By Jerome Hule
Panafrican News Agency
October 24,1999
New York - Nigeria's minister of state for foreign affairs, Dubem Onyia, has maintained that Africa's problems will only be properly addressed if the continents is accorded permanent seats in the UN Security Council.
In an interview in New York over the weekend, Onyia said that African problems were not getting the attention they deserved by the international community because the continent's lacks a permanent seat in the council, which is responsible for international peace and security. "Until we get a permanent seat in the Security Council, we will never get our problems properly addressed and looked into as at when due," he said.
The minister, who was in New York to attend the current session of the United Nations General Assembly, pointed out that the continued application of double standards to African problems by the international community would not augur well for global stability. "Conflicts like those in Sierra Leone and Rwanda were there before Kosovo but the speed and determination with which they went into Kosovo showed that we have two different human beings in the world," the minister remarked.
He said it was now time for Africa to unite in asking for equitable representation in the permanent category of the Security Council membership because it is only then that Africa's voice would be heard."
Onyia explained that Nigeria's priority was not which country gets the seats but to ensure that the UN gives Africa the permanent seats to ensure the UN gives Africa the permanent seats in the council. "First of all let's get the UN to agree to give us the seat. Then let Africa go back and resolve who gets the slots," he said.
Onyia also said the current Nigerian administration was committed to ensuring that Africa remains united and peaceful. It was in the pursuit of this goal that President Olusegun Obasanjo nitiated a resolution at the last extra- ordinary OAU summit in Tripoli, Libya, declaring 2000 as the year of peace and solidarity in Africa, the minister added. "If Africa can achieve peace and solidarity, we can now come out as one voice to the international arena," he said.
The minister explained that Nigeria's efforts at ensuring peace in Africa were currently concentrated in West Africa but the country will also become active elsewhere in Africa once the sub-region is free from conflicts. He said that even now, the government was co-operating with the leadership of other sub-regions to resolve the problems elsewhere in Africa.
According to the minister, the Tripoli summit had made much progress in ensuring that the old practice whereby countries in the continent were supporting the destabilisation of others was stopped. "Once those who are involved in the efforts of expansion or destabilisation in the areas realise that they cannot get such assistance from anywhere in Africa, they will have to think twice before beginning any conflicts," he said.
