Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima, who is standing in for President Bola Tinubu at the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, has urged global leaders to prioritise debt forgiveness for Nigeria and other developing nations.
He made the call during the General Debate at the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, the United States. Addressing world leaders, Shettima emphasised that the economic development of the Global South remains hampered by crippling debt, which undermines the ability of nations to meet the needs of their citizens.
He urged the United Nations to commit to multilateralism by fostering inclusivity, equality, and deeper cooperation among member states. In a statement from Stanley Nkwocha, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications, the Nigerian presidency also addressed trade barriers, protectionist policies, and fierce competition that threaten global investments.
“Countries of the global South cannot make meaningful economic progress without special concessions and a review of their current debt burden,” he stated. He also called for the recovery of proceeds of corruption and illicit financial flows, stating that the return of such funds to countries of origin “is a fundamental principle of the United Nations Convention against Corruption. Therefore, the international community must promote practical measures to strengthen international cooperation to recover and return stolen assets and to eradicate safe havens that facilitate illicit flows of funds from developing countries to the developed economies.
He added, “Today, these pillars of our organisation are thre tened.
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 terr%rism, armed conflict, inequality, poverty, racial discrimination, human rights ab¥ses, food cries, hunger, irregular migration, piracy, global pandemics, hyper-inflation, nuclear proliferation, grinding debt burden, climate change, and a host of other vexations.
The continued manifestation of these challenges testifies to our failings rather than to any lofty achievements on our part. Billions of dollars are being committed to the prosecution of wars and the fanning of the embers of conflict,” he said.
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