Politics
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, says the clamour for the inclusion of Nigeria into the UN Security Council is a goal to be achieved in the future.
Onyeama made this known on Wednesday while speaking as a Guest at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
He was responding to questions on what Nigeria was doing to win the bid for permanent membership of the Council.
The minister decried geopolitics to pose as challenge on the change in admission process for countries to become members of the council, saying that secured members would still want to maintain their rights.
According to him, the African Union set up a process called Re-zoning in Swaziland, in order to come up with strategy on country to represent Africa as member of the Security Council.
Onyeama said: “Then, issue of whether they will have voting rights, within Africa, the process has not probably been decisive. I think there is still the issue of who will be the country.
“Generally, the sentiment used to be that Africa should ask for two permanent seats, but so the mechanism for deciding who will be those countries has not been agreed upon.
“Deciding among African countries might not be the easiest test, and then, the principle of arriving at that has to be accepted by the global community.
“What you then find is that some of the power blocs is going to be those five permanent members, the U.S, Russia, France, UK and China, that are going to decide.
“So realistically, I do not think it is something that will be solved in the near future.”
Onyeama said Nigeria would remain committed to non-alignment, adding that the country’s policies were based on national interest and also on how issues were perceived.
“We are pushing for the strengthening of multilateral institutions like the United Nations and other multilateral fora in order to stop as much as possible the depolarisation of the world.
“Move toward consensus through neutral media platforms, we have good relations with almost all; we don’t have any issue or problems with any of the countries of the world,” he said.
Earlier, Alhaji Biola Lawal, NAN Acting Managing Director, had expressed appreciation to the minister for featuring as a guest at the forum.
Lawal said that the interview with the minister was on the sidelines of activities marking the fifth anniversary of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration since 2015.
“In the wake of the COVID-19, the president marked his fifth year in office, and the whole world need to know what his administration had been able to achieve in the past.
“So, our priority is to liaise with the Ministers, to disseminate information on achievements so far recorded, because the reach we have, no one has it.
“We are presently on ground in all the 36 states of the Federation and Abuja,” Lawal said. (NAN)
– Jul. 8, 2020 @ 13:25 GMT |
Tags: future goal – Onyeama Nigeria inclusion into UN Security Council
