Shettima to Lead Delegation to UNGA 2025 as FG Lobbies for Permanent Membership of Security Council

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

Vice President Senator Kashim Shettima will lead Nigeria’s delegation to the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), scheduled to open on September 23, 2025, in New York, United States.

This is just as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, insisted that Nigeria should naturally assume permanent membership of the Security Council of the United Nations (UN).

In a statement issued yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the vice president would be joined by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, alongside other ministers and senior government officials.

The ministry explained that Nigeria’s participation would provide an opportunity to engage in global discourse on peace, security, development, climate change, and other pressing international challenges.

According to the ministry, Nigeria’s engagement will be guided by its strategic priorities, focusing on economic growth, international peace and security, human rights, humanitarian assistance, justice and international law, disarmament, and cooperation against terrorism, drug trafficking, and crime prevention.
Shettima is scheduled to address the General Assembly on September 24, where he will present Nigeria’s national statement.

His remarks will highlight the country’s contributions to global peace, regional security, and measures to tackle climate change.
Beyond the General Debate, Nigeria will also participate in several high-level side events. These include the International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia; a roundtable on energy, oil and gas, and security in the Gulf of Guinea; and the Forward Africa Leaders Symposium hosted by the African Peer Review Mechanism, which will focus on digital transformation, fintech, and AfCFTA’s digital trade policy framework.

Meanwhile, the minister in an interview with TheCable on Nigeria’s plans at the next UNGA, said the country would continue to lobby to be elected one of the permanent members in the much-agitated reform of the United Nations.
At present, the Security Council of the UN, the most important decision-making organ, has five permanent members – the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China, and France, with each having a veto power, and 10 elected non-permanent members, who serve two-year nonconsecutive terms and are not afforded veto power. These seats are shared between global regions. Africa has three seats: Asia-Pacific, two; Eastern European, one; Latin American and Caribbean, two; and Western European and others, two. There’s also an Arab seat which alternates between the African and Asian blocs by informal agreement.

Nigeria has served as a non-permanent member multiple times, with the most recent being in 2015. But over the years, the country has sought to secure a permanent seat of its own, a shared ambition with other regional powers such as Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, and South Africa.

Tuggar, in the interview, said Nigeria has a strong case to get a permanent seat and that it was against the agitation by some that the permanent seat that may be reserved for Africa should be rotated among African countries.
He said: “Some figures show that 70 per cent, some even say more, of the issues being discussed in the UN Security Council have to do with Africa,” listing the multiple ongoing conflicts in Sudan, eastern Congo, and the Sahel.

Tuggar said it was absurd that decisions were made regarding these issues without a defining voice of the African nation. He pointed to Nigeria’s record as the only country on the continent with a near-permanent status in the African Union (AU)’s peace and security council.
“It’s a natural progression,” he added.