Vice President Kashim Shettima has reaffirmed Nigeria’s aspiration for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council during a meeting with UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York.
Shettima urged the UN to “support Nigeria to achieve more,” stressing that Africa’s most populous country is determined to play a stronger role in global decision-making.
Their bilateral talks focused on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), climate change, democracy in Africa, and regional security initiatives in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Foreign Affairs Minister, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, said Guterres commended Nigeria’s longstanding partnership with the UN and welcomed its push for a permanent Security Council seat.
Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani, disclosed that Guterres also praised Nigeria’s recent advances in artificial intelligence, highlighting the launch of Africa’s first government-backed multilingual and multimodal large language model. He expressed hope that Nigeria would help other African countries harness AI for development.
Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr. Yusuf Tanko Sununu, outlined Nigeria’s social interventions, noting that nearly 18.9 million households are captured in the national social register, with more than 8.1 million people benefiting from conditional cash transfers. He also presented inclusivity measures for persons with disabilities.
Earlier, Shettima held talks with UK Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, with both sides pledging stronger cooperation in trade, economy, defence, and migration.
The Vice President also attended the Global Leadership Council Meeting at UNICEF headquarters, where he assured global leaders that Nigeria is prepared to leverage digital opportunities to empower youths and women while driving inclusive growth.
