Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Jimoh Ibrahim, announced that President Bola Tinubu will be attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York this September.
Ambassador Ibrahim made this statement on Wednesday after meeting with President Tinubu and speaking with State House correspondents.
At the gathering of world leaders, President Tinubu is expected to address the global audience about the success of his reform agenda. Additionally, he will discuss topics related to power issues, education, and hospitality management during side meetings.
He said: “I came in from New York to speak with the president as chairman of the United Nations Budget Committee, and in preparation for UNGA.
“So the president, I can tell you, has generously agreed to attend the UNGA meeting.
It is significant because Mr. President has a speech to give to the whole world about his reform success in Nigeria, and that has been slated for September. So Nigeria will be effectively in UNGA. There are side meetings, side event meetings for Mr. President to attend, which include power issues that have to do with energy.
“You know, so there’s a side event meeting. There’s another side event meeting on education, as well as hospital management, which we put in place for Mr. President to attend. But we don’t want to crowd his itineraries, so we discuss that graciously. The president was able to give us his word. Now he will come to UNGA this September.”
Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations also revealed that the security of the West African subregion would also come up at the session.
“The president also reflected his commitment to border policing, so this time around, the president will be working with the United Nations to look into the West African border.
“So the border is porous. So a lot of peacekeeping efforts are coming in here. So the president is going to, I can assure you, from what we discussed, the President is going to put a lot of efforts in border policing for West Africa countries, and I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, but I can tell you that some things are coming for the good of Nigeria in terms of border policing, West Africa border policing, and he gave specific directive on what to do instantly, and I will be going back to the UN to also inform everyone about the concerns to take West Africa as a case study of border policing and ensure that our security is well guaranteed. So border policing will be fine. These are the kind of things that the UN is established for.”
Responding to the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde’s call for the world body investigation of circumstances surrounding the abduction of teachers and students of schools in Orire Community, Ambassador Ibrahim dismissed it as he noted that “We ( the UN) are not established to look at domestic criminal matters in Oyo and Ondo.”
He equally dropped hint of the likelihood of an interaction between President Tinubu and his United States counterpart, Donald Trump.
“Well, I won’t be able to tell you that, but I can tell you clearly that President Tinubu will be sitting very, very close to Donald Trump in the front row of the United Nations General Assembly.
“That you get from me. Don’t ask me how and how that was arranged, but he will be sitting. Mr. President of Nigeria will be sitting in the front row, and he will be speaking at a time when Nigeria will not be sleeping. So he will be speaking around 10:45 United New York time, and then that will be a time when Nigeria will be around 2 o’clock and so everybody will listen and see live what the president will be delivering.”