Following repeated occurrence of stolen funds discovered to
have been stashed in foreign banks by corrupt politicians,
President Buhari yesterday urged world leaders to dismantle
the seeming safe haven in their countries where these funds
are secretly being deposited. President Buhari said this while
addressing world leaders at the 70th General Assembly of the
United Nations.
" By any consideration, corruption and cross border
financial crimes are impediments to development,
economic growth, and the realization of the wellbeing
of citizens across the globe. Nigeria is ready and
willing to partner with international agencies and
individual countries on a bilateral basis to confront
crimes and corruption. In particular, I call upon the
global community to urgently redouble efforts towards
strengthening the mechanisms for dismantling safe
havens for proceeds of corruption and ensuring the
return of stolen funds and assets to their countries of
origin"he said
On the Chibok girls, Buhari reaffirmed his government's
position to return the girls safely to their parents. According
to him, the Chibok girls are constantly on the government's
mind
"One of our major aims is to rescue the Chibok girls
alive and unharmed. We are working round the clock to
ensure their safety and eventual reunion with their
families. Chibok girls are constantly on our minds and
in our plans" he said
Read his full text
President of the General Assembly,
Secretary–General
Your Excellencies Heads of State and Governments
Distinguished Delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like, Mr. President, on behalf of the Government and
people of Nigeria, to congratulate you and your country on
your election to preside over the 70th session of the U.N.
General Assembly.
2. May I also express appreciation to your predecessor, Mr.
Sam Kahamba Kutesa and the Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-
moon both of whom worked tirelessly to ensure proper
articulation of the post-2015 Development Agenda and to
maintain the focus and commitment to the ideals of the
United Nations. I thank Mr. Ban Ki-moon for his recent visit
to Nigeria when we held very useful discussions.
Mr. President,
3. Fifty-five (55) years ago almost to the day, my great
predecessor, Nigeria’s first Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar
Tafawa Balewa stood on this forum to declare Nigeria’s desire
to develop and maintain friendly relations with all countries.
He also assured the world of our country’s commitment to
uphold the principles upon which the United Nations was
founded.
4. Mr. President, my country, Nigeria, has lived by this
conviction, even when judgement went against us in territorial
disputes with our neighbours. We respected those judgements
and abided by them as a mark of respect for the rule of law
and the charter of this organization. Nigeria’s record in the
U.N. peacekeeping is second to none. I myself as a young
officer in the Nigerian Army did tours of duty in Congo and the
Lebanon.
5. Nigeria has contributed to U.N. peacekeeping efforts in
Ethiopia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Darfur. Furthermore, we are
proud of our contributions to other activities of the U.N.
including the Peace Building Commission, the Human Rights
Council and security sector reform.
Mr. President,
6. We are gratified to note that most countries have pledged
commitment to the post-2015 Development Agenda and the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with their means of
implementation. The successor frameworks of the MDGs have
come, Mr. President, with lofty aspirations and if I may say so,
heroic assumptions! Nonetheless, they target development
cooperation by the international community up to the year
2020. And they deserve universal support.
7. This is because the SDGs mirror the hopes and aspirations
of much of the world.
8. I should stress that for the newly adopted SDGs to be truly
global, they must be practical. In this regard, the SDGs’ core
objectives of poverty eradication and reducing inequalities
must be met within the framework of a revitalized global
partnership support by concrete policies and actions as
outlined in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.
9. Luckily, these two core objectives of the SDGs are precisely
at the centre of Nigeria’s new Administration’s agenda. It
must be emphasized, Mr. President, that Foreign Direct
Investment supplemented where suitable by Official
Development Assistance as outlined in the Addis Ababa
Agenda are necessary, though not sufficient, conditions for
accelerated development in countries that are trying to catch
up.
10. In this connexion, I would like to appeal to industrialized
countries to redeem their pledge of earmarking 0.7% (nought
point seven percent) of their GDP to development assistance.
With the sole exception of the UK, all concerned countries
have, I am told to meet the UN requirement. But, Mr.
President, with SDGs we have the opportunity to improve the
lives of people not just in the developing world but in all
nations.
11. The Secretary General himself has grouped the SDGs into
what he calls six “essential elements” namely:
• Dignity
• Prosperity
• Justice
• Partnership
• Planet
• People
As a prerequisite to these and as we look at history and
remember the terrible events that gave rise to the birth of the
United Nations in 1945, I would like to propose a seventh:
• PEACE
12. Peace, Mr. President, is close to the hearts of Nigerians,
as we are in the front line in the war on terror. Boko Haram’s
war against the people of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon
may not attract as much worldwide attention as the wars in
the Middle East but the suffering is just as great and the
human cost is equally high.
13. This is a war about values between progress and chaos;
between democracy and the rule of law. Boko Haram
celebrates violence against the weak and the innocent and
deplorably, they hide behind their perverted interpretation of
Islam. Boko Haram is as far away from Islam as any one can
think of.
14. Many of my colleagues attending this forum would want
to know how our new government intends to tackle the huge
problems the government has inherited. Friends of Nigeria and
foreign investor partners will be encouraged to know that the
new Government is attacking the problems we inherited head-
on.
15. We intend to tackle inequalities arising from massive
unemployment and previous government policies favouring a
few people to the detriment of the many. We intend to
emphasize quality technological education for development
and lay foundation for comprehensive care of the aged, the
disadvantaged and the infirm. But for now terrorism is the
immediate problem.
16. Accordingly, Mr. President, Members of the General
Assembly, the new Nigerian Government which I have the
honour to head, moved with dispatch to put in a bold and
robust strategy to defeat Boko Haram. Nigeria and her
neighbours Cameroon, Chad and Niger plus Benin are working
together to face this common threat within the regional
framework of the Lake Chad Basin Commission. We have
established a multinational joint task force to confront,
degrade and defeat Boko Haram.
17. We have driven them away from many of their
strongholds, killed or captured many of their operatives or
commanders and freed several hundreds of hostages.
18. Mr. President, one of our major aims is to rescue the
Chibok girls alive and unharmed. We are working round the
clock to ensure their safety and eventual reunion with their
families. Chibok girls are constantly on our minds and in our
plans.
19. Mr. President, terrorism is by no means the major or the
only evil threatening and undermining the wellbeing of
societies around the world.
• Corruption
• Cross border financial crimes
• Cyber crimes
• Human trafficking
• Spread of communicable diseases
• Climate change
• Proliferation of weapons
are all major challenges of the 21st century which the
international community must tackle collectively. Let me
reaffirm Nigerian government’s unwavering commitment to
fight corruption and illicit financial flows. By any consideration,
corruption and cross border financial crimes are impediments
to development, economic growth, and the realization of the
wellbeing of citizens across the globe.
20. Nigeria is ready and willing to partner with international
agencies and individual countries on a bilateral basis to
confront crimes and corruption. In particular, I call upon the
global community to urgently redouble efforts towards
strengthening the mechanisms for dismantling safe havens for
proceeds of corruption and ensuring the return of stolen funds
and assets to their countries of origin.
21. Mr. President, the world is now facing a big new
challenge: human trafficking. This is an old evil taking an
altogether new and dangerous dimension threatening to upset
international relationships. We in Africa are grieved to see on
international networks how hundreds of thousands of our able
bodied men and women fleeing to Europe and in the process
thousands dying in the desert or drowning in the
Mediterranean.
22. We condemn in the strongest terms these people
traffickers and will support any measures to apprehend and
bring them to justice. At the same time, we are very
appreciative of European governments notably Italy and
Germany, for their understanding and humane treatment of
these refugees.
23. Last year, our continent faced the dreadful occurrence of
Ebola. We sincerely thank the international community for the
collective efforts to contain this deadly disease. We are not
out of the woods yet but we would like to record our
appreciation to the United States, United Kingdom, France and
China for their outstanding assistance in arresting the spread
of Ebola and care of those infected in collaboration with host
countries.
Mr. President,
24. Nigeria fully subscribes to and fully endorses Goals 13, 14
and 15 of the SDGs regarding Climate Change. In Nigeria,
desertification and land erosion and degradation leading to
biodiversity loss are real threats to our environment and we
shall propose under the auspices of the Lake Chad Basin
Commission a regional approach to combat these
environmental challenges.
25. We look forward to the UN Summit on climate change in
Paris in December 2015. This summit should provide optimism
to humanity on addressing the looming threat faced by many
communities around the world.
Mr. President,
26. We are witnessing a dreadful increase in conflicts fuelled
by availability of small arms and light weapons. I call upon all
member countries to demonstrate the political will needed to
uphold the UN charter. For a start, a robust implementation of
the Arms Trade Treaty will guarantee that small arms and
light weapons are only legally transferred. Arms traffickers
and human traffickers are two evil species which the world
community should eradicate.
Mr. President,
27. As we engage in these annual debates, we need remind
ourselves of the principles that led to the founding of the
United Nations. Among those are peaceful coexistence and
self-determination of peoples. In this context, Mr. President,
the unresolved question of self-determination for the
Palestinian people and those of Western Sahara, both nations
having been adjusted by the United Nations as qualifying for
this inalienable right must now be assured and fulfilled
without any further delay or obstacle.
28. The international community has come to pin its hopes on
resolving the Palestinian issue through the two – states
solution which recognises the legitimate right of each state to
exist in peace and security. The world has no more excuses or
reasons to delay the implementation of the long list of
Security Council resolutions on this question. Neither do we
have the moral right to deny any people their freedom or
condemn them indefinitely to occupation and blockade
Mr. President, delegates of member countries,
29. UN is 70 years old. It can count many more than 70 major
achievements as the world’s forum and family reunion. It is
my hope that in the next 70 years, it will achieve control of
climate, help to eliminate communicable diseases, eliminate
major and local conflicts and therefore eliminate the problem
of refugees, take major steps towards reducing harmful
inequalities between nations and within nations and above all,
eliminate nuclear weapons.
30. Mr. President, as this is my first address in this Assembly,
I thank you and the delegates for listening so patiently.