YouSaid · the spoken record

Muhammadu Buhari

lines on the record: 126
first: 2015-09-24
most recent: 2022-09-24
sittings or episodes: 8
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“As we seek justice for terrorism victims, the international community should avoid reacting in the heat of the deep emotions of the moment by taking unilateral measures, legal or otherwise, that will have a negative and disruptive impact on the international community’s collective efforts to fight terrorism. We should not be distracted in our collective resolve to beat back terrorism in all its forms. As we confront terrorism, we must also commit to stopping the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, which nurtures its spread. To that end, Nigeria urges Member States that are yet to sign and ratify the Arms Trade Treaty to do so without further delay. Nigeria has made remarkable progress in its resolve to defeat Boko Haram, whose capacity to launch orchestrated attacks as a formed group has been severely degraded.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Indeed, we are meeting at the time when our hosts, the American people, have just marked the fifteenth anniversary of the tragic and dastardly terrorist attacks on their soil. We in Nigeria, having been victims of terrorism ourselves, fully understand the impact of 9/11 on the American psyche and the families of the thousands of innocent victims whose lives were lost that day. I therefore reiterate the sympathies of the Nigerian Government and the Nigerian people to the American people, along with prayers for the families of the victims that they may heal and find closure soon. We hope that justice will be done for the families of victims of 9/11, as indeed to the victims of terror everywhere, in conformity with the norms of international justice.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Multinational oil companies operating in the area will be required to live up to their corporate social responsibilities and contribute to the cleaning-up of the environment, degraded as a result of their activities and operations. We call on development partners and multinationals to support our efforts through the Ogoniland Restoration Fund. The twenty-first century has thus far been marked by the rising insecurity unleashed by global terrorism and violent extremism, which constitute a real threat to the international community. With the global increase in the spate of terrorist attacks, there is now, more than ever, international consensus and greater willingness to collaborate in combating the threat.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“The means of livelihood of an estimated 30 million inhabitants of the Lake Chad Basin — spread across Cameroon, Chad, the Niger and Nigeria — are being severely threatened. The cost of replenishing the lake has been put at $14 billion, under a five-year plan that should be accorded global attention. Nigeria also supports the African Union initiative on the Great Green Wall to halt desertification. In furtherance of our commitment to environmental sustainability, Nigeria has launched the Clean Up Ogoniland initiaitve in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, based on the 2011 environmental assessment of the area by the United Nations Environment Programme.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“That meeting marked a watershed in the global community’s commitment to address climate change, and we will continue in our determined efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. At the centre of Nigeria’s climate action is our determination to implement the strategies in our intended nationally determined contributions, which will foster a low- carbon economy and sustainable growth in building a climate-resilient society. We are creating public awareness through the integrated involvement of the private sector and civil society and by strengthening national institutions and mechanisms. The negative consequences of climate change have manifested themselves in the drying up of our Lake Chad.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Through the work that our national chapter of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has done over the years, it is clear that our faith is not misplaced. The Initiative has been empowering citizens with the critical information they can use to hold Government and other players in the extractive industries to account, and make recommendations that drive reforms in those strategic sectors of our national life. The world took a giant step in Paris towards addressing the challenges of climate change. Nigeria is proud to have been part of the process leading to the adoption of the Paris Agreement in December 2015 at the twenty-first meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Nigeria calls on Member States that are yet to sign up to the United Nations Convention against Corruption to do so. Nigeria will continue to advocate for the facilitation of the recovery of illicit financial assets. Indeed, the speedy and unconditional return of stolen public assets should be the focus of the follow-up anti-corruption conference, to be hosted by the United States and United Kingdom next year in Washington, D.C. Furthermore, Nigeria remains committed to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a global coalition that promotes transparency and accountability in the management of revenues from the oil, gas and solid minerals sectors. We voluntarily signed up to the Initiative because we are convinced that transparent governance is an imperative for resource-rich developing countries like ours.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“The recovered funds are being channelled towards the development of critical infrastructure and the implementation of social inclusion programmes for our people. We are also strengthening the capacity of Government entities to institutionalize reforms to ensure transparency and good governance. The Anti-Corruption Summit held in London in May this year served as further assurance of the global community’s commitment to fight corruption through the proposed practical steps to address the challenges, including actions to hold perpetrators to justice within the law. Nigeria supports the development of an international legal framework to enforce anti-corruption measures and strengthen existing international institutions to effectively deal with corrupt practices.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“We are, however, undeterred and have embarked upon a wide range of reforms in our efforts to diversify our economy and shift emphasis to mining, agriculture, industrialization, infrastructure development and the creation of an enabling environment for foreign direct investment. Our strategic objective is to stimulate the economy, restore growth and accelerate recovery. In doing that, we are taking measures to reduce the cost of governance and increase expenditure on infrastructure and ensure environmental best practices. Fighting corruption remains a cardinal pillar of our Administration. Corruption freezes development, thereby undermining the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. I am pleased that our efforts in fighting corruption are yielding positive results, including significant recoveries of stolen assets.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“These landmark achievements by the global community will without any doubt build a more prosperous, all-inclusive world. We must work together to liberate humankind from poverty, save our planet from the devastation of climate change and rid the world of terrorism for a more peaceful and prosperous future. We must remain committed to taking bold steps to transform our world. The Sustainable Development Goals underscore the imperative for our collective will towards finding enduring and sustainable solutions to addressing global disparities. It is in the light of our appreciation of the enormity of the task before us that I welcome the theme of the Assembly: “The Sustainable Development Goals: a universal push to transform our world”. Nigeria, as a developing country, has been adversely affected by the global economic downturn.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“On behalf of the people and the Government of Nigeria, Sir, let me congratulate the President on his well-deserved election as the President of the General Assembly at its seventy-first session. I assure him of Nigeria’s support in steering the affairs of the General Assembly over the next 12 months. I also take this opportunity to express my appreciation to his predecessor, Mr. Mogens Lykketoft, for the achievements recorded during his tenure. Last year, I presented my first address to the General Assembly after my assumption of office as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (see A/70/ 14/18 16-29302 PV.15). Indeed, it was a remarkable year, which not only celebrated the gains of the Millennium Development Goals but also witnessed the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“It is my hope that in the next 70 years it will take control of the climate, help to eliminate communicable diseases, eliminate major and local conflicts and thereby eliminate the refugee problem, take major steps towards reducing harmful inequalities among nations and within nations and, above all, eliminate nuclear weapons.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“The international community has come to pin its hopes on resolving the Palestinian issue through the two-State solution, which recognizes 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 that question, nor do we have the moral right to deny any people their freedom or condemn them indefinitely to occupation and blockade. The United Nations is 70 years old. As the world’s forum, it can count many more than 70 major achievements.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“For a start, robust implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty will guarantee that small arms and light weapons are transferred only in a legal manner. Arms traffickers and human traffickers are two evil species that the international community needs to eradicate. As we engage in these annual debates, we must remind ourselves of the principles that led to the founding of the United Nations years ago. Among them are the peaceful coexistence and self-determination of peoples. In that context, the unresolved question of self-determination for the peoples of Palestine and Western Sahara, both nations having been adjudged by the United Nations as being entitled to that inalienable right, must now be resolved without any further delay or obstacle.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“In Nigeria, desertification and land erosion and degradation, which lead to biodiversity loss, are real threats to our environment and, under the auspices of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, we will propose a regional approach to combating those environmental challenges. In that connection, we look forward to the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Paris in December. That Summit should give humankind hope that the looming threat faced by many communities around the world is being addressed. We are witnessing a dreadful increase in conflicts fuelled by the availability of small arms and light weapons. I call upon all Member States to show the political will needed to uphold the Charter of the United Nations in that regard.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“At the same time, we greatly appreciate European Governments, particularly those of Italy and Germany, for their understanding and humane treatment of those refugees. Last year, our continent faced the dreadful outbreak of Ebola. We sincerely thank the international community for its collective efforts to contain that deadly disease. We are not out of the woods yet, but we would like to express our appreciation to the United States, the United Kingdom, France and China, which, in collaboration with the host countries, provided outstanding assistance to stop the spread of Ebola and to care for those infected. Nigeria fully subscribes to and endorses Goals 13, 14 and 15 of the Sustainable Development Goals with regard to climate change.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“In particular, I call upon the international community to urgently redouble its efforts to strengthen the mechanisms for dismantling safe havens for the proceeds of corruption and for ensuring the return of stolen funds and assets to their countries of origin. The world is now facing another big new challenge, that is, human trafficking. It is an old evil that has taken on an altogether new and dangerous dimension, which threatens to upset international relationships. We in Africa are grieved to see in the international media the hundreds of thousands of our able-bodied men and women who are fleeing to Europe, with thousands dying in the process in the desert or drowning in the Mediterranean. We condemn in the strongest possible terms traffickers in human beings and will support any measures to apprehend and bring them to justice.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Corruption, cross-border financial crime, cybercrime, human trafficking, communicable diseases, climate change and the proliferation of weapons are all major challenges of the twenty-first century that the international community must tackle collectively. I would like to reaffirm the Nigerian Government’s unwavering commitment to fighting corruption and illicit financial flows. By any measure, corruption and cross-border financial crimes are impediments to development, economic growth and the realization of the well-being of citizens across the globe. Nigeria is ready and willing to partner with international agencies and individual countries on a bilateral basis to confront crime and corruption.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Nigeria and its neighbours — Cameroon, Chad, the Niger and Benin — are working together to face the 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. We have driven them away from many of their strongholds, killed or captured many of their operatives and commanders and freed several hundreds of hostages. One of our major aims is to rescue the Chibok girls alive and unharmed. We are working around the clock to ensure their safety and eventual reunion with their families. The Chibok girls are constantly on our minds and in our plans. Terrorism is by no means the main or the only evil threatening and undermining the well-being of societies around the world.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Friends of Nigeria and foreign investor partners will be encouraged to know that the new Government is attacking the problems we inherited head-on. We intend to tackle the inequalities arising from massive unemployment and the previous Government’s policies that favoured a few people to the detriment of the many. We intend to emphasize quality technological education for development and lay a foundation for the comprehensive care of the aged, the disadvantaged and the infirm. But for now, terrorism is the immediate problem. Accordingly, the new Nigerian Government, which I have the honour to head, has moved with dispatch to implement a bold and robust strategy to defeat Boko Haram.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Peace 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, the 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. This is a war about values between progress and chaos. It concerns democracy and the rule of law. Boko Haram celebrates violence against the weak and the innocent and, deplorably, hides behind its perverted interpretation of Islam. Boko Haram is as far from Islam as can possibly be imagined. Many of my colleagues present in this forum want to know how our new Government intends to tackle the huge problems that we have inherited.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“In that connection, I would like to appeal to industrialized countries to redeem their pledges to devote 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product to development assistance. With the sole exception of the United Kingdom, all the countries concerned, so I am told, have still to meet that United Nations requirement. With the SDGs, we have the opportunity to improve the lives of people, not just in the developing world but in all nations. The Secretary-General himself has listed six essential elements for delivering on the SDGs, namely, dignity, prosperity, justice, partnership, planet and people. As a prerequisite to those elements, 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 essential element, namely, peace.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“That is because the SDGs mirror the hopes and aspirations of much of the world. I should stress that for the newly adopted SDGs to be truly global, they must be practical. In that regard, the Agenda’s core objectives of eradicating poverty and reducing inequalities must be met within the framework of revitalized global partnership support and concrete policies and actions, as outlined in the Addis Ababa Agenda on Financing for Development. Luckily, those two core objectives of the SDGs are precisely at the centre of the agenda of Nigeria’s new Administration. It must be emphasized 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.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Furthermore, we are proud of our contributions to other activities of the United Nations, including the Peacebuilding Commission, the Human Rights Council and security-sector reform. We are gratified to note that most countries have pledged their commitment to the post-2015 development agenda in the form of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) contained therein, along with their means of implementation. That successor framework to the Millennium Development Goals has come with lofty aspirations and, if I may say so, heroic assumptions. Nonetheless, the new Goals target broad- ranging development cooperation by the international community up to the year 2030, and they deserve universal support.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“He also assured the world of our country’s commitment to upholding the principles upon which the United Nations was founded. My country has lived by that conviction, even when, for instance, judgements 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 the United Nations. Nigeria’s record in the service of United Nations peacekeeping operations is second to none. I myself, as a young officer in the Nigerian army, did several tours of duty in the Congo and Lebanon. Nigeria has contributed to United Nations peacekeeping efforts in Ethiopia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Darfur.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“On behalf of the Government and the people of Nigeria, I would like to congratulate the President and his country on his election to preside over the General Assembly at its seventieth session. May I also express appreciation to his predecessor, Mr. Sam Kahamba Kutesa, and to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, both of whom worked tirelessly to ensure the proper articulation of the post-2015 development agenda and to maintain the focus and commitment to the ideals of the United Nations. I also thank the Secretary-General for his recent visit to Nigeria, where we held very useful discussions. Fifty-five years ago, almost to the day, my predecessor, Nigeria’s first Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, stood in this forum to declare Nigeria’s desire to develop and maintain friendly relations with all countries.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)