Nigeria's repeated calls for UN Security Council reform and debt relief have gone unanswered for three consecutive years, exposing how the United Nations General Assembly functions as a platform where developing nations voice concerns that wealthier powers routinely ignore. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu attended the 2023 UNGA in person but has since sent Vice-President Kashim Shettima to deliver Nigeria's message, raising questions about whether the forum delivers tangible results for countries outside the elite circle of veto-wielding nations.
Bola A. Akinterinwa argued that presidential attendance and speeches at the United Nations General Assembly are of limited significance and that the UNGA is an instrument of great power politics. Nigeria has long taken part in UN General Assembly work, especially in UN peace support operations, but the conduct and management of international affairs at the UN emphasize national protectionism over global collective interests, he wrote. The UNGA is nothing more than an instrument of great power politics, and the UN preaches democracy it doesn't allow within the organization itself.
What Nigeria Has Asked For—Repeatedly
At the General Debate of the 78th Session of UNGA on 20th September, 2023, Tinubu said Africa had been asking for the same level of political commitment and devotion of resource that described the Marshall Plan. "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 said. He added 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."
Tinubu 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. Mercenaries and extremists with lethal weapons and vile ideologies were invading the region from the north, undermining peace and stability.
The fourth important aspect of global trust and solidarity, Tinubu said, was securing the continent's mineral-rich areas from pilfering and conflict. Many such areas had become catacombs of misery and exploitation, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo had suffered this for decades despite the strong UN presence there. "The world economy owes the DRC much but gives her very little," he said. Climate change severely impacts Nigeria and Africa—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. African nations would fight climate change but must do so on their own terms, he said.
Tinubu concluded his 2023 address with a pointed statement. "The poverty of nations must end, the pillage of one nation's resources by the overreach of firms and people of stronger nations must end, the will of the people must be respected, and the planet must be protected," he said. "As for Africa, we seek to be neither appendage nor patron. We do not wish to replace old shackles with new ones. Instead, we hope to walk the rich African soil and live under the magnificent African sky free of the wrongs of the past and clear of their associated encumbrances. We desire a prosperous, vibrant democratic living space for our people."
The Same Demands, Year After Year
Vice-President Kashim Shettima stood in for Tinubu 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. Singularity and nationalism are undermining the peaceful and collective resolution of global challenges, he said. 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. 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.
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. Shettima spoke in his capacity as Vice-President, saying "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." He 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.'"
The Structural Problem Behind the Repetition
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. 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 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. "The authority to speak for humanity carries an obligation to represent it," he said.
Akinterinwa said the UNGA has a universal character, but that universality is neutralized by the United Nations Security Council, which he described as a problematic. The UNSC has become a primary instrument of power rivalry and geopolitical competition, and it suffers from paralysis because of frequent use of veto power and shifting coalitions. When the UNSC is paralyzed, power is shifted to the UNGA, where major powers come up with different narratives and use the UNGA to isolate adversaries.
The big powers, particularly the United States, China, and Russia, often lobby for the adoption of UNGA resolutions and support them even if they're not binding. The Global South counter-push is militating against the 1945 order, and 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 are all expressions of power politics, Akinterinwa said.
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 don't 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. The United States initiated UNGA Resolution 377A in 1950, which enabled the UNGA to recommend collective military measures when the Soviet Union was frequently boycotting or vetoing UNSC actions. 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.
Akinterinwa said the United States once accounted for almost 50% of UN budget and voluntary contributions, but later reduced its contributions to about 22%. The United States and EU countries often sponsor UNGA resolutions targeting the human rights records of geopolitical adversaries like Iran, North Korea and Syria. 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.
Why This Matters:
Nigeria's experience at the UN General Assembly reveals a fundamental inequality in how international institutions respond to the needs of developing nations versus the interests of wealthy powers. For three years running, Nigerian representatives have called for debt relief, climate financing on African terms, an end to resource exploitation, and permanent African representation on the Security Council. None of these demands has been met. The structural barriers are clear: Articles 108 and 109 of the UN Charter require the very countries that benefit from the current system—the five permanent Security Council members—to unanimously agree to any changes that would dilute their power. This means countries representing over a billion Africans have no meaningful path to equal representation, even as they're asked to respect international law and multilateral frameworks designed without their input. The repetition of themes across UNGA sessions—the 78th focused on rebuilding trust, the 79th on leaving no one behind, the 80th on being better together, and the 81st on restoring trust—underscores how little progress has been made on the structural inequalities that keep developing nations in a perpetual state of asking for what wealthier nations take for granted: a voice that carries weight, resources that match responsibilities, and institutions that serve collective rather than national interests.",
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