President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has delivered a strongly worded reform coverage proposal to the United Nations on Wednesday, warning that the worldwide physique should embrace sweeping restructurings or face rising irrelevance as world occasions more and more bypass its affect.
The president criticised the organisation’s file, pointing to the continuing human struggling within the Center East and different areas as “stains on our collective humanity.”

In his handle to the UN Basic Meeting’s eightieth session, President Tinubu, who was represented by his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima, warned that the UN’s credibility is being undermined by the gulf between its phrases and its deeds whereas positioning Nigeria’s financial transformation as a mannequin for creating nations.
“For all our cautious diplomatic language, the gradual tempo of progress on these hardy perennials of the UN Basic Meeting debate has led some to look away from the multilateral mannequin. Some years in the past, I observed a shift at this gathering: key occasions have been starting to happen outdoors this corridor, and probably the most sought-after voices have been now not heads of state,” the president mentioned.
President Tinubu outlined 4 key reform calls for, beginning with Nigeria’s name for everlasting UN Safety Council membership.
“Nigeria should have a everlasting seat on the UN Safety Council. This could happen as a part of a wider technique of institutional reform. The United Nations will get well its relevance solely when it displays the world as it’s, not because it was,” he acknowledged.
The president emphasised Nigeria’s transformation from “a colony of 20 million folks, absent from the tables the place choices about our destiny have been taken” to “a sovereign nation of over 236 million, projected to be the third most populous nation on the earth, with one of many youngest and most dynamic populations on earth.”
President Tinubu additionally expressed deep frustration with the tempo of worldwide progress on vital points, from nuclear disarmament to Safety Council reform.

“Once we converse of nuclear disarmament, the proliferation of small weapons, Safety Council reform, honest entry to commerce and finance, and the conflicts and human struggling the world over, we should recognise the reality. These are stains on our collective humanity,” he acknowledged.
Taking a direct stance on the Palestinian difficulty, the president declared: “We are saying, with out stuttering and no doubt, {that a} two-state resolution stays probably the most dignified path to lasting peace for the folks of Palestine.”
He added: “The folks of Palestine will not be collateral injury in a civilisation trying to find order. They’re human beings, equal in value, entitled to the identical freedoms and dignities that the remainder of us take without any consideration.”
Talking additional, President Tinubu proposed radical reforms to the worldwide monetary system, calling for brand spanking new mechanisms to handle the sovereign debt disaster plaguing creating nations.
“I’m calling for a brand new and binding mechanism to handle sovereign debt, a form of Worldwide Court docket of Justice for cash, that can enable rising economies to flee the financial straitjacket of main manufacturing of unprocessed exports,” he mentioned.
He emphasised the necessity for “pressing motion to advertise debt aid – not as an act of charity however as a transparent path to the peace and prosperity that advantages us all.”
The president positioned Africa’s pure assets as central to future international stability, emphasising the necessity for African management over strategic minerals.
“Africa – and I need to embrace Nigeria – has in abundance the vital minerals that can drive the applied sciences of the long run,” President Tinubu mentioned. “Funding in exploration, improvement and processing of those minerals, in Africa, will diversify provide to the worldwide market, scale back tensions between main economies and assist form the structure for peace and prosperity.”
He insisted that international locations producing strategic minerals should “profit pretty from these minerals – by way of funding, partnership, native processing and jobs. Once we export uncooked supplies, as now we have been doing, pressure, inequality, and instability fester.”
On the brand new info frontiers, President Tinubu referred to as for closing the digital divide, referencing the UN Secretary-Basic’s imaginative and prescient that “‘A.I.’ should stand for ‘Africa Included’.”
“I’m calling for a brand new dialogue, to make sure we promote the very best of the alternatives which can be arising – and promote the extent of entry that permits rising economies extra rapidly, to shut a wealth and data hole that’s in nobody’s curiosity,” he acknowledged.
Addressing Nigeria’s ongoing financial transformation, President Tinubu acknowledged the troublesome actuality dealing with his residents however mentioned that Nigeria’s financial reforms symbolize a mannequin for resilience.
“The federal government has taken troublesome however mandatory steps to restructure our economic system and take away distortions, together with subsidies and foreign money controls that benefited the few on the expense of the numerous,” he defined.
“I imagine within the energy of the market to remodel. Our activity is to allow and facilitate, and to belief within the ingenuity and enterprise of the folks. However the technique of transition is troublesome,” the President mentioned.
On Nigeria’s battle in opposition to terrorism and violent extremism, President Tinubu outlined a philosophy that prioritises ideological victory over army conquest.
“From this lengthy and troublesome wrestle with violent extremism, one reality stands clear: army ways might win battles measured in months and years, however in wars that span generations, it’s values and concepts that ship the final word victory,” he acknowledged.
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President Tinubu name for renewed dedication to multilateralism, whereas reaffirming “Nigeria’s dedication to peace, to improvement, to unity, to multilateralism, and to the defence of human rights is past compromise. For none of us is secure till all of us are secure.”
“We should make actual change, change that works, and alter that’s seen to work. If we fail, the route of journey is already predictable,” he warned.
Stanley Nkwocha
Senior Particular Assistant to the President on Media & Communications
(Workplace of the Vice President)
twenty fourth September, 2025