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Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima demanded urgent reforms to the United Nations Security Council while addressing the UN General Assembly on Thursday, arguing that global governance must evolve to reflect modern realities.
Delivering Nigeria’s address, Shettima asserted that the international community must return to the UN’s founding principles of dialogue and mutual respect to resolve escalating global conflicts.
He urged member states to choose diplomacy over coercion and international law over arbitrary power, emphasising that no nation can escape the economic and security costs of global instability.
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“The reform of this institution must begin with the reconstitution of the Security Council,” Shettima declared.
“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.”
In line with the Ezulwini Consensus and Sirte Declaration, Shettima demanded at least two permanent seats for Africa—complete with veto power—and five non-permanent seats, reaffirming Nigeria’s readiness to assume a permanent seat given its decades-long peacekeeping sacrifices across Liberia, Sierra Leone, Darfur, Mali, and The Gambia.
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Beyond diplomatic reforms, the Vice President highlighted Nigeria’s domestic economic transformation and regional security initiatives across West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea.
He tied Nigeria’s internal macroeconomic reforms, private sector growth, and institutional strengthening directly to its broader responsibility of fostering global stability and sustainable development.
Warning leaders against ignoring climate and security threats mounting along global borders, Shettima noted that governments and multilateral institutions earn public trust only when their decisions deliver tangible improvements to human lives.
