The federal government has said that it was doing everything possible for Nigeria to get a permanent seat at the UN Security Council.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, stated this yesterday while on a familiarisation tour of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), Abuja.
Onyeama said the country had played important roles in peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace enforcement globally, and had contributed and sacrificed human and financial resources.
He said: “We are doing everything possible to get a permanent seat at the UN Security Council; we are looking at its materialisation.
“Africa is being prospected to have two permanent seats and we are saying that Nigeria should naturally have one.
“It is part of our foreign policy that West Africa and Africa have peace and we are spending money that we don’t even have to achieve on that mission.”
Onyeama regretted the various conflicts confronting the country, notably, the Boko Haram insurgency, the renewed Niger Delta militancy and the farmers/herdsmen conflicts.
According to him, violent conflicts have been a major bane of Africa’s development and no enduring development can be achieved in an atmosphere devoid of peace.
“Since independence, conflicts have been the bane of our development in Africa and we as a country play very important roles in peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace enforcement on our continent.
“In various ways, we have contributed; through the ECOMOG, formation of AU Peace and Security Commission, Nigeria is there.”
He said Nigeria was the sole Permanent Member of the AU Peace and Conflict Commission, in recognition of the roles the country had played towards a peaceful Africa.
Earlier, the Director-General of IPCR, Prof. Oshita Oshita, said the institute had the mandate to conduct empirical researches that would lead to peace and conflict resolution in Africa.
He said there was no better time that Nigeria, Africa and the world needed the institute than now, that crises had created unprecedented humanitarian crisis around the world. (NAN)
