President Bola Tinubu has asked the United Nations to prioritise debt forgiveness from creditors and multilateral financial institutions for Nigeria and other developing countries. President Tinubu who is the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of States and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) made the call while addressing world leaders during the General Debate of the ongoing 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters in New York, United States.
Represented by his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima, at the high-level annual global event, the President asked for debt relief to enable developing countries to focus on developmental projects for their citizens. “We must ensure that any reform of the international financial system includes comprehensive debt relief measures, to enable sustainable financing for development. Countries of the global South cannot make meaningful economic progress without special concessions and a review of their current debt burden,” he said in a statement released by the Senior Special Assistant to The President on Media & Communications (Office of The Vice President), Stanley Nkwocha on Tuesday.
He called on world leaders to recommit themselves to multilateralism by deepening relations among member states of the UN in line with the principles of inclusivity, equality and cooperation. This, he said, is the surest guarantee of global action against existential challenges faced by the international community. The President decried the steep descent to singularity and nationalism which, according to him, are undermining the quest for peaceful and collective resolution of global challenges such as terrorism, climate change, poverty, food crises, hyper-inflation, nuclear proliferation and grinding debt burden, among others.
The Nigerian leader reminded the world leaders that the United Nations stands for multilateralism which represents inclusiveness, anchored on the tripod of peace, sustainable development and human rights. He expressed worry about the main objectives of the UN and how it could sustain the global body’s relevance and resilience, noting that the pillars of the organisation are at risk of being broken against the principles of inclusivity, equality and cooperation which it stands for.
President Tinubu stated: “Today, these pillars of our organisation are threatened. They risk being broken by the relentless pursuit of individual national priorities rather than the collective needs of the nations that are assembled here today. “While commitment to multilateralism offers us the surest guarantee of global action to address the existential challenges we face, singularity and nationalism are undermining the aspirations towards the peaceful and collective resolution of such challenges.
“From last year’s summit, and indeed from previous years, we have carried over the numerous challenges of 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 a host of other vexations.
