At the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, United States, President Bola Tinubu made a case for a permanent seat for Nigeria on the UN Security Council. The President, who was represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, called for urgent and sweeping reforms of the global body to ensure its global relevance. He sought sovereign debt relief and access to trade and financing for developing nations and closure of the widening digital divide. Tinubu argued that nations hosting minerals must benefit more and reiterated two-state solution to the lingering Israel-Palestine crisis.
We align with Tinubu that Nigeria’s membership of the UN Security Council is not only timely, but reflects the exigencies of the new global order that will make the organisation strong and relevant. President Tinubu’s demand for a permanent seat for Nigeria on the UN Security Council and debt relief for Nigeria and other developing nations is laudable. In fact, Nigeria deserves it.
If Nigeria’s request is granted, Africa will no longer be a spectator in the global arena. The present situation where only the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom, unilaterally decide what happens in the world is not fair to Africa. It is not even democratic. The UN must either reform now or risk irrelevance as President Tinubu rightly advised.
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As crucial as the demand for a permanent seat on the Security Council is to Nigeria, perhaps more crucial is the urgent call for debt relief, which President Tinubu described as a ‘clear path to peace and prosperity.’ President Tinubu also sees debt relief as a ‘sort of International Court of Justice for money that will allow emerging economies to escape the economic straitjacket of primary production of unprocessed exports.’
According to him, since the ‘Lagos Plan of Action’ that was initiated by the defunct Organisation of African Unity, now African Union (AU), that aimed at promoting Africa’s economic self-reliance by reducing dependence on external forces, and maximising internal resources, emerging economies are yet to leverage on the abundant mineral deposits in their domains that have been made even more possible by the emergence of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCfTA).
The call for debt relief for debtor nations makes some economic sense. But it is fraught with danger. We recall that ex-President Muhammadu Buhari made a similar appeal at the 76th session of UNGA in 2021. At UNGA76, Buhari called for outright debt cancellation for developing countries amid mounting borrowings by many countries, including Nigeria. He also urged the G-20 countries to consider the expansion and extension of the Debt Service Suspension, which is the official bilateral debt service payments to world’s poorest countries that aims to free up funds for health, social and economic responses.
Good enough, Nigeria received ‘debt forgiveness’ from the Paris Club in 2005, which involved the cancellation of $18 billion of its debt and a final settlement payment of $12billion for the remaining debt. This reduced Nigeria’s total external debt then by approximately $30billion. In April 2006, Nigeria made its final payment. Sadly, almost twenty years after, successive governments in the country have piled up over N149trillion debt, with external component of $45.98billion(N70.63trillion) at the end of first quarter of 2025, an increase from $42.12billion in the same period of 2024, representing 26 per cent year-on-year increase, according to data from the Debt Management Office(DMO).
Agreed that many developing economies, including Nigeria, face unsustainable debt burdens, most of these debts overhang are self-inflicted, resulting from corruption, misapplication, outright misappropriation and poor governance. Nevertheless, we urge the World Bank and other global lenders to consider the calls for debt relief or outright cancellation. We believe that cancelling these debts will address some of the challenges of the developing countries.
The debt burden of developing countries is hampering their overall development. For example, as of first quarter 2025, developing countries’ total external debt reached $11.4trillion. In 2024, their public debt alone stood at $31trillion. The World Bank and the International Development Association (IDA) are major lenders to the poorest countries.
In 2023, these countries paid $1.4trillion in debt service to their foreign creditors. Their debt vulnerability is increasing due to corruption and other factors. They spend so much money on interest payments. Nigeria has spent over 80 percent of its total revenue on debt service in the last two years, despite huge revenue realised by government agencies. The rising debt profile reflects ongoing fiscal pressures and reliance on borrowing to fund public infrastructure.
Under Buhari, Nigerian economy went down from being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, the biggest in GDP in Africa, totaling $570billion in 2014, to one of most sluggish economies in the world. It is now ranked fourth in Africa, trailing behind South Africa, Egypt, and Algeria. Currently, Nigeria’s GDP is $187.76billion, a decrease of about $383billion in ten years. This notwithstanding, we enjoin the UN to consider Nigeria’s quest for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, debt relief, access to trade, financing and others.
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