Ignore Nigeria At Your Own Peril – Tinubu Tells UN

• Says more no human rights advocacy trickery

BY EDMOND ODOK- President Bola Ahmed Tinubu says given its 240 million people and still counting with a massive youth population, the world will ignore Nigeria at its own peril.

This is as he also insists that the United Nations (UN) must transform from being one of the world’s foremost talkshops to discuss global issues to become the world’s foremost action coordination centre.

“Nigeria is truly a giant. 240 million people and counting with a massive youth population. We are done saying too much. We now seek much action. We have arisen out of poverty as individuals, but until our people have arisen out of that, we will not rest, even if it requires decisions at home that make me temporarily unpopular”, President Tinubu said.

Speaking on Wednesday during a meeting with UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, at the organisation’s Headquarters in New York City, United States, Tinubu said a situation in which 70 percent of the resources being devoted to the world’s poorest countries were being spent and sent back out on overheads and administrative costs would defeat the purpose and objectives of the organisation where help was needed most.

President Tinubu, who underscored the need for the global body to work with Africa to address the challenges of poverty and terrorism, pledged not to rest until people come out of poverty even if it means taking certain tough decisions at home that would make him “temporarily unpopular”.

According to him; “The poverty ravaging our continent and the question of security and counter-terrorism requires us to work in close and effective synergy. The world will ignore Nigeria at its own peril. If we engage in talkshops as real challenges wreak real havoc in real-time, we will fail.

“The time to strike is now. The time to achieve real results is now. I fought for democracy. I was detained for democracy. I am now President and I am determined to prove that democracy can provide the development that our nation and our continent so urgently demand.

“Trace those of us here to our foundations and you will find that we have ties and links with poverty. We must not be ashamed of that history, but poverty is unacceptable. I am one of the lucky survivors of gripping poverty.”

He also said African nations would no longer accept a situation in which human rights advocacy was used by wealthy and powerful nations to stop developing economies from dealing decisively with malign actors who siphoned and smuggled out the continent’s vast mineral resources while smuggling in western-made weapons, which enriched the wealthiest economies in the world at the parasitic expense of African stability and wealth creation.

Tinubu told the UN Scribe that; “We are facing the great challenge of scavengers ravaging our lands and oppressing our people on illegal mines—taking our gold and mineral wealth back to developed economies by stealth and violence against Nigerians.

“Where one’s human right ends, the rights of another begin. Most especially for self-protection. If we fight, they say ‘human rights,’ but we will now be aggressive and we will question motives. We will stop what is happening in our land. We require your effective collaboration.”

Responding to the Nigerian Leader’s comments, the UN Secretary-General, Guterres said the UN system is planning robust reforms that will largely address some institutional frailties and lack of decision-making power for the developing world, on whose behalf more than 75 percent of UN resources are accrued.

He stated thus; “We now recognize the need to reform the institution to represent the world as it is today. The questions of debt and SDRs. The fact is that middle-income countries have only marginal access to concessional funding. In the SDGs Summit, we believe we have a growing political consensus and now, a declaration, in this regard. We are pursuing this with great determination”.

Assuring President Tinubu of the UN system’s fullest support for ECOWAS in light of the series of military coups that have taken place in the West African sub-region in the past few months and years, the UN Secretary-General said; “Mr. President, we have high expectations for your presidency after the many bold steps you have taken.”

He also acknowledged Nigeria as an “indispensable voice in the sub-region”, saying; “We will give you every support needed for your success to be achieved. Your success is Africa’s success and we wish you well”.