Following repeated occurrence of stolen funds discovered to have been
stashed in foreign banks by corrupt politicians, President Buhari
yesterday urged world leaders to dismantle the seeming safe haven in
their countries where these funds are secretly being deposited.
President Buhari said this while addressing world leaders at the 70th
General Assembly of the United Nations.
Your Excellencies Heads of State and Governments
Distinguished Delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like, Mr. President, on
behalf of the Government and people of Nigeria, to congratulate you and
your country on your election to preside over the 70th session of the
U.N. General Assembly.
2. May I also express appreciation
to your predecessor, Mr. Sam Kahamba Kutesa and the Secretary General
Mr. Ban Ki-moon both of whom worked tirelessly to ensure proper
articulation of the post-2015 Development Agenda and to maintain the
focus and commitment to the ideals of the United Nations. I thank Mr.
Ban Ki-moon for his recent visit to Nigeria when we held very useful
discussions.
Mr. President,
3. Fifty-five (55)
years ago almost to the day, my great predecessor, Nigeria’s first
Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa stood on this forum to
declare Nigeria’s desire to develop and maintain friendly relations with
all countries. He also assured the world of our country’s commitment to
uphold the principles upon which the United Nations was founded.
4. Mr. President, my country,
Nigeria, has lived by this conviction, even when judgement went against
us in territorial disputes with our neighbours. We respected those
judgements and abided by them as a mark of respect for the rule of law
and the charter of this organization. Nigeria’s record in the U.N.
peacekeeping is second to none. I myself as a young officer in the
Nigerian Army did tours of duty in Congo and the Lebanon.
5. Nigeria has contributed to U.N.
peacekeeping efforts in Ethiopia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Darfur.
Furthermore, we are proud of our contributions to other activities of
the U.N. including the Peace Building Commission, the Human Rights
Council and security sector reform.
Mr. President,
6. We are
gratified to note that most countries have pledged commitment to the
post-2015 Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) with their means of implementation. The successor frameworks of
the MDGs have come, Mr. President, with lofty aspirations and if I may
say so, heroic assumptions! Nonetheless, they target development
cooperation by the international community up to the year 2020. And they
deserve universal support.
7. This is because the SDGs mirror the hopes and aspirations of much of the world.
8. I should stress that for the
newly adopted SDGs to be truly global, they must be practical. In this
regard, the SDGs’ core objectives of poverty eradication and reducing
inequalities must be met within the framework of a revitalized global
partnership support by concrete policies and actions as outlined in the
Addis Ababa Action Agenda.
9. Luckily, these two core
objectives of the SDGs are precisely at the centre of Nigeria’s new
Administration’s agenda. It must be emphasized, Mr. President, that
Foreign Direct Investment supplemented where suitable by Official
Development Assistance as outlined in the Addis Ababa Agenda are
necessary, though not sufficient, conditions for accelerated development
in countries that are trying to catch up.
10. In this connexion, I would like
to appeal to industrialized countries to redeem their pledge of
earmarking 0.7% (nought point seven percent) of their GDP to development
assistance. With the sole exception of the UK, all concerned countries
have, I am told to meet the UN requirement. But, Mr. President, with
SDGs we have the opportunity to improve the lives of people not just in
the developing world but in all nations.
11. The Secretary General himself has grouped the SDGs into what he calls six “essential elements” namely:
• Dignity
• Prosperity
• Justice
• Partnership
• Planet
• People
As
a prerequisite to these and as we look at history and remember the
terrible events that gave rise to the birth of the United Nations in
1945, I would like to propose a seventh:
• PEACE
12. Peace, Mr. President, is close
to the hearts of Nigerians, as we are in the front line in the war on
terror. Boko Haram’s war against the people of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and
Cameroon may not attract as much worldwide attention as the wars in the
Middle East but the suffering is just as great and the human cost is
equally high.
13. This is a war about values
between progress and chaos; between democracy and the rule of law. Boko
Haram celebrates violence against the weak and the innocent and
deplorably, they hide behind their perverted interpretation of Islam.
Boko Haram is as far away from Islam as any one can think of.
14. Many of my colleagues attending
this forum would want to know how our new government intends to tackle
the huge problems the government has inherited. Friends of Nigeria and
foreign investor partners will be encouraged to know that the new
Government is attacking the problems we inherited head-on.
15. We intend to tackle inequalities
arising from massive unemployment and previous government policies
favouring a few people to the detriment of the many. We intend to
emphasize quality technological education for development and lay
foundation for comprehensive care of the aged, the disadvantaged and the
infirm. But for now terrorism is the immediate problem.
16. Accordingly, Mr. President,
Members of the General Assembly, the new Nigerian Government which I
have the honour to head, moved with dispatch to put in a bold and robust
strategy to defeat Boko Haram. Nigeria and her neighbours Cameroon,
Chad and Niger plus Benin are working together to face this common
threat within the regional framework of the Lake Chad Basin Commission.
We have established a multinational joint task force to confront,
degrade and defeat Boko Haram.
17. We have driven them away from many
of their strongholds, killed or captured many of their operatives or
commanders and freed several hundreds of hostages.
18. Mr. President, one of our major
aims is to rescue the Chibok girls alive and unharmed. We are working
round the clock to ensure their safety and eventual reunion with their
families. Chibok girls are constantly on our minds and in our plans.
19. Mr. President, terrorism is by
no means the major or the only evil threatening and undermining the
wellbeing of societies around the world.
• Corruption
• Cross border financial crimes
• Cyber crimes
• Human trafficking
• Spread of communicable diseases
• Climate change
• Proliferation of weapons
are all major challenges of the 21st
century which the international community must tackle collectively. Let
me reaffirm Nigerian government’s unwavering commitment to fight
corruption and illicit financial flows. By any consideration, corruption
and cross border financial crimes are impediments to development,
economic growth, and the realization of the wellbeing of citizens across
the globe.
20. Nigeria is ready and willing to
partner with international agencies and individual countries on a
bilateral basis to confront crimes and corruption. In particular, I call
upon the global community to urgently redouble efforts towards
strengthening the mechanisms for dismantling safe havens for proceeds of
corruption and ensuring the return of stolen funds and assets to their
countries of origin.
21. Mr. President, the world is now
facing a big new challenge: human trafficking. This is an old evil
taking an altogether new and dangerous dimension threatening to upset
international relationships. We in Africa are grieved to see on
international networks how hundreds of thousands of our able bodied men
and women fleeing to Europe and in the process thousands dying in the
desert or drowning in the Mediterranean.
22. We condemn in the strongest
terms these people traffickers and will support any measures to
apprehend and bring them to justice. At the same time, we are very
appreciative of European governments notably Italy and Germany, for
their understanding and humane treatment of these refugees.
23. Last year, our continent faced
the dreadful occurrence of Ebola. We sincerely thank the international
community for the collective efforts to contain this deadly disease. We
are not out of the woods yet but we would like to record our
appreciation to the United States, United Kingdom, France and China for
their outstanding assistance in arresting the spread of Ebola and care
of those infected in collaboration with host countries.
Mr. President,
24. Nigeria fully subscribes to and
fully endorses Goals 13, 14 and 15 of the SDGs regarding Climate Change.
In Nigeria, desertification and land erosion and degradation leading to
biodiversity loss are real threats to our environment and we shall
propose under the auspices of the Lake Chad Basin Commission a regional
approach to combat these environmental challenges.
25. We look forward to the UN Summit
on climate change in Paris in December 2015. This summit should provide
optimism to humanity on addressing the looming threat faced by many
communities around the world.
Mr. President,
26. We are
witnessing a dreadful increase in conflicts fuelled by availability of
small arms and light weapons. I call upon all member countries to
demonstrate the political will needed to uphold the UN charter. For a
start, a robust implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty will guarantee
that small arms and light weapons are only legally transferred. Arms
traffickers and human traffickers are two evil species which the world
community should eradicate.
Mr. President,
27. As we engage
in these annual debates, we need remind ourselves of the principles that
led to the founding of the United Nations. Among those are peaceful
coexistence and self-determination of peoples. In this context, Mr.
President, the unresolved question of self-determination for the
Palestinian people and those of Western Sahara, both nations having been
adjusted by the United Nations as qualifying for this inalienable right
must now be assured and fulfilled without any further delay or
obstacle.
28. The international community has come to pin its hopes
on resolving the Palestinian issue through the two – states solution
which recognises the legitimate right of each state to exist in peace
and security. The world has no more excuses or reasons to delay the
implementation of the long list of Security Council resolutions on this
question. Neither do we have the moral right to deny any people their
freedom or condemn them indefinitely to occupation and blockade
Mr. President, delegates of member countries,
29.
UN is 70 years old. It can count many more than 70 major achievements
as the world’s forum and family reunion. It is my hope that in the next
70 years, it will achieve control of climate, help to eliminate
communicable diseases, eliminate major and local conflicts and therefore
eliminate the problem of refugees, take major steps towards reducing
harmful inequalities between nations and within nations and above all,
eliminate nuclear weapons.
30. Mr. President, as this is my first address in this Assembly, I thank you and the delegates for listening so patiently.
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