Nigeria, 2012

Let me start by congratulating

Mr. Jeremić on his election as President of the General

Assembly at its sixty-seventh session. I have no doubt

that under his able leadership the work at this session

will progress to a successful conclusion. I also wish

to acknowledge the excellent work of his predecessor,

Ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, who guided

the affairs of the sixty-sixth session with diligence

and consummate skill. I must seize this opportunity to

applaud Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for the able

manner in which he has continued to guide and lead the

Secretariat of our Organization.

When I addressed the Assembly last year on the

theme of the role of mediation in the settlement of

disputes by peaceful means (see A/66/PV.11), the world

was witnessing important and dramatic changes. The

Arab Spring had broken out, setting new political

standards for social contracts between Governments

and the governed. Also, South Sudan, today sitting at

the family table of the United Nations, had just gained

independence.

Since then, we have witnessed considerable

progress and also some setbacks. Knowing that the

future remains uncertain and perilous, we have always

believed that much more needs to be done to protect

our gains, including developing new strategies for

preventing and resolving conflicts.

The situation in Syria, which continues to weigh on

the collective conscience of the world, is a case in point.

Every day since the conflict began, innocent people

continue to lose their lives and livelihoods, while tens

of thousands of others f lee into neighbouring countries

seeking refuge. I seize this opportunity to call on

the Syrian people, in the face of a seeming lack of

concerted positive international action, to pause and

find a solution to the crisis in a way that will benefit

the Syrian nation.

Indeed, it was in the context of tackling the many

crises that plagued our world that I proposed the

establishment of a conflict mediation commission, under

the Secretary-General’s Office, to further strengthen

the early warning and peacebuilding initiatives of the

United Nations. Experience elsewhere gives us reason

to believe that there is value in the creation of such a

mechanism. Nigeria stands ready to work with other

countries to make the protection of innocent civilians

caught in conflict situations a priority of the United

Nations.

I see a consonance between the theme of the sixty-

sixth session and that of sixty-seventh session — the

adjustment or settlement of international disputes or

situations by peaceful means. Both are concerned with

the peaceful settlement of disputes. This consonance, in

my view, is evidence of the United Nations continuous

and justifiable preoccupation with issues of peace and

security.

Membership in the Security Council in 2010 and

2011 afforded Nigeria an opportunity to work with

others to promote the complex peace and security agenda

of the United Nations. It was indeed a privilege for us

to contribute to the United Nations and international

efforts to make the world a safer and better place.

Nigeria and other emerging nations continue to

demonstrate the capacity to add value to the work of

all the organs of the United Nations, including the

Security Council. For that reason, we must now commit

ourselves to accelerating the long-overdue reforms of

the Security Council. They will no doubt make the

Council more equitable, more inclusive and more effective. Nigeria believes that a reformed Security

Council with expanded permanent membership would

benefit from the unique experiences and capacities that

regional representatives could bring to bear on its work.

It is a matter of great concern that many regions

of the world, including the West African subregion,

are plagued by political crises and insurgency. In

some parts of my own country, for instance, we are

experiencing threats from extremist and militant

activities with quasi-terrorist tactics. Our response has

been multifaceted, as we seek to address the root causes

of those threats, exploring opportunities for dialogue

and improving law enforcement to ensure public safety

and security.

International cooperation has also been a key factor

in tackling our security challenges. We have signed

bilateral agreements with our neighbours: Cameroon,

the Republic of the Niger and Chad. On the multilateral

front, the Lake Chad Basin Commission has been an

excellent platform for cooperation. Those efforts are

aimed at safeguarding the security of our individual

countries and denying extremists the use of our region

as sanctuary. We are confident that those measures will

stem the f low of and access to small arms and light

weapons, which have indeed become Africa’s weapons

of mass destruction and the most potent source of

instability. Indeed, the free f low of small arms and light

weapons from the developed countries that manufacture

them to Africa is one of the greater challenges the

continent is facing in the contemporary world.

Nigeria continues to regard the General Assembly

as a veritable platform for collective action to address

issues of common interest to all nations. One such issue

deserving the serious attention of the United Nations

is the adoption of a legally binding arms trade treaty.

I believe that important instrument could galvanize

the international community to regulate the transfer

of conventional weapons and curb the illicit trade in

small arms and light weapons. There is no doubt that

the absence of a global consensus on controlling the

f low of such weapons, including small arms and light

weapons, is fuelling conflicts, constraining growth and

development and increasing human rights violations.

A ray of hope was offered early this month with

the successful conclusion of the second United

Nations Conference to Review Progress Made in the

Implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent,

Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, including the

unprecedented adoption of an outcome document under

Nigeria’s presidency. We expect that those positive

achievements will have an impact on the entire United

Nations disarmament process, including the Conference

on Disarmament, the Disarmament Commission and

other disarmament mechanisms.

The correlation between disarmament, peace

and security, and development is axiomatic and

self-evident. The work of the United Nations

Commission on Life-saving Commodities for

Women and Children — which I have the honour to

co-chair with Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of

Norway — recognizes the need to serve and improve

the health of women and children for the benefit

of the future progress of the world. That is indeed a

laudable achievement, for which we commend the

vision of the Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon.

The Commission’s overarching objective is to provide

medical resources and other life-saving commodities

in a more affordable, accessible and timely manner,

thereby saving the lives of at least 4 million women and

children worldwide by 2015 and helping to achieve the

health-related targets of the Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs). Concerned with the unf lattering

statistics on maternal and child mortality in Nigeria,

my Government has adopted measures for reversing

that unhappy trend, in close collaboration with the

Commission and the related Every Woman Every Child

movement.

We believe, therefore, that it is time that the world

looked beyond 2015 to the post-MDG era. The year

2015 is not a destination but only a milestone on the

long journey to a better, safer, healthier and more caring

world. It is in that spirit that Nigeria will participate in

the forthcoming intergovernmental process to consider

the development of specific and action-oriented

sustainable development goals beyond 2015.

Sustainable development and progress are two

ultimate aspirations of any nation, and they cannot be

achieved without peace and security. Guided by that

realization, Nigeria has committed and shall continue

to commit itself to the attainment of regional and

international peace and security, in close collaboration

with the United Nations, the African Union and

the Economic Community of West African States

(ECOWAS).

Recently, however, our subregion has suffered

some setbacks in terms of unconstitutional change of Governments and the emergence of insurgency, among

others. In Mali, the political crisis stemming from that

reality has escalated to an insurgency that is threatening

the unity of the country. Nigeria and ECOWAS are

working in concert to address that threat, which has the

potential to spill over into neighbouring countries and

destabilize the entire region. Guinea-Bissau is another

f lashpoint of instability in the subregion in which

Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African

States are engaged. Indeed, the contact group, headed

by Nigeria, was set up by the authority of the Heads of

State and Government of ECOWAS to help establish

a transitional Government with a view to returning

that country to political and constitutional order. In

furtherance of that objective, Nigeria provided the sum

of $10 million to the interim Government in Guinea-

Bissau to assist in the stabilization of the country.

The overall security situation in the West African

subregion should continue to be a matter of interest and

concern to the rest of the international community. I

believe I speak for many in the Assembly when I state

that West Africa can ill afford renewed insurgency.

Although ECOWAS is taking measures to address the

situation in Mali, particularly in the north, the urgent

assistance of the United Nations and the support of

other partners will be needed to build on recent gains

to secure peace and stability in Mali and across the

subregion.

Nigeria’s long-standing commitment to the

promotion of issues of particular concern to Africa

is widely acknowledged. Nigeria has stood firm and

played critical roles in all the recent developments in

Africa, including the struggle for independence and

self-determination and the fight against apartheid,

colonialism and discrimination.

Today, we are in the vanguard of the fight against

extremism, terrorism and all forms of mindless

violence. We shall remain undeterred and unf linching

in our resolve to protect our citizens and other persons

living within our borders and to extend such protection

wherever we can to other countries in our region.

We know that no country has unilaterally defeated

the dark forces of violence and terrorism. They

evidently represent an evil that requires international

collaboration. We therefore call upon the international

community and all like-minded stakeholders to address

the matter with all the seriousness it deserves. I cannot end my statement without alluding to the

importance of the support that Nigerians are continuing

to give to the United Nations in not only advancing but

also upholding international peace and security. We

shall strengthen and deepen our cooperation with the

United Nations in peacekeeping operations around

the world. We shall remain focused and committed to

ensuring a meaningful and effective contribution to

its presence and, if need be, to crucial peacekeeping

operations, particularly in Africa.

The events of recent weeks have demonstrated how

increasingly interconnected our world has become and

the extent to which an incident in one area can cause

reverberations in others. The lesson is that freedom

of expression should not be construed as a licence to

incitement. The freedom that we all hold dear and true

should be exercised wisely and consciously. Freedom of

expression and religious tolerance must not be mutually

exclusive but should be complementary to each other.

We eschew violence and deplore needless loss of lives

and destruction of property. We condemn the deliberate

denigration of religious and cultural beliefs and

sensitivities, which in turn leads to counter-reactions.

As the world grows in knowledge and prosperity,

so must humankind grow in maturity and wisdom. Care

and compassion for our fellow beings must inform all

our actions. We must ensure that no nation and no part

of the world is left behind in terms of human progress.

Working together with commitment and common

purpose, we can succeed in building an inclusive, safer

and prosperous world for present and future generations.

The United Nations must lead that effort with renewed

commitment.