Nigeria backs total elimination of nuclear weapons

Nigeria has restated its calls for the total elimination of nuclear weapons to engender a peaceful and secured world. Amb. Audu Kadiri, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Offices in Geneva and Other International Organisations, stated this in Gemeva at the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of […]

Nigeria has restated its calls for the total elimination of nuclear weapons to engender a peaceful and secured world.

Amb. Audu Kadiri, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Offices in Geneva and Other International Organisations, stated this in Gemeva at the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

The International Day Against Nuclear Tests, is observed annually on Aug. 29.

Kadiri said: “On the issue of Disarmament and Security Assurances, Nigeria’s view remains unchanged. As a non-nuclear weapon state, Nigeria has and will continue to take its obligations under the NPT seriously.

“For us, the nuclear weapons option was never contemplated in the first place. Nigeria’s basic position has always been that as long as nuclear weapons exist, they constitute a threat to international security and indeed all of humanity.

According to him, the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of a nuclear weapons detonation in today’s world can best be imagined.

“It is for this reason that Nigeria holds the view that the most effective and credible guarantee against the threat of the use of nuclear weapons lies in their complete and total elimination through a verifiable and irreversible programme of global disarmament.

“Pursuant to this goal and cognisant of the lethargy on disarmament expressed clearly by the stalemate of the Conference on Disarmament and the nearly five decades journey of the NPT which has not resulted in the ultimate goal of disarmament.”

Kadiri noted that Nigeria in concert with like-minded countries successfully concluded negotiations and adopted the NPT in New York in July 2017, saying several Member States, including Nigeria have signed on and are now in the process of ratification, the Nigerian envoy added.

According to him, the overwhelming numbers of Member states of the UN, Parties to NPT, who support the treaty was a further testament to the shared global aspiration for nuclear disarmament.

He expressed the hope that nuclear weapon States would take adequate note that the international community has achieved an agreement of the minds that in today’s world, nuclear weapons have no place.