Full Text: Tinubu’s address at the 81st UN General Assembly (UNGA81)

H. E. BOLA AHMED TINUBU, GCFR PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AS DELIVERED ​‌‍‍‍‍⁠⁠‌⁠‍​‍​‌‍​‌​BY H. E. KASHIM SHETTIMA, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE GENERAL DEBATE OF THE EIGHTY-FIRST SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON THE THEME: “RESTORING TRUST, MANAGING TRANSFORMATION: A UNITED NATIONS THAT DELIVERS FOR ALL” 24TH SEPTEMBER, 2026 Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, Excellencies, Heads of State and Government, Distinguished Delegates, I extend my warmest congratulations to you, Mr. President, on your election as President of the Eighty-First Session of the United Nations General Assembly and assure you of Nigeria’s full cooperation and support. I commend your predecessor’s stewardship of this Assembly.

I also salute the Secretary-General, His Excellency António Guterres, for steering the United Nations through storms that have sharpened our awareness of the cost of inaction. 2. None of us can pretend that conflicts within our borders or in lands far beyond them do not exact a price from us. Such is the reach of our interdependence. Such is the urgency of this session’s sacred duty to restore trust in the international institutions we established to reconcile our differences and advance our common interests. 3. The persistence of conflict across the world recalls the purpose for which the United Nations was founded: to spare succeeding generations the devastation of war. We must therefore return to the founding principles of dialogue, mutual respect and collective responsibility. Nigeria stands by the Charter and its promise of a world in which diplomacy prevails over coercion, cooperation over isolation and international law over the arbitrary exercise of power. Mr. President, 4. The…