NLC Urges FG to Sign Nuclear Disarmament Treaty

NLC Urges FG to Sign Nuclear Disarmament Treaty

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Ahead of the high-level ceremony for signatures and ratifications for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) by world leaders on September 26 at the United Nations General Assembly, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has asked the federal government to join other countries in ratifying the treaty.

The Nuclear Prohibition Treaty was adopted by 122 countries on July 7, 2017 at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

NLC, in a statement yesterday its President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said Nigeria should participate in the historic event by signing and or submitting its instrument of ratification of the TPNW, indicating in advance its intention to do so to the UN Office for Legal Affairs at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

NLC said it appreciated the country’s longstanding position in favour of nuclear disarmament, adding that the treaty would serve as the foundation for a world free of nuclear weapons.

NLC said signing of the nuclear prohibition treaty offers a pathway forward at a time of great global tension and crisis.

“This is an urgent humanitarian necessity. President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer and UN Secretary General António Guterres have both acknowledged the importance of this Treaty in making progress for a nuclear weapons-free world.

“It complements the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and offers the best hope of moving us from a world with nearly 14,000 nuclear weapons to zero-nuclear weapons.

“In the light of the heightened tensions among nuclear-armed states, it is more important than ever that world leaders speak out against nuclear weapons and work together to strengthen international legal norms against their use, threatened use, development, and retention by any state,” Wabba said.

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