Vice-President Kashim Shettima on Wednesday addressed the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Shettima represented President Bola Tinubu at the event and
presented Nigeria’s statement at the general debate.
In his speech, the presidency sought for debt forgiveness
and a permanent seat for Nigeria on the United Nations security council.
Read his full speech below:
Madam President,
24th SEPTEMBER 2025
Check Against Delivery
Mr. Secretary-General, Excellencies, Heads of
State and Government, Distinguished Delegates,
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. Even in our darkest hours, we have refused to
be broken. This community was born from the ashes of despair, a vehicle for
order and for the shared assurance that we could not afford to falter again.
Our belief in this community is not a posture of moral superiority but an
undying faith in the redemption of humanity. It is, therefore, with profound
humility that I stand before you today, as Vice-President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, to renew this pledge on behalf of my country .
Madam President,
- Nigeria
joins the comity of nations in congratulating you on your election as
President of the General Assembly for the 80th Session and assures you of
our unalloyed support during your tenure. I commend your predecessor, my
brother, His Excellency, Philémon Yang, and the
Secretary-General, His Excellency, António Guterres, for the
outstanding stewardship and unifying leadership during these extraordinary
times.
- This
anniversary must not be a sentimental retreat into nostalgia. It must be a
moment of truth, a pause to measure where we have stumbled and how we
might have done better in turning our values into action that meets the
demands of today. We are here to deliver a world of peace and development,
where the respect for human rights is paramount. We must recalibrate the
delicate balance between our roles as sovereign governments and our duties
as collective partners, to renew multilateralism in a world that has evolved
far beyond what it was in
- The
pace of change across borders is a force without pause. It manifests in
the tools of technology, in the movements of information and finance, in
the corrosive ideologies that preach violence and division, in the
gathering storm of the climate emergency, and in the tide of irregular
migration. We must own this process of change. When we speak of nuclear
disarmament, the proliferation of small weapons, Security Council reform,
fair access to trade and finance, and the conflicts and human suffering
across the world, we must recognize the truth. These are stains on our
collective
- For
all our careful diplomatic language, the slow pace of progress on these
hardy perennials of the UN General Assembly debate has led some to look away
from the multilateral model. Some years ago, I noticed a shift at this
gathering: key events were beginning to take place outside this hall, and
the most sought-after voices were no longer heads of state. These are
troubling signs. Nigeria remains firmly convinced of the merits of
multilateralism, but to sustain that conviction, we must show that
existing structures are not set in stone. We must make real change, change
that works, and change that is seen to work. If we fail, the direction of
travel is already predictable.
- 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:
One: Nigeria must have a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. This should take place as part of a wider process of institutional reform.
Two: We need urgent action to
promote sovereign debt relief and access to trade and financing.
Three: Countries that host minerals must benefit from those minerals.
Four: The digital divide must close. As our friend the Secretary General has said: ‘A.I.’ must stand for ‘Africa Included’.
- On
my first point: the United Nations will 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, 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.
- This
is why Nigeria stands firmly behind the UN80 Initiative of the
Secretary-General, and the resolution adopted by this Assembly on 18 July
2025, 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.
Madam President,
- None
of us can achieve a peaceful world in isolation. This is the heavy burden
of 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.
Madam President,
- Nigeria’s
soldiers and civilians carry a proud legacy. They have participated in 51
out of 60 United Nations peacekeeping operations since our independence in
1960. We have stood with our partners in Africa to resolve conflicts, and
we continue that commitment today through the Multinational Joint Task
Force. At home, we confront the scourge of insurgency with resolve. 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.
- 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. For too long, this community
has borne the weight of moral conflict. For too long, we have been caught
in the crossfire of violence that offends the conscience of humanity. We
come not as partisans, but as peacemakers. We come as brothers and sisters
of a shared world, a world that must never reduce the right to live into
the currency of devious politics. 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.
- 12.
We want to make the choice crystal clear: civilised values over fear,
civilised values over vengeance, civilised values over bloodshed. We show
the opportunities that peace brings, just as the extremist hopes to drive
apart rival communities and different religions. We work through
multilateral platforms within the rule of law, to build the consensus and
support that makes this immensely difficult and dangerous task that much
easier. This is how we deny our enemies the space they crave to fuel
tension and despair. It is our experience that this offers the best,
perhaps only hope for peace, reconciliation and victory for the civilised
values of a shared humanity. Nigeria, as a diverse country, also
recognises the variable geometry of Democracy, its different forms and
speeds. For this reason, we are working with the United Nations to
strengthen Democratic institutions in our region and beyond, through the
Regional Partnership for Democracy.
Madam President,
- Point
two: the price of peace is eternal vigilance. The increasingly
difficult security outlook has prompted many
Member States to count the cost of the emerging world order. We in Nigeria
are already familiar with such difficult choices: infrastructure renewal
or defence platforms? schools or tanks? Our view is that the path to
sustainable peace lies in growth and prosperity. The government has taken
difficult but necessary steps to restructure our economy and remove
distortions, including subsidies and currency controls that benefited the
few at the expense of the many.
- I
believe in the power of the market to transform. Our task is to enable and
facilitate, and to trust in the ingenuity and enterprise of the people.
But the process of transition is difficult and brings unavoidable
hardship. This year, we held the inaugural West Africa Economic Summit in
Abuja to bring investors and opportunities together. The results exceeded
our expectations and are a clear indication of what innovation can
deliver.
- It
is in that same spirit of dynamic review that I invite the United Nations
to re-examine the best use of scarce resources. One critical area is
climate change. It is not an abstract issue about an indeterminate fate,
to be settled at some distant point in the future. It is 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.” We are all stakeholders, and we are all beneficiaries
of the best outcomes.
Madam President,
- This
is why relevant Ministers have been instructed to work with the UN to make
the best use of climate funds. We believe there are huge, shared dividends
to accrue from increased support for education, for resilient housing, for
access to technology and financing to allow vulnerable communities to
thrive: to become part of solutions, rather than problems.
- Nigeria
and Africa have made significant strides in recent years to put our
affairs in order. We can take that progress to the next level, a level
that presents new opportunities for trade, investment and profit, if we
can access reforms to strengthen the international financial architecture.
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.
- I
am calling for new and binding mechanism to manage sovereign debt, a sort
of International Court of Justice for money, that will allow emerging
economies to escape the economic straitjacket of primary production of
unprocessed exports.
- It
has been over four decades since the Lagos Action Plan outlined a route
away from debt and dependence that highlighted opportunities, that today
should still be explored for local added value for processing and
manufacturing in everything from agriculture to solid minerals and
petrochemicals. The African Continental Free Trade Area is a remarkable
achievement of co-operation. We remain fully committed to the achievement
of SDGs – and are convinced this can be best delivered by focusing
principally on our primary mission of growth and prosperity.
Madam President,
- Our
third point. We welcome steps to move towards peace in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. We agree that international investment and engagement
offer a way out of the cycle of decay and violence. Access to strategic
minerals, from Sierra Leone in the 1990s and Sudan today, has for too long
been a source of conflict rather than Africa – and I must include
Nigeria – has in abundance the critical minerals that will drive the
technologies of the future. Investment in exploration, development and
processing of these minerals, in Africa, will diversify supply to the
international market, reduce tensions between major economies and help
shape the architecture for peace and prosperity, on a continent that
too often in the past has been left behind by the rivalries and
competition between different blocs.
- We
know in Nigeria, that we are more stable when those communities that have
access to key resources are able to benefit from those This has been our
journey in the oil producing region of the Niger Delta. 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. When we export raw
materials, as we have been doing, tension, inequality and instability
fester.
Madam President,
- The
fourth pillar for change that I am advocating, is a dedicated initiative,
bringing together researchers, private sector, governments and
communities, to close the digital divide. As we stand on the threshold of
new and dramatic technological change, we are still absorbing the impact
of the revolution in information and communication of the past 20 years.
We understand better than we did, the opportunities technology offers as
well as the safeguards we need to enable growth and mitigate the potential
for corrosion. Some worry about fake news. We have plenty of
that, with the potential of devastating real-world consequences in
countries rich and poor. I am more worried about an emerging generation
that grows ever more cynical, because it believes nothing and trusts less.
As technology shakes up public administration, law, finance, conflict and
so much of the human condition, I am calling for a new dialogue, to ensure
we promote the best of the opportunities that are arising – and promote
the level of access that allows emerging economies more quickly, to close
a wealth and knowledge gap that is in no one’s interest.
- I
join you today to reassert that Nigeria’s commitment to peace, to
development, to unity, to multilateralism, and to the defence of human
rights is beyond compromise. 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. Time and again, we have found the wisdom to balance
sovereign rights with collective responsibility. That balance is once
again in question, but I believe that a renewed commitment to
multilateralism, not as a slogan but as an article of faith, remains our
surest path forward. Nigeria dedicates itself fully and without
reservation to that noble cause.
- I
thank you.
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