UN Security Council ineffective – Amb Dahiru

What is your reaction to Nigeria’s election as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council?It is true that Nigeria was recently elected by the UN General Assembly to be a member of its Security Council on a two-year rotational non-permanent membership.However, I am inclined to look at the issue of Nigeria’s membership of […]

What is your reaction to Nigeria’s election as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council?
It is true that Nigeria was recently elected by the UN General Assembly to be a member of its Security Council on a two-year rotational non-permanent membership.
However, I am inclined to look at the issue of Nigeria’s membership of the UN Security Council from two angles. First, that Nigeria got elected is an eloquent testimony of the capacity of Nigerian diplomats who mounted a relentless campaign to get the support of the rest of the world. This supports my long held view that professional jobs should be left to the professionals. Secondly, that The Gambia and Senegal fruitlessly tried to challenge Nigeria despite sub-regional and regional endorsement goes to show that Nigeria is no longer the undisputed leader which it used to be. It is a mark of dwindling political profile of Nigeria, even within the sub-region.
What is your view on the permanent members of the Security Council and its democratisation?
Since the end of the Second World War and the establishment of the United Nations in 1945 with the mandate to ensure peace and security of the world, the forces that defeated Germany formed the Security Council and added China. The P5 since then comprises USA, France, Great Britain, China and Russia. These countries decide what happens around the world, even if it is imposing their will on the rest of the world.
Nigeria’s voice can be heard globally on any issue before the UN Security Council. However it may not influence or change anything if the P5 are adamant on going ahead with their wish, no matter how it is wrongly viewed by the rest of the world.
Therefore, Nigeria, along with the rest of the world should mount a vigorous campaign for the democratisation of the council to change its composition as a result of the realities the world faces now.
Saudi Arabia was elected to non-permanent membership of the Security Council but declined. What do you think led to this?
I find Saudi Arabia’s posture funny. First, it accepted its nomination by the regional group. Secondly, it contested the election and won. On the surface, the reasons adduced by Saudi Arabia may appear unassailable but a closer look will reveal a diabolical mischief.
Everybody who is not religiously or politically biased knows that the Palestinian quagmire has lasted for so long because of the double, if not multiple standards of the Western world, especially the United States which has become a tool in the hands of Israel. The Arabs who cannot speak with one voice, have failed the Palestinians. Israel, under hawkish and arrogant leaders have spurned all efforts to find a solution to the problem, even spurning the Security Council resolution. Israel has become law unto itself and is contemptuous of world opinion.
Saudi Arabia also raised the failure by the Security Council to solve Syria’s political imbroglio. The position of Saudi Arabia is hypocritical. All that it is after is regime change in Syria because it loathes the minority Alawite Shiite ruling clique over the majority Sunni population. But it is the same Saudi Arabia which sent its troops to crush the demonstration by the majority Shiite population of Bahrain against the minority Sunni ruling monarchy. Saudi Arabia wants to see the back of Bashar Al-Assad in Syria but it is propping the tottering minority Sunni ruling family in Bahrain.
However, I agree with Saudi Arabia that the Security Council has become an ineffective body, pursuing their narrow selfish interest or looking the other way when some parts of the world are burning. The Security Council failed the Muslims of the old Yugoslavia when they were being exterminated and it also failed the people of Rwanda during the genocide in that country. The Central African Republic (CAR) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been on fire for so long but the will to frontally confront the problem is not there. One can also talk about the recalcitrant attitude of Morocco towards the People of Sahrawi Democratic Arab Republic with the connivance of France, an ineligible member of the P5. Therefore Saudi Arabia is purely lambasting the attitude of the P5 in tackling the problems facing the word.
What is your position regarding the proliferation of light weapons and small arms especially in the ECOWAS sub-region?
It is really worrying that there appears to be unhindered proliferation of arms and ammunition around ECOWAS or what you call light weapons and small arms. Concerned with the situation, Nigeria took up the matter with the United Nations and a resolution was passed condemning it. Member States were enjoined to institute effective measures to control it. Regrettably, the ECOWAS is awash with these weapons which are daily smuggled in. The civil war in Libya must have greatly contributed. Even before the civil war in Libya, Colonel Gaddafi had trained and armed dissidents to take up arms against their countries. It happened in Chad, Niger, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The issue is that these weapons are manufactured mostly outside Africa. These arms manufacturers are only interested in getting markets for their weapons and not the issue of morality. For example, how did Nigeria receive a disproportionate share of these weapons? It is through smuggling from our porous borders and by sea, despite the best effort of the Nigerian Navy.
Every country that wants to live in freedom and stability must make concerted effort to control the smuggling of weapons whether light or heavy.