Bola A. Akinterinwa said the United Nations General Assembly is an instrument of great power politics, and the facts he laid out make the hierarchy plain: the weak are sent to talk while the powerful keep the machinery. He argued that presidential attendance and speeches at the UNGA carry limited significance, even as Nigeria has long taken part in the Assembly’s work, especially in UN peace support operations. The real structure, he said, puts national protectionism ahead of global collective interests. That’s the game. The rest is ceremony.
Who Gets to Speak, Who Gets Managed
Akinterinwa said the UNGA is a platform for debate for weak countries, but only for declarations that are self-pleasing, easing self-made tension and complaining about poor governance. He said attendance can matter when a president scheduled to speak has a controversial issue, then asked why Nigeria’s numero uno, PBAT, attended the 2023 UNGA and has refused to attend in person since then. He asked whether the 2023 session was not worth the while and whether there were threats to PBAT’s life. Those are the kinds of questions that hang over these grand assemblies: who gets to appear, who gets to decide, and who gets to pretend the stage is neutral.
He said the UNGA preaches democracy it does not allow within the organization itself. He also said the conduct and management of international affairs at the UN emphasize national protectionism over global collective interests. The institution sells universality, then runs on power. Same old script.
Akinterinwa said the United States once accounted for almost 50% of UN budget and voluntary contributions, but later reduced its contributions to about 22%. He said that background should shape how President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, referred to as PBAT, has attended or not attended the UNGA since 2024, especially the 81st UNGA. Money talks there, and the biggest wallets still get the loudest say.
What Nigeria’s Leaders Said
Akinterinwa quoted from PBAT’s address to the General Debate of the 78th Session of UNGA on 20th September, 2023. PBAT congratulated the UNGA President on his election, his predecessor, His Excellency, Mr. Csaba Korosi, for his stewardship of the Assembly, and Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, for his work seeking solutions to humanity’s common challenges. PBAT said: “Many proclamations have been made, yet our troubles remain close at hand. Failures in good governance have hindered Africa. But broken promises, unfair treatment and outright exploitation from abroad have also exacted a heavy toll on our ability to progress. Given this long history, if this year’s theme is to mean anything at all, it must mean something special and particular to Africa.”
PBAT said Africa had been asking for the same level of political commitment and devotion of resource that described the Marshall Plan, while recognizing that the causes of Africa’s economic challenges were different from post-war Europe. He said: “we are not asking for identical programs and actions. What we seek is an equally firm commitment to partnership. We seek enhanced international cooperation with African nations to achieve the 2030 agenda and Sustainable Development Goals.” He also said that if the year’s theme was to have any impact at all, “global institutions, other nations and their private sector actors must see African development as a priority, not just for Africa but in their interests as well.”
PBAT said democratic governance was the best guarantor of the sovereign will and well-being of the people, and said military coups were wrong, as was any tilted civilian political arrangement that perpetuates injustice. He said West Africa was locked in a protracted battle against violent extremists, that a dark channel of inhumane commerce had formed, that men, women and children were seen as chattel, and that thousands risked the Sahara’s hot sand and the Mediterranean’s cold depths in search of a better life. He said mercenaries and extremists with lethal weapons and vile ideologies were invading the region from the north, undermining peace and stability.
PBAT said the fourth important aspect of global trust and solidarity was securing the continent’s mineral-rich areas from pilfering and conflict. He said many such areas had become catacombs of misery and exploitation, and said the Democratic Republic of the Congo had suffered this for decades despite the strong UN presence there. He said the world economy owed the DRC much but gave her very little. He also said climate change severely impacts Nigeria and Africa, saying northern Nigeria is hounded by desert encroachment on once arable land, the south is pounded by rising coastal flooding and erosion, and the middle suffers floods that kill and displace multitudes. He said African nations would fight climate change but must do so on their own terms.
The Assembly as Power Politics
Akinterinwa said the UNGA is a talking shop and that action is more often a subject of whims and caprices of the big powers. He said the UNGA has a universal character, but that universality is neutralized by the United Nations Security Council, which he described as problematic. He said the UNSC has become a primary instrument of power rivalry and geopolitical competition, and that it suffers from paralysis because of frequent use of veto power and shifting coalitions. When the Security Council stalls, he said, power gets shifted to the UNGA, where major powers come up with different narratives and use the Assembly to isolate adversaries.
He said the big powers, particularly the United States, China, and Russia, often lobby for the adoption of UNGA resolutions and support them even if they are not binding. He said the Global South counter-push is militating against the 1945 order, and cited the clamour for expansion of the UNSC, the use of the veto to protect national interest to the detriment of collective interest, refusal by some countries to pay UN assessed dues, and efforts to remove a Secretary-General who challenges the big powers as expressions of power politics.
Akinterinwa cited the 1950 Uniting for Peace Resolutions and said the United States initiated UNGA Resolution 377A, which enabled the UNGA to recommend collective military measures when the Soviet Union was frequently boycotting or vetoing UNSC actions. He said that when Russia vetoed UNSC resolutions condemning its invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its Western allies passed resolutions such as Resolution ES-11/1 to condemn Russia and isolate it diplomatically. He also said the United States and EU countries often sponsor UNGA resolutions targeting the human rights records of geopolitical adversaries like Iran, North Korea and Syria. He said the UNGA has been used by the United States to lobby against upgrading Palestine’s status, though Palestine is still given Non-Member Observer State status.
What Nigeria Asked For, Again
He said Vice-President Kashim Shettima stood in for PBAT at the 79th Session of the UNGA on 25th September 2024 in New York. Shettima said the UN stands for inclusiveness, anchored on peace, sustainable development and human rights, but that these pillars are threatened by the pursuit of individual national priorities rather than collective needs. He said singularity and nationalism are undermining the peaceful and collective resolution of global challenges. He also said that from the previous summit and previous years, the world had carried over terrorism, armed conflict, inequality, poverty, racial discrimination, human rights abuses, food crises, hunger, irregular migration, piracy, global pandemics, hyper-inflation, nuclear proliferation, grinding debt burden, climate change and other vexations. He said billions of dollars were being committed to wars and the fanning of conflict.
Shettima said the adoption of the “Pact for the Future” should change the narrative, reposition economies and translate into concrete measures for developing and least developed countries. He reiterated the call by countries, especially of the global South, for reform of the international financial architecture and promotion of a rules-based, non-discriminatory, open, fair, inclusive, equitable and transparent multilateral trading system. He said he hoped the deliberations would result in solutions that address collective challenges and accelerate the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the advancement of peace and human dignity for present and future generations.
Akinterinwa said that at the 80th UNGA on 24th September, 2025, the same issues were raised again, including governance, climate change, global debt burden, the summit of the future, UN reform and expansion of the UNSC. He said the official letter-head of the statement read: “Statement Delivered by His Excellency, Kashim Shettima, GCON, Vice-President, Federal Republic of Nigeria during the General Debate of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York.” He said no reference was made to PBAT and that Shettima spoke in his capacity as Vice-President. Shettima said: “it is, therefore, with profound humility that I stand before you today, as Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to renew this pledge on behalf of my country.”
Shettima said Nigeria must have a permanent seat at the UN Security Council as part of wider institutional reform, that urgent action was needed to promote sovereign debt relief and access to trade financing, that countries hosting minerals must benefit from those minerals, and that the digital divide must close. He quoted the Secretary General as saying: “A.I. must stand for ‘Africa Included.’”
Akinterinwa said that at the ongoing 81st session, Shettima said the persistence of conflict across the world recalls the purpose for which the United Nations was founded: to spare succeeding generations the devastation of war. Shettima said Nigeria stands by the Charter and its promise of a world in which diplomacy prevails over coercion, cooperation over isolation and international law over the arbitrary exercise of power. He also said Nigeria demands, in accordance with the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration, at least two permanent seats for Africa, with all the rights and responsibilities of permanent membership, including the veto for as long as it exists, and five non-permanent seats in total. He said: “The authority to speak for humanity carries an obligation to represent it.”
Akinterinwa said PBAT cannot be faulted for repeating the same issues every year because the themes of the UNGA sessions also revolve around the same problems. He said the 78th session in 2023 was themed “re-building trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and Its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all.” He said the 79th session in 2024 had the theme “leaving no one behind: acting together for the advancement of peace, sustainable development and human dignity for present and future generations.” He said the 80th session in 2025 had the theme “better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights.” He said the 2026 theme is “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all.”
He said the weak countries want multilateralism while the big powers underscore bilateralism, and that the weak countries want expansion of the UNSC and general UN reform but do not have the institutional right to undo Articles 108 and 109 of the UN Charter, which require unanimity of the veto powers to amend, review, revise, alter or modify the Charter. He concluded that the UNGA is a good platform for Africa’s hide and seek children game and said PBAT ought to be commended for staying above the political intrigues that presidential attendance and speeches entail.