Nigeria

On behalf of the Nigerian delegation, I convey to Mr. Razali Ismail our congratulations on his election as President of the General Assembly at its fifty-first session. His election is a recognition of his wide-ranging experience, candour and diplomatic skills. It is also a tribute to his great country. We are confident that, under his presidency, the work of the General Assembly will be highly successful. May I also convey the appreciation of my delegation to his predecessor, Mr. Diogo Freitas Do Amaral of Portugal, for the admirable manner and great sense of commitment with which he conducted the affairs of the fiftieth session of the Assembly. Nigeria also commends Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali for the energy, sense of purpose and direction which he has brought to bear on the office of the Secretary-General in the meritorious service of our Organization. When we met last year to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, we observed that a number of developments on the political and economic scene had affected relations between States and modified the configuration of power at the global level. We 9 recognized that the United Nations continues to be a viable instrument for the conduct of relations amongst States. We rededicated ourselves to the principles and objectives of the United Nations Charter, including, in particular, the promotion of social and economic development and the maintenance of international peace and security. In this endeavour, the United Nations has a central role to play. Member States, in line with their obligations under the Charter, have a duty to assist the United Nations in carrying out this responsibility. This requires the political commitment of all Member States and in particular of those upon which the Charter confers special status. Some of the developments which have occurred on the international scene include the globalization of the world economy, the upsurge in market economies, the rise in economic growth in a number of countries and the growing trend towards political pluralism and democratization. However, new forms of conflict, new nationalisms, terrorism, an increasing incidence of poverty and global social decline have cast a sombre shadow on international peace and security, as well as on economic growth and development. The growing incidents of conflict, whether in Europe, in Africa or in the Middle East, and the slow pace of their resolution, are helping to exacerbate international tension and undermine confidence among States. The United Nations has a duty in this regard to redefine its role and sharpen its peacemaking and peacekeeping tools in order to effectively address them. Peace is indivisible. The burden of peace, therefore, should be shared by all in a mode of global responsibility and partnership. Let me add also that the maintenance of international peace and security is not an exclusive responsibility of the United Nations. Regional and subregional arrangements have important roles to play and have demonstrated their commitment. Although many regions of the world are now witnessing one form of conflict or another, with varying degrees of implications for the United Nations system, no region perhaps is more afflicted by this menace than Africa, both in the number of conflicts currently raging and in their unimaginable negative effects on the people. The individual and collective efforts of African States to achieve socio- political transformation have been threatened by these conflicts. In spite of this, the States of Africa have continued to make concerted efforts at regional and subregional levels to address this situation. The unique role being played by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Mechanism for Conflict Prevention Management and Resolution is important and should be supported by the international community. Nigeria welcomes the cooperation between the OAU and other regional organizations and the United Nations in the field of preventive diplomacy, peacekeeping and peacemaking. In our own subregion, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) undertook an unprecedented initiative in crisis management by establishing a peacekeeping force, the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), in Liberia six years ago. In spite of the difficulties we have encountered in the process, we remain committed in our endeavour to help the Liberian process reach its logical conclusion. In this regard, Nigeria shares the view of many observers who have described the revised Abuja peace agreement of August 1996 as providing the best legal framework for the resolution of the Liberian crisis. I am pleased to report that the implementation of the Agreement revised at Abuja last August is now on course. A new Council of State, headed by Mrs. Ruth Perry, has been installed. Since her installation, Mrs. Perry has enjoyed the considerable confidence of the other members of the Liberian National Transitional Government and indeed of most Liberians. I take this opportunity to appeal to all Liberians to extend cooperation to the new leadership in the interest of peace in their country. Let me assure the Assembly that it is the determination of my Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Chairman of ECOWAS — in collaboration with other leaders in our region and with the support of the international community as a whole — to ensure the resolution of the Liberian crisis. It is our expectation that the Liberians themselves will assume their destiny in favour of peace, national reconciliation and national reconstruction. We therefore renew our appeal to the international community to provide much-needed financial, material and logistic support to enable ECOMOG and the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) to effectively discharge their respective mandates. Meanwhile, we acknowledge with appreciation the renewed cooperation and assistance with the ECOWAS effort of some of the members of the international community. Of great importance to the search for peace in the various troubled spots of the world is the urgent need to control the instruments of war. It is a matter of deep regret that the end of the cold war has not ushered in in its wake any appreciable reduction in the global arms build-up. As the arms build-up and the proliferation of conflicts are mutually reinforcing, there is an urgent need for the international community to contain the trend. The 10 threat posed by existing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and conventional armaments is yet to be removed. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), a priority item on the disarmament agenda of the United Nations, has been adopted. In spite of the imperfections of this Treaty, the Nigerian Government was able to support it and will be signing it in due course. Its adoption, which puts an end to the further qualitative improvement of nuclear weapons and arsenals, represents a significant first step towards the goal of nuclear disarmament. It is our expectation that the Conference on Disarmament, the single multilateral negotiating body on disarmament, will now take the next logical step to negotiate such disarmament within a time-bound framework. The nuclear-weapon States have a clear responsibility and duty to cooperate with the Conference on Disarmament to negotiate such a treaty. The adoption of the Treaty of Pelindaba creating a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Africa has been an important contribution to confidence building in Africa, in addition to being a collateral disarmament measure. In view of the overwhelming support enjoyed by the Treaty beyond the African continent, it is recommended that other regions undertake similar efforts by establishing nuclear-weapon- free zones or zones of peace. While it is commendable to observe that the majority of nuclear-weapon States have since signed the protocol to the Treaty, we take this opportunity to urge other States that have not yet done so to do so, in order that the full objectives of the Treaty can be achieved. Peace and development are mutually reinforcing. A just and enduring peace can only be founded on the general welfare and socio-economic progress of all peoples and all nations. It is indeed disconcerting to note that while the countries of the North are becoming more affluent, the countries of the South, which contain the majority of the world’s population, are getting more impoverished. We must collectively recognize and accept the fact that the deepening crisis of development faced by developing countries can only undermine the new world order which we seek to create. Africa, in particular, has continued to experience the crippling impacts of external debt, deteriorating terms of trade, increasing barriers to trade, declining investment and financial inflows, and capital flight. African countries recognize that the primary responsibility for finding a solution to the economic difficulties facing the continent lies with themselves. Hence they have sought to put in place sound macro-economic policies and adopted very painful programmes of economic reform. However, their best endeavours have continued to be constrained by the prevailing unfavourable international economic climate. We believe that development cooperation should engender genuine interdependence, mutual interest and benefits in the context of global partnership, rather than the old mode of a donor-recipient relationship. We must recognize the central role of the United Nations in engendering the process of global development. In this regard, my delegation calls for faster progress in the ongoing work on the Secretary-General’s Agenda for Development. In the same spirit, we of the African continent urge the international community to deliver on its promises under the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s (UN- NADAF). We have just taken part in the mid-term review of its implementation. We recognize that UN-NADAF has had a poor record of implementation. None the less, the United Nations system and the international community at large must deliver on their various commitments. Nigeria considers as complementary the Secretary- General’s United Nations System-wide Special Initiative for Africa, particularly as it envisages collaboration and coordination of efforts between the international community, the Bretton Woods financial institutions and the United Nations development agencies on the issue of development. In recognition of its role as the centre for the harmonization of the actions of nations, the United Nations successful hosting of major global conferences on development — from New York in 1990 through Rio in 1992, Vienna in 1993, Cairo in 1994, Copenhagen and Beijing in 1995, to Istanbul in 1996 — deserves our special commendation. The faithful implementation of the decisions and programmes of action of these conferences would assist in bridging the yawning gap between the developing and the developed economies and constitute a substantive benefit to development. Accordingly, we endorse and will continue to give our unqualified support to the hosting of a special session of the General Assembly in 1997 to review the implementation of Agenda 21. It is hardly necessary to recall that contemporary international relations were founded on the basis of respect for the principles of sovereign equality of States, non-interference in the internal affairs of other States and peaceful co-existence. It is therefore a matter of great concern that these hallowed principles are increasingly being eroded by some powerful States. The United Nations should serve as the bulwark against the imposition of the will of the strong over that of the weak. Today all countries are engaged in a universal quest for human dignity. It is no longer sufficient for us to be content that our nations have been liberated from oppression and foreign domination. It is now universally acknowledged that the full meaning of national sovereignty cannot be realized unless the individual citizen is free to exercise his true conscience. The rise of this new international conscience is a legitimate extension of the earlier emergence of the new international morality which threw colonialism into disarray. There ought to be no conflict between national sovereignty and the fundamental rights of the individual. We welcome the growing international concern with human rights, but unless we are careful to strictly define the parameters of what actions justly constitute human rights and what are excesses threatening the security of the State as well as the safety and well-being of the citizens, we could unwittingly be doing a disservice to the essence of human freedom and dignity. We must therefore guard against the use of human rights as a pretext for advancing the individual or collective interests of one section of the international community against those of the other. In today’s world, the collation, delivery and management of information has become an essential component of development. Countries which are better endowed technologically have tended to use that endowment to the disadvantage of the less endowed. There is a need therefore to establish a New World Information Order, which respects the mutual sensitivities of States and protects the values of their differing cultures. Most developing countries lack the resources and technological capacity for the requisite information delivery. This, in no small measure, constrains their ability to project news of events in their society promptly and effectively, avoiding the tendentious reporting of the media in the developed countries. Nigeria’s desire to be friends with all nations, our commitment to the maintenance of international peace and security and our abiding faith in the principles enshrined in the charters of the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and our subregional organization, ECOWAS, are demonstrable and beyond question. It was therefore a matter of surprise to the Nigerian Government that this Assembly, in December 1995, adopted resolution 50/199 of 22 December 1995 on the human-rights situation in our country. We believe that this action was based largely on media reporting and without any investigation of the facts of the matter. In spite of the fact that the Nigerian Government was not happy with that action, we subsequently took the initiative to invite the Secretary-General to send a fact-finding mission to Nigeria to ascertain the realities on the ground. That mission visited the country from 28 March to 13 April 1996, and conducted its work unfettered. While the mission’s report identified areas of progress in our domestic situation, it also made constructive recommendations. I would like to take this opportunity to express the appreciation of the Government and the people of Nigeria to those Governments which took a principled position of not supporting the resolution against us. We note with satisfaction that since the United Nations visit, a growing number of countries have reconsidered their position on the matter in favour of Nigeria. We therefore urge the Assembly to take cognizance of these positive developments. The present Administration in my country has continued to make steady progress in the implementation of its programme of transition to democratic rule. The fundamental difficulties which faced our nation in its previous efforts at building a viable democracy are being progressively addressed, taking into account the objective realities of our national situation, so as to ensure an orderly transition and the establishment of durable democratic structures of governance at all levels in our country. We are encouraged by the successful outcome of the elections which were conducted at the local government level in March this year. The impressive turnout of voters nationwide and the general atmosphere of tranquillity prevailing in our country have elicited goodwill and support from within and outside the country. Political parties have now been registered and full political activities have resumed nation-wide. Our transition to civil rule is now fully on an irreversible course. In our resolve to ensure that the evolving democratic institutions take root in a fertile economic environment, the Nigerian Government has undertaken economic reforms aimed at promoting rapid growth and sustainable development. The overall macroeconomic performance of the economy has improved with the implementation of deflationary fiscal and monetary measures. Efforts are ongoing to establish a conducive environment for the promotion of investment, both domestic and foreign. Additionally, in recognition of the vital role of finance in the attainment of greater economic efficiency, a wholesale overhaul of the banking and financial services sector has been undertaken to sanitize this important sector of the 12 national economy. It is also worthy of mention that necessary instruments have been put in place in order to intensify economic deregulation and create a conducive environment for domestic and foreign investment. In the year 2010, Nigeria will be 50 years old as an independent and sovereign nation. It is envisaged that by that date, Nigeria will have achieved economic prosperity, political stability and social harmony. In order to realize this objective, our Government announced, a few weeks ago, a new socio-economic campaign, “Vision 2010”, to provide insights into and articulate the goals and objectives of our national economy in a macroeconomic format. It is also intended to focus on the contribution of the private sector as the engine of growth of our economy. We urge the international community to give this programme the necessary support and encouragement. In order for the United Nations to respond fully to the purpose for which it was established, there is need to strengthen the Organization and to reform its principal organs. Such reform must be system-wide and must be undertaken not for its own sake but to achieve efficiency and effectiveness. It should aim to enhance rather than weaken the capacity of the United Nations to respond effectively to the legitimate aspirations of all its Members. A vibrant and responsible United Nations requires an assured financial base. The failure or unwillingness of Member States to pay their assessed contributions as and when due is a dereliction of Charter obligations and a threat to the survival of the United Nations. For our part, Nigeria has continued to pay in full and without conditions our assessed contributions to the regular budget including, in particular, for the year 1996. We therefore call on all Member States that have yet to do so to pay their assessed contributions promptly, in full and without conditions. For several decades, the Middle East question has engaged the attention of the international community. Nigeria has been concerned with the various wars and acts of terrorism which have brought incalculable loss of life and property to that region. There can be no question but that we will continue to support the just struggle of the Palestinian people for their inalienable right to a homeland. There is an increasing awareness, even among the countries of the region, that the right of Israel to live within safe and secure borders can no longer be denied. We call on all parties to intensify their efforts to ensure that the peace process in the Middle East remains on course. For some time now, the world has been faced with a new upsurge in terrorist incidents. Nigeria condemns unreservedly all acts of terrorism in all its manifestations, as terrorism cannot be a substitute for dialogue and peaceful negotiations in resolving conflicts and misunderstandings between nations. We call on the General Assembly to take additional steps to eradicate the scourge of this menace, which also constitutes a threat to international peace and security. As the principal organ of the United Nations, the Security Council is in dire need of reform. Its composition must reflect the principle of equity, balance and equitable geographical distribution. It must seek to correct the current anomaly of the non-representation of Africa in the permanent membership category. We should, however, be mindful that reform of the United Nations, particularly in a period of transition, is an onerous undertaking. My delegation recognizes the vital role of the office of the Secretary-General in overseeing this reform process. In spite of the difficulties the United Nations is passing through and the fluidity of the international situation, His Excellency Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali has shown uncommon and unrelenting commitment to meeting the challenges of his office. He deserves our gratitude and continued support. We therefore wish to see him complete the laudable changes he has initiated, some of which are already yielding useful results. In this connection we reiterate and support fully the collective African position that Africa should be given the opportunity to serve two terms in the office of Secretary-General. For that purpose, Mr. Boutros Boutros- Ghali is the only candidate recommended by the Organization of African Unity. Like his predecessors, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali should be given a second term to serve our Organization. It is the only credible thing to do. This is a matter of principle in our country. My delegation recognizes the enormous tasks facing the Organization as it seeks to concretely address the challenges of the twenty-first century, and we wish to reaffirm Nigeria’s commitment to continue to contribute effectively to the realization of the Organization’s twin objectives of global peace and prosperity.