Nigeria

On behalf of the Government and people of Nigeria, I would like to congratulate you, Sir, on your election as the President of the fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly. I 18 assure you of the cooperation and support of my delegation in ensuring a successful outcome to this session. Permit me also to acknowledge the excellent work done by your predecessor, Mr. Jan Kavan. I also wish to commend the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for his tireless efforts, vision and leadership, and for his inspiring address to the General Assembly this morning. In recent months, many voices inside and outside of Governments have questioned the utility, relevance and efficacy of the United Nations, the only universal multilateral tool at our disposal. Even more tragically, sinister forces have taken aim at the United Nations and its dedicated staff, as demonstrated by the senseless attack on the United Nations compound in Baghdad. My Government once again joins the international community in condemning that heartless action, which claimed the lives of so many talented and dedicated staff members. We share the sorrow of the Secretary-General and his staff, and extend our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. In that connection, I wish to reaffirm my country’s total commitment to, and support for, our Organization. My Government is deeply concerned about the persistence of conflicts in many regions of the world, and in particular in our subregion of West Africa. The conflict in Liberia has again tested the will of the international community to respond proactively to conflicts and to the humanitarian catastrophes they leave in their wake. The decision of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to deploy troops to Liberia in the face of obvious hesitation by the international community and despite the strain it placed our resources was therefore indicative of our determination to show that we will not stand by wringing our hands when such catastrophic events occur in our neighbourhood. We are greatly relieved that our forward deployment of troops and the initiative to remove the former Liberian President from the scene have had such an immediate calming effect, which will hopefully be further reinforced by the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping force. I therefore wish to assure the General Assembly that Nigeria appreciates the decision taken by the Security Council in resolution 1509 (2003), of 19 September 2003, to authorize a multisectoral peacekeeping mission in Liberia in order to continue the achievement of the ECOWAS initiative. I should like to emphasize the fact that if regional organizations are to play the lead role that the United Nations is increasingly demanding, the international community will not be able to escape its own responsibility to do much more to strengthen the requisite capacities of such organizations. Let me now turn to another subject that is closely related to the conflicts in Africa. The proliferation of small arms and light weapons has been identified as one of the major factors fuelling conflicts. An effective strategy to deal with that proliferation entails controlling the illicit trade in that category of weapons emanating from the countries where they originate, as well as controlling their transfer to intermediaries and arms merchants. We therefore call for an early conclusion of negotiations on a legally binding international instrument to control the indiscriminate supply of small arms and light weapons, especially to non-State actors. In keeping with our commitment to the eradication of those weapons, ECOWAS has already established and renewed a moratorium on the importation of small arms and light weapons. To make that moratorium as effective as intended, we call for effective cooperation on the part of all producing countries. In April 2003, the people of Nigeria reaffirmed their commitment to good governance and democracy by holding successful elections. Following our 1999 elections, which marked the transition from military to civilian Government, last April’s election represented both our first civilian-to-civilian transition and a consolidation of our democratic process. I consider my re-election to a second — and under our Constitution, my last — term of office not only as a vote of confidence but also as a great challenge to deliver the dividends of democracy to our citizens. To meet that challenge, my Government has developed a programme of economic reforms, the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS). The programme, which places people first, is aimed at laying a solid foundation for sustainable socio- economic transformation and poverty eradication. By its design, it will strengthen governance, enhance transparency, intensify the fight against corruption and develop infrastructure — especially in the areas of electricity, water and roads. It also places high priority on food security, agricultural development and the promotion of small- and medium-scale enterprises. 19 I believe that that ambitious economic reform will constitute an important national contribution to the attainment of the targets of the Millennium Development Goals and of the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). In that connection, my Government’s new reform programme is a clarion call to national mobilization and re- orientation. However, it also envisages active cooperation by our multilateral and bilateral partners. We are all too well aware that the development of our agricultural sector, by which the majority of our people still earn their living, cannot be successful as long as huge subsidies to agriculture in the developed countries continue. My Government, therefore, wishes to use this forum to call again for the reform of the system of subsidies to agricultural production, which is strangulating agriculture in developing countries. In this connection, it is regrettable that the reasonable proposals made by the group of developing countries at the recently concluded World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Cancún were rejected by their negotiating partners, leading to the collapse of the Conference. Creating conditions of fair and undistorted trade would be the most effective way of providing additional resources to developing countries. This is particularly urgent in light of the low levels of official development assistance and the recent sharp decline in the flow of foreign direct investment. Other areas that we hope the international community will address with determination include the problem of external debt. This continues to be a major obstacle to the development of my country and many other African countries. It is evident that the various initiatives by the international community on debt relief and debt management have been able neither to address nor solve the problems. While appreciating the efforts by the international community in the context of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, we must observe that these efforts have not provided adequate responses or solutions to the problems. This is even more true in the case of the heavily indebted middle-income countries, like Nigeria, for whom no special debt relief mechanism exists, although such machinery was successfully established for countries in Eastern and Central Europe, for instance. Nigeria believes, therefore, that bolder steps must be taken to resolve the heavy debt burden, which for a large number of countries has become unsustainable and a hindrance to development. I am afraid that we have no effective mechanism in place to tackle this problem. Neither the Bretton Woods institutions nor the Paris and London Clubs alone can provide lasting solutions and relief. I therefore believe that this issue is of such significance for the peace and development of such a large portion of the world community that we need to create a mechanism within the United Nations to address the problem in its full scope, based on the principle of the joint responsibility of debtors and creditors alike. We welcome the ongoing negotiations for a legally binding instrument on the repatriation of illicitly acquired funds stashed away in foreign countries. We call for the early conclusion of the Convention on that issue. This Convention is expected to make more resources available for development and show concretely the global commitment to eradicating large-scale corruption, which is at the origin of the funds. In this connection, I must say that the experience of my country has been one of only lukewarm cooperation by most countries where our looted funds have been traced. Our partners among the great banking nations should recognize that it is contradictory to condemn corruption on the one hand, and, on the other, to hinder us in the recovery of the plundered funds. For our economic and social reform programmes, the funds to be recovered can make a huge difference in meeting our national objectives. I earnestly appeal through this forum for maximum cooperation in repatriating the looted funds. I take this opportunity to thank those countries that have matched their words with actions in assisting us in repatriating looted funds. Last year, this Assembly endorsed the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) as the framework for development of the continent. We commend the Group of 8 for their Africa Action Plan to support the implementation of NEPAD and hope that this will soon be translated into cooperation on specific programmes and projects. In addition, we hope that the developed countries will also concretely demonstrate their support for NEPAD. For our part in Nigeria, the Government’s economic reform programme is a commitment to continue to make our contribution to an African renaissance, which will underpin NEPAD. 20 We welcome the establishment by the United Nations of the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa and urge that adequate resources be provided for its mandate to be discharged effectively. The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to ravage our continent, affecting most of all the productive segment of the population. To combat the epidemic, my Government has embarked on a major national programme of action, the highlight of which consists of a nationwide public enlightenment campaign and mass mobilization to deepen awareness and understanding of the disease, the prevention and control of its spread and modalities for providing care and support for people living with the virus. To contribute to the global programme on HIV/AIDS, Nigeria has redeemed its pledge of $10,000,000 to the Global Fund. Let me urge all countries that have not yet made pledges to the Global Fund to do so urgently. Those that have made pledges should kindly redeem them early. I wish to acknowledge with gratitude, the efforts so far deployed by the international community on the pandemic, and to thank Secretary-General Kofi Annan for convening yesterday the high-level plenary meeting devoted to HIV/AIDS. However, a lot still needs to be done in a more concerted way to address all aspects of the problem, including the issue of more international funding and access to affordable drugs. These actions must be taken urgently if the Millennium Development Goal of halting and reversing the spread of this dreaded disease by 2015 is to be achieved. The issue of terrorism has been of great preoccupation to our Organization in the past few years. Several instances of terrorist attacks continue to surface in different parts of the world, involving the loss of innocent lives and vast destruction of properties. Nigeria reiterates its condemnation of terrorism in all its manifestations, and joins other Member States in the global determination to combat this veritable threat to national and international security. We support the work of the Counter-Terrorism Committee, and reaffirm our conviction that a comprehensive convention on international terrorism will constitute an important instrument for the protection of the individual and collective rights to life. The situation in the Middle East, which we had hoped would improve with the adoption of the road map for a peaceful settlement of the conflict, has again deteriorated. We call on the parties to halt the new cycle of violence — a cycle from which neither side stands to gain. We believe that any violation of the terms of the peace plan by either side does a great disservice to the Palestinians, as well as to the Israelis. We therefore appeal to both sides to demonstrate their full commitment to the implementation of the plan so as to create conditions for the peaceful coexistence of a Palestinian State, side by side with the State of Israel. In conclusion, I would like to comment briefly on the issue of the reform of our Organization so as to make it more responsive to contemporary global needs and challenges. Nigeria has noted with dismay that obstacles continue to be placed in the way of the adoption of any of the constructive proposals for the reform of the Security Council. The changes that are being made in the Council’s working methods to make it more open to non-members are appreciated; however, these are no more than marginal. I wish again to reiterate Nigeria’s long held conviction that what is required is a more fundamental reform that would democratize the Security Council and thus reposition it to enable it to respond to issues of international peace and security in a more comprehensive, objective and effective manner. The overwhelming membership of our Organization demands no less in the interest of its continued relevance. We cannot preach and endeavour to practise participation and inclusiveness at the national level while denying it at the global level of the United Nations, and expect that all will be well. Yet we have no substitute for this universal Organization. That point is now becoming evident in the context of the current situation of Iraq. Whatever the circumstances in which the Iraqi war occurred, the role played by the United Nations will be decisive in resolving the present impasse. Our Organization has now established itself in the post-conflict pacification of States. We can use that vast United Nations experience to our advantage in managing the current post-conflict situation in Iraq. We now have the possibility of an independent democratic Iraq, and we must not waste this opportunity. One obvious point of disagreement relates to the issue of decision-making, both prior to and after the Iraqi war. This may be symptomatic of the deficiencies — to which I alluded — that are not conducive to the well-being of our Organization. Let us therefore undertake the necessary reforms in order to make our Organization work for all of us so that we 21 can deal effectively and adequately with the pressing issues of the twenty-first century.