross border financial crimes
• Cyber crimes
• Human trafficking
• Spread of communicable diseases
• Climate change
• Proliferation of weapons
are all major challenges of the 21st century
which the international community must tackle
collectively. Let me reaffirm Nigerian
government’s unwavering commitment to fight
corruption and illicit financial flows. By any
consideration, corruption and cross border
financial crimes are impediments to
development, economic growth, and the
realization of the wellbeing of citizens across
the globe.
20. Nigeria is ready and willing to partner with
international agencies and individual countries
on a bilateral basis to confront crimes and
corruption. In particular, I call upon the global
community to urgently redouble efforts towards
strengthening the mechanisms for dismantling
safe havens for proceeds of corruption and
ensuring the return of stolen funds and assets
to their countries of origin.
21. Mr. President, the world is now facing a big
new challenge: human trafficking. This is an old
evil taking an altogether new and dangerous
dimension threatening to upset international
relationships. We in Africa are grieved to see on
international networks how hundreds of
thousands of our able bodied men and women
fleeing to Europe and in the process thousands
dying in the desert or drowning in the
Mediterranean.
22. We condemn in the strongest terms these
people traffickers and will support any
measures to apprehend and bring them to
justice. At the same time, we are very
appreciative of European governments notably
Italy and Germany, for their understanding and
humane treatment of these refugees.
23. Last year, our continent faced the dreadful
occurrence of Ebola. We sincerely thank the
international community for the collective
efforts to contain this deadly disease. We are
not out of the woods yet but we would like to
record our appreciation to the United States,
United Kingdom, France and China for their
outstanding assistance in arresting the spread
of Ebola and care of those infected in
collaboration with host countries.
Mr. President,
24. Nigeria fully subscribes to and fully
endorses Goals 13, 14 and 15 of the SDGs
regarding Climate Change. In Nigeria,
desertification and land erosion and
degradation leading to biodiversity loss are real
threats to our environment and we shall
propose under the auspices of the Lake Chad
Basin Commission a regional approach to
combat these environmental challenges.
25. We look forward to the UN Summit on
climate change in Paris in December 2015. This
summit should provide optimism to humanity
on addressing the looming threat faced by
many communities around the world.
Mr. President,
26. We are witnessing a dreadful increase in
conflicts fuelled by availability of small arms
and light weapons. I call upon all member
countries to demonstrate the political will
needed to uphold the UN charter. For a start, a
robust implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty
will guarantee that small arms and light
weapons are only legally transferred. Arms
traffickers and human traffickers are two evil
species which the world community should
eradicate.
Mr. President,
27. As we engage in these annual debates, we
need remind ourselves of the principles that led
to the founding of the United Nations. Among
those are peaceful coexistence and self-
determination of peoples. In this context, Mr.
President, the unresolved question of self-
determination for the Palestinian people and
those of Western Sahara, both nations having
been adjusted by the United Nations as
qualifying for this inalienable right must now be
assured and fulfilled without any further delay
or obstacle.
28. The international community has come to
pin its hopes on resolving the Palestinian issue
through the two – states solution which
recognises the legitimate right of each state to
exist in peace and security. The world has no
more excuses or reasons to delay the
implementation of the long list of Security
Council resolutions on this question. Neither do
we have the moral right to deny any people
their freedom or condemn them indefinitely to
occupation and blockade
Mr. President, delegates of member countries,
29. UN is 70 years old. It can count many more
than 70 major achievements as the world’s
forum and family reunion. It is my hope that in
the next 70 years, it will achieve control of
climate, help to eliminate communicable
diseases, eliminate major and local conflicts
and therefore eliminate the problem of refugees,
take major steps towards reducing harmful
inequalities between nations and within nations
and above all, eliminate nuclear weapons.
30. Mr. President, as this is my first address in
this Assembly, I thank you and the delegates
for listening so patiently. |
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