Allow me to
offer my sincere condolences to the French Government
for the cowardly murder of one of its citizens yesterday,
24 September, in Algeria by the so-called Soldiers of
the Caliphate.
Sociopolitical crises, religious extremism, armed
conflict, terrorism, cross-border crime, identity politics,
development issues, the effects of climate change and
pandemics such as that currently caused by the Ebola
virus are now concerns of the utmost importance
that are crying out for action from all players of the
international community.
In order to meet the challenges of promoting
peace, stability, security and development, we have to
further strengthen the spirit of sharing and solidarity.
“Delivering on and implementing a transformative
post-2015 development agenda”, which the Assembly
has identified as the theme of the general debate of the
sixty-ninth session, provides a good link with the theme
of last year’s session. That gives us an opportunity
once again to further explore the questions that are
of concern to all of us. It is nearly post-2015 already,
and crafting a programme that goes beyond that date
requires that we take stock of the implementation of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Despite the remarkable progress in the
implementation of some of those goals, it is now clear
that there are still vast gaps in other goals, which will
persist when the programme is concluded. With respect
to the Niger, for example, the implementation of the 3N
Initiative, “Les Nigériens nourrissent les Nigériens”,
has already allowed us to achieve target C of MDG 1,
which has to do with reducing by half the number of
people who are suffering from hunger. The Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has
recognized that, in that area, the Niger has achieved
impressive results in record time. Our country has
also achieved target A of MDG 6, with an HIV/AIDS
prevalence rate of 0.4 per cent in 2012, as compared
with a target of 0.7 per cent in 2015.
With respect to reducing by half the proportion of
people whose income is less than $1 per day, ensuring
primary education for all, strengthening gender
equality and the empowerment of women, dealing with
the mortality of children under five years, reducing
maternal mortality and promoting a sustainable
environment, major efforts have ben undertaken. Still,
those goals will most likely not be achieved, despite the
implementation of the programme of recovery currently
under way since my election in 2011.
In drafting the new post-2015 agenda, we naturally
need to maintain all of the unachieved MDGs and
provide for measures to avoid a deterioration in
areas where the goals have already been achieved.
For example, the issue of the demographic dividend
should be a priority on the agenda. The demographic
dividend, the Assembly will recall, consists of both
the demographic transition and inclusive economic
growth. More specifically, the demographic dividend
means, on the one hand, reducing maternal, infant and
juvenile mortality and controlling birth and, on the
other hand, providing for sustainable development with
its three pillars: economic, social and environmental.
The demographic transition is needed to strengthen
sustained growth, which in turn should accelerate
the demographic transition. I continue to believe that
the best contraceptive method, the best condom, is
sustainable development.
The post-2015 agenda will be dominated by what
I would call the three D’s — defence or security,
democracy and development. It is fortunate that the
international community has now established a close
correlation among those three fundamental challenges,
which are interconnected. Global peace and security
today are, however, threatened by terrorism, by
organized crime, by demands based on identity and
by the growth of inequality, which have led to the
worsening of poverty around the world, from Iraq to
Libya, from Syria to Nigeria and from Mali to Somalia.
The enemies who embody that terrorist threat
are engaged in an unconventional and asymmetrical
combat. They are sending out propaganda through their
actions and seek to control populations through terror,
including rape; kidnapping young girls, as in Chibok,
Nigeria; taking hostages in exchange for ransom: and
murder. The war pursued against them is no longer
a conventional, industrial war of the kind for which
our armies have been trained. Warfare among our
populations is not a new phenomenon, but in recent
years, it has taken on an exceptional dimension. To deal
with that situation, we need to change the paradigm and
move from a paradigm of classic conventional war to
that of the war that takes place among our populations,
which, in turn, presupposes that our countries reform
their armies. That also presupposes that our countries
train special forces that are capable of adapting to the
methods of the enemy.
In order to eradicate the Islamic State or the
Al-Nusra Front in Iraq and Syria, neutralize the jihadist
organizations in Libya, overcome Al-Qaida in the Islamic
Maghreb and Al-Mourabitoun in the Sahel, particularly
in Mali, and oust the Al-Shabaab from Somalia and
Boko Haram in Nigeria, the international community
needs to establish a shared goal and strategy, working
with the countries involved. The common political aim
is to defend our democratic institutions and protect our
peoples. The strategy would then necessarily have to
do with cutting off the sources financing terrorism,
whether those sources are States or the drug trade or
the payment of ransom. The strategy also needs to deal
with the terrorist strategy, which generates propaganda
through its actions, and unfortunately, its propaganda
is heavily covered by the media and social media on the
Internet. In addition, a just settlement of the Palestinian
issue could certainly contribute to the fight against this
scourge.
As a neighbour of Libya, Nigeria and Mali, the
Niger is deeply concerned by the situation prevailing in
those countries. In Libya, the international community,
together with neighbouring countries, must establish the
conditions that would enable it to neutralize the militias,
reconcile all Libyans without exception and form a
Government of union that would organize elections
under the guidance of the international community. The
current United Nations Support Mission in Libya must
be replaced by a more robust structure, and in this case,
a stabilization and institution-building mission. The
international community will then have to undertake
a vast diplomatic initiative under the auspices of the
Secretary-General to promote national reconciliation,
which is needed to bring about the end of violence and
chaos as well as to assist in the emergence of the true
rule of law.
Whatever the case may be, as the leader of a country
that is a neighbour of Libya and whose economy and
security have been seriously affected by what has been
taking place there for three years, my belief is that it is
dangerous to leave the current state of affairs in play as
it is. We therefore need to have the courage to radically
change our perspective and act so as to help Libyans
realize their sole aspiration, which is to live in peace.
With respect to Nigeria, Boko Haram has been
extremely aggressive and has demonstrated a barbarism
never seen before, with its recent incursions into
Cameroon and the occupation of ever more territory,
going so far as to threaten Maiduguri, the capital of
the federated state of Borno in Nigeria. It is evident
that that terrorist group has aims that are much
larger than had been thought. That means that more
effort and cooperation are needed at the regional and
international levels in order to deal with the problem
effectively. It is in that perspective that the heads of
State and Government of Cameroon, the Niger, Nigeria
and Chad — the members of the Lake Chad Basin
Commission — and Benin, will meet in Niamey on
7 October 2014 to pool their efforts in the fight against
this serious threat.
Regarding Mali, I welcome the inclusive inter-Malian
dialogue that is currently taking place under the auspices
of Algeria. I express the hope that the dialogue will lead
to an agreement that respects the unity and integrity
of Mali. In Mali, as in the Central African Republic,
the question of unity is essential. The Pandora’s box
of Balkanization, which has been opened elsewhere in
Africa, must be closed again if we do not want the rest
of the continent to catch fire. The future of Africa is
in its unity. The best way to do away with the borders
inherited from colonization is not to create new borders
along ethnic or religious lines, but to go beyond current
borders through integration.
Global security can be ensured only by States with
strong and stable democratic institutions. The post-
2015 programme must be a priority. Global security
can also not be guaranteed as long as inequalities in
trade between nations and income inequality within
nations persist. Inequalities are morally unacceptable
and economically inefficient. Therefore, the struggle
against inequality has always been an essential question
and one that we must stop avoiding, if we want a more
just, humane and prosperous world. That struggle must
be central to the post-2015 programme.
Observers are unanimous in saying that Africa,
with its high rates of economic growth, is the continent
of the twenty-first century. That is true, but only if our
continent definitively emerges from the unequal trade
situation and from the colonial pact that has always
treated Africa as merely a reservoir of raw materials,
often sold cheaply, as in the old days when slaves or
vast territories were acquired in exchange for mirrors,
pins, needles and other junk. The African continent
will actually be the continent of the twenty-first
century when it, itself, works with its raw materials,
that is to say once it takes the place that it deserves
in world industrial production. Africa will be the
continent of the twenty-first century once its relations
with other nations are governed by equitable trade and
not by official development assistance. Africa will be
the continent of the twenty-first century when there
is a huge middle class arising from good political and
economic governance, including a better distribution of
income to reduce poverty.
Currently, according to a study by the African
Development Bank, the African middle class, which is
defined as the proportion of Africans with an income
between $2 and $20 a day, represents about 30 per cent
of the population. Our ambition should be to increase
that number to 80 per cent. The vision contained in the
2063 agenda of the African Union suggests that we are
on the right track. It is in the interest of the international
community to include priorities that are on the agenda
of our continent in the post-2015 programme.
The twenty-first century must be the century when
Africa equips itself with roads and rail and energy
infrastructure and new information and communication
technologies. It will also be the century of an agriculture
that feeds our population, which is growing larger, and
the century of access to water and sanitation services
and to education, including vocational and technical
training to enable each young person to have a trade.
However, if our children and grandchildren are to
have a chance at having a better quality of life, we must
meet the challenge of climate change. In that regard,
we must congratulate Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
on his initiative to convene the Climate Summit. That
conference’s outcome will be the basis for the decisions
that the international community is called upon to
take at the climate conference to be held in Paris in
December 2015.
We have the imperative duty to save our planet. The
global temperature is increasing owing to greenhouse
gases, which have led, to take the example of the Sahel
region, to a decrease in rainfall and reduced water
flows, with the silting up of waterways, as in the case of
the Niger River; the drying up of Lake Chad, which has
lost 90 per cent of its area in 50 years, shrinking from
25,000 square kilometres to 2,500; extreme flooding
and drought; reduced plant cover, including forest loss;
reduced biodiversity; reduced crop yields; and thus the
impoverishment of the population, whose young people
then become an easy target for recruitment by terrorists
and organized crime.
However, since the United Nations Climate Change
Conference in Copenhagen, we have seen not a decrease
but an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. If nothing
is done, the temperature increase may surpass 2 degrees
centigrade in 20 to 30 years and reach 4 degrees by the
end of the century. We must therefore regroup and focus
on promoting clean energy, such as hydro-electricity,
nuclear energy and solar energy, provided that, in the
latter case, we create competitive conditions for it. We
also need to promote what is called smart agriculture
and make adjustments in the industrial, transport and
construction sectors.
I hope that humanity will not squander the
opportunity that will be provided in Paris. I hope that
we will implement a development model that will
enable us to save our planet. I hope that we will be able
to build a more just and humane world.