Nigeria

I stand before the Assembly for the first time as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and I wish to reaffirm Nigeria's complete dedication and commitment to the ideals of the United Nations. We declare our total support for the Organization's efforts to meet the multiple humanitarian, social, peace and security and development challenges confronting our world today. At the outset, may I, on behalf of the Government and the People of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, congratulate Mr. Kerim and his country, the Republic of Macedonia, on his election as President of the General Assembly at its sixty-second session. I assure him of the full support and cooperation of the Nigerian delegation as he leads the deliberations of the session. I also wish to extend my profound appreciation to his predecessor, Her Excellency Ms. Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, for the commitment and dedication with which she presided over the affairs of the sixty-first session. I formally extend my sincere congratulations to Mr. Ban Ki-moon on his assumption of office as Secretary-General. I commend him for his resolute leadership and his determination to carry through the requisite reform of the United Nations system and assure him of the full support of the Nigerian Government. I also pay tribute to the previous Secretary- General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for the commitment, diligence and courage with which he piloted the affairs of the United Nations during the past 10 years. We are proud of the enormous contributions made to this Organization by that illustrious son of Africa. Since coming into office, my Administration has anchored its pursuit of a re-energized, stable and prosperous Nigeria on the fundamental principles of democracy, good governance, free enterprise and the rule of law. Those are worthy principles which Nigeria shares with the United Nations family. As a main theme of this session's general debate, "Responding to climate change" is most appropriate. the African continent is particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. In our collective determination to meet this challenge, African leaders at the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU), which met in Addis Ababa last January, decided to integrate climate change issues into all sustainable development initiatives at the national and regional levels. Nigeria reiterates its commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. While applauding the successful outcome of the high- level event on climate change that was held here two days ago, on 24 September, we affirm that much more needs to be done. It has been seven years since world leaders met in this Hall for the Millennium Assembly and committed themselves to ridding Africa of its most pressing socioeconomic and political challenges in order to allow the continent move with the rest of the world. While tangible progress has been made in a few areas, the continent is still bedevilled by great challenges. The continued festering of the Darfur crisis remains a blight on the collective conscience of the international community, one which the Assembly needs to address with the utmost urgency. The humanitarian crisis has reached a critical level. The Abuja Peace Agreement, which Nigeria helped to facilitate, remains the reference point for a comprehensive settlement of the crisis. However, the lack of full implementation of the Agreement raises serious cause for concern, and we call on all parties to respect their commitments and help drive the peace process forward. We continue to support the process and reaffirm our support for the African Union — United Nations hybrid force in the Sudan. It is imperative that the concerted fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, malaria, tuberculosis and related diseases not lose momentum. At the national level, we in Nigeria have consistently taken concrete measures to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and to increase funding for the National Action Committee on AIDS. We appreciate the financial and material assistance from our development partners in this regard, but our continent cries out for even more intensified collective efforts at ridding Africa of this and other pandemics. Two years ago, we appraised our performance against the set targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and realized that unless concrete and more determined actions were taken, the overarching aim of meeting the 2015 targets of poverty eradication would remain a fantasy. We recognize that the primary responsibility for social and economic development rests mostly with individual States. Within the ambit of the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development, the nations of Africa are practically facing up to the continent's economic and sociopolitical development challenges through the adoption and engendering of a new political culture that will be conducive to long-term development. Through such initiatives as the African Union's African Peer Review Mechanism, our programme of self-monitoring and self-assessment, as well as the institutionalization of the ideals of democracy and good governance, Africa has clearly defined an assured course to economic regeneration and political stability. What Africa seeks from the international community is genuine partnership for economic development. This should be manifested in a global economic system predicated on fairness, justice and equity, one that ensures fair trade terms and recognizes the centrality of mutuality in prosperity. More specifically, Africa requires massive and focused foreign investment in the development of critical infrastructure across the continent. Let me say that we in Nigeria are wholly committed to the United Nations Global Counter- Terrorism Strategy (resolution 60/288) in the fight against international terrorism. As a follow-up to that commitment, Nigeria has established four counter- terrorism centres in the country, in addition to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, which, together with the Central Bank of Nigeria, monitors banking transactions as part of the mechanism to locate and terminate the illegal transfer of funds for terrorist and other criminal acts, including money laundering. Nigeria reiterates its condemnation of all acts of terrorism and calls upon the international community to muster the political will necessary to confront and check this menace. Nigeria affirms its abiding faith in the ideals and objectives of the United Nations. We believe that a strengthened and restructured United Nations would be best placed to address the complex challenges facing our world today. In that regard, my delegation will continue to collaborate with other Member States to press for comprehensive reform of the United Nations system, including the much-desired expansion of the Security Council in both the permanent and non- permanent categories in order to reflect the realities of today’s world. The situation whereby Africa is totally excluded from permanent membership of the Council is unfair and untenable and must be rectified. The challenges that confront our world today call for renewed purpose, renewed resolve, renewed courage and renewed respect for human dignity. Posterity beckons us to a real test of our sense of duty. We cannot afford to fail that test. I assure the Assembly that Nigeria will continue to support the United Nations in our collective aspirations for a safer, fairer, more just and more prosperous world.