President Bola Tinubu has demanded for a radical reshuffling of the United Nations Security Council to free two permanent seats for Africa on its board The President warned that the continent could no longer afford to fill the Council’s agenda from the margins, pointing out that the world of 2026 could not remain captive to the distribution of power in 1945.
Tinubu made the position in his address delivered by his deputy, Kashim Shettima, during the General Debate at the ongoing 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States.
Specifically, he demanded at least two permanent seats for the continent—including full rights, responsibilities, and veto power—along with a total of five non-permanent seats. He said: “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.
Africa cannot continue to fill the Council’s agenda while remaining absent from its permanent membership. “Nigeria demands, in accordance with the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration, at least two permanent seats for Africa, with all the rights and responsibilities of permanent membership, including the veto for as long as it exists, and five non-permanent seats in total. The authority to speak for humanity carries an obligation to represent it.”
According to a statement by a presidential spokesman, Stanley Nkwocha, Tinubu also issued a wake-up call to world leaders, demanding an immediate end to global warfare and a total rejection of the rising tide of nationalism. With urgent moral clarity, he warned that the global order hangs in the balance, while fiercely rallying the international community to dismantle unilateral aggression, resurrect the foundational principles of the United Nations Charter, and forge an unyielding, unified front through a recommitted era of global multilateralism.
He categorically told the global leaders not to pretend that distant or domestic conflicts do not exact a price from other nations, underscoring the UN’s urgent duty to restore trust in institutions built to reconcile differences and advance global common interests.
“The persistence of conflict across the world recalls the purpose for which the United Nations was founded: to spare succeeding generations the devastation of war. We must therefore return to the founding principles of dialogue, mutual respect and collective responsibility.
“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,” he declared.
The President framed Nigeria’s peacekeeping efforts in Africa as a model, noting that the nation stood ready to take on greater responsibility and sacrifice to restore peace across the continent—just as it did in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Darfur, Mali, and The Gambia, where it committed personnel and resources when global solidarity demanded action.
“Through ECOWAS, the African Union and our Gulf of Guinea partnerships, we continue to advance mediation, democratic governance, counter-terrorism and maritime security,” he said, adding that Nigeria’s foreign policy depends on the same conviction that guides its economic reforms.
Tinubu stated that Nigeria was actioning its sustainable development commitments through disciplined macroeconomic management, robust institutions, private-sector growth, and strategic public investment.
Emphasising that the mission directly linked Nigeria’s national advancement to Africa’s progress and a global duty to foster peace, equity, and prosperity, he observed that internal achievements meant nothing if the nation ignored gathering external threats, declaring that geography offered no exemption from the consequences of a fractured world. Government trust, according to him, could be earned only when decisions improve lives, stressing, however, that since no nation was insulated from global conflicts, leaders must face security and climate realities head-on rather than pretending borders offer safety.