Nigeria - Pres. Obasanjo
Nigeria remains unshakeable in its commitment
to, and support for the strengthening of the United
Nations and the protection of its cherished ideals, in
particular the maintenance of international peace
and security as well as cooperation among states in
solving international economic, social, cultural and
humanitarian problems.
Mr. President,
The problem of unremitting conflicts in various
regions of the world and the ever-increasing difficult
task of seeking solutions to them, continue to pose
serious challenges to the world body. Nigeria and
the African Union commend the United Nations for its
determined engagement in crisis resolution and
peacekeeping, particularly in Africa. We have noted
with appreciation the changes in the concept of
peacekeeping.
Notwithstanding, we believe some improvements
are still necessary to enable a Peace Operation by
the United Nations to address the social and
economic challenges that inevitably confront
countries emerging from conflict. These socioeconomic
issues invariably form important part of
the causes of the conflict in the first instance.
We also appeal for continued enhancement of the
capacity of regional organizations to undertake
initiatives on crisis resolution in their respective
regions. For its part the African Union has engaged
in improving its mechanism for conflict resolution
and in May this year established a Peace and
Security Council.
Mr. President,
The first challenge of the AU Peace and Security
Council has been the situation in the Darfur Region
of Western Sudan, which has aroused world
attention by the reported carnage in that region. On
behalf of the AU, I want to thank the international
community for the humanitarian intervention being
undertaken. As is well known, the AU has deployed
troops into the region to monitor a cease-fire
between the Government of Sudan and the opposing
Movements - the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army
(SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement
(JEM). Moreover the first substantive Peace Talks
took place in the Nigerian capital Abuja under the
auspices of the AU from August 23 rd to September
18, 2004. The Sudanese parties reached agreement
on the first point of the agenda, namely -
Humanitarian Issues, out of their 4 points. They also
made progress on the second point, namely, Security
Issues, before adjourning for consultation. Followup
meeting is expected to be resumed in Abuja
about 21st October 2004, on the other issues, namely
Political Issues and Economic and Social Issues.
I am closely following the developments in
consultation with the Chairperson of the Commission
of the African Union and others. I call upon the
international community to continue to lend us its
support in resolving the Darfur conflict and its
consequences.
It is cheering to note the progress being made in
Somalia particularly in constituting the Parliament.
The efforts of the regional countries, which are
demonstrating an unprecedented collaboration in
helping the Somalis to move the process forward,
should be applauded. The Somalis themselves
should continue to demonstrate commitment to
repair past errors and make of their country a
respectable member of the AU and the United
Nations.
The Great Lakes Region remains a flash point of
violence as exemplified by the recent massacre of
more than 150 persons in a refugee camp in Burundi.
On June 25, 2004, President Kabila of the Democratic
Republic of Congo and President Kagame of Rwanda
met in Abuja at my instance and agreed to activate
the Joint Verification Mechanism. Thereafter, a
meeting of all stake holders was held during the AU
Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 6 - 8 July, 2004
with the participation of the UN Secretary General, in
order to accelerate the activation of the Joint
Verification Mechanism. I am hopeful that this
renewed process would facilitate a better
understanding to stem this spate of massacre and
engender a peaceful resolution of the protracted
crisis in the Great Lakes Region.
With regard to the West African sub-region, the
African Union and ECOWAS continue their efforts,
with the constant support of the United Nations to
ensure steady progress in the peace processes in
Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia. To this end and in order to
address the standstill in the implementation of the
Linas Marcousis Agreement on Cote d'Ivoire, an
extraordinary Summit was held in Accra, Ghana
under the auspices of ECOWAS on July 29th 2004.
We benefited from the presence of UN Secretary-
General, Kofi Annan as well as some non ECOWAS
African Heads of State. If the agreements we
reached at that Summit are faithfully implemented,
an end to the conflict should be in sight.
On the margin of the Accra Summit, we also
addressed the problems that were retarding the
implementation of the Liberian Comprehensive Peace
Agreement. In discussions with all the Liberian
leaders, we agreed on decisions on the main
contentious issues and we have since been
witnessing encouraging signs of implementation of
those decisions.
Mr. President,
I should remark that we noticed once again that
the delay in providing the resources promised by
countries during the Liberian Pledging Conference
held here in the UN Headquarters in February 2004
constitutes an avoidable hindrance to the
advancement of peace in Liberia. I, therefore call on
all our well meaning partners who were kind enough
to make pledges to kindly redeem those pledges.
Mr. President,
While the United Nations is justifiably seized
with the issue of Weapons of Mass Destruction
(WMD), such as nuclear, chemical and biological
weapons, the question of Small Arms and light
Weapons (SALW), can no longer be ignored. While
the threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction is
awesome, small arms and light weapons are killing
people every day at a rate cumulatively amounting to
monumental destruction.
Nigeria and the African Union welcome the
commencement of negotiations for an international
legally binding instrument to enable States identify
and trace illicit small arms and light weapons
globally. Of particular interest to Africa is the
enormous potential that such a legally binding
instrument can have on peace and security in our
region. We should therefore not relent in our efforts.
Let me seize this opportunity to soundly
condemn the totally unacceptable role of
mercenaries and their sponsors in Africa. The recent
attempted invasion of Equatorial Guinea and other
such attempts go against every imaginable rational
effort at promoting stability and democracy on the
continent. We call on the United Nations to join the
African Union in sending the right signals of
condemnation to those mercenaries and their
sponsors.
Mr. President,
Our quest for global peace and security will
prove unsuccessful unless we intensify international
cooperation for development and the reduction of
poverty. Only four years ago we adopted the
Millennium Development Goals which pointedly fixed
a target of 2015 for reducing by half those living in
poverty. Yet by now, alarm is being raised that if
present trends continue, that target may not be met,
particularly in Africa which apart from the challenges
of development is also being ravaged by pandemic
diseases.
Speaking on behalf of the African Union as its
current Chairperson I should like to assure this
august assembly that we Africans are determined
that we shall exert all our efforts to overcome those
obstacles to our development that are within our
control. To this end we are pursuing, with the
personal commitment and involvement of our Heads
of State themselves, the implementation of the
priorities set in our flagship programme, namely the
New Partnership for Africa's Development - NEPAD.
On this note, we appreciate the conclusion in the
Secretary-General's "Second Consolidated Report on
Progress in Implementation and International
Support" for NEPAD that "African Countries have
demonstrated their commitment to advancing the
implementation of NEPAD by earmarking financial
allocations to selected sectoral priorities" and that
"the development partners of Africa can give further
practical _expression_ to their support for the efforts of
African countries by taking action in three important
areas: first, by creating an enabling international
environment that is supportive of growth and
development in Africa; second, by bringing much
needed coherence to trade, aid and debt policies, so
that African countries are the net beneficiaries of
international actions in those areas; and third, by
undertaking concrete measures to accelerate the
implementation of NEPAD by making significant
financial outlays to fund the key sectoral priorities of
NEPAD I believe that the message to our
development partners is very clear.
To demonstrate our commitment to the principle
of good governance, transparency and the rule of
law, 23 African countries have already subscribed to
the Peer Review Mechanism. It should be recalled
that the Peer Review Mechanism represents Africa's
voluntary commitment to a set of performance codes
and standards to foster best practices and share
lessons in the management of national affairs.
The promotion of agriculture is being vigorously
pursued both for its export potentials and poverty
alleviation. Encouraging growth rates in agricultural
production are already being recorded in several
African countries. Simultaneously we are
intensifying our efforts in the promotion of agrobased
industries.
Mr. President,
In furtherance of our efforts at self-help, AU
Heads of State and Government held an
extraordinary Summit on Employment Creation and
Poverty Alleviation in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
from September 5-9, 2004. We adopted a far
reaching Declaration and Programme of Action. For
implementation and monitoring, we also adopted
Mechanisms at the National, Regional and
Continental Levels.
What may act as a drawback in implementation
of this most important area for pulling the African
populace off our poverty and misery is the inevitable
issue of adequate resources for meeting our
otherwise realistic goals. On behalf of the African
Union, I appeal to our partners to demonstrate once
again our shared common global interdependence
and common humanity.
Africa requires genuine partnership anchored on
the principle of mutual benefits, to ensure the
attainment of sustainable development. One such
area of partnership is in respect of Africa's external
debts. The negative impact of debt on the economic
circumstances of African countries, particularly the
LDCs, can no longer be denied. We remain convinced
that resolving the lingering debt crisis
comprehensively through innovative action, would
brighten the prospects of development in Africa.
Mr. President,
Africa welcomes the consensus that emerged
from the recent meeting of the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in
Sao Paulo, Brazil. That consensus reflected a shared
conviction that the organization can continue to
coordinate our view on trade and development
matters. This could not be otherwise if the
Millennium Development Goals are to be achieved
and the benefits of expanding trade are to be
enjoyed by all peoples and societies.
By launching a new initiative to commence a new
round of multilateral trade negotiations, developing
countries have thrown down the challenge to our
development partners in exploiting the global
opportunities for growth and development. We hope
they will reciprocate.
...
Last year the UN Secretary General launched a
United Nations Reform Initiative, which we all
warmly commended. In pursuit of this initiative the
Secretary General appointed last year, a High Level
Panel of Eminent Personalities to examine ways of
strengthening the UN through institutional reforms
and processes. We are looking forward to the report
of that Panel. Nigeria, and indeed Africa, holds the
view that the Security Council should be expanded in
the permanent and non-permanent categories to
make it more representative, effective and
acceptable. We expect that those regions of the
world that are currently unrepresented in the
permanent membership category should be given
membership. Africa whose issues occupy a
substantial part of the Security Council's time ought
to be accorded priority consideration for permanent
membership, and Nigeria, I strongly believe, is a well
qualified candidate.
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
