By Kabiru Abdulrauf
Nigeria’s diplomatic push took center stage at the 80th United Nations General Assembly as Vice President Kashim Shettima met with UN Secretary-General António Guterres to advance Nigeria’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and strengthen ties on key global issues.
Shettima, speaking on behalf of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, urged the UN to support Nigeria’s aspiration to join the Security Council’s permanent members — a long-standing goal that would give Africa’s most populous nation greater influence in shaping international peace and security decisions.
The high-level talks covered an ambitious agenda: achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), combating climate change, fortifying democracy in Nigeria and across Africa, and collaborating with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on regional security initiatives.
Foreign Affairs Minister Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar revealed that Guterres commended Shettima’s advocacy, reaffirming the UN’s commitment to supporting Nigeria’s leadership role in Africa. Minister of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy, Dr ‘Bosun Tijani, said Guterres was particularly impressed by Nigeria’s launch of its first multilingual and multimodal large language model — a pioneering step in artificial intelligence for Africa. Guterres encouraged Nigeria to spearhead AI development across the continent.
Humanitarian and poverty reduction efforts were also on the table. Minister of State Dr Yusuf Tanko Sununu highlighted Tinubu administration’s national social register, which contains data on 18.9 million households, and its conditional cash transfer program reaching 8.1 million citizens. He said Nigeria was working to fill funding gaps following global cuts to UN humanitarian agencies like the World Food Programme, which currently supports 1.3 million Nigerians with emergency food aid. Guterres reportedly pledged technical support to strengthen Nigeria’s capacity and secure additional resources.
Earlier in the day, Shettima also met with UK Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy MP, with both sides committing to deepen cooperation on trade, economy, defence, and migration.
With Nigeria’s quest for a permanent Security Council seat at the heart of its diplomacy, Shettima’s engagements at UNGA 80 signal a renewed drive to position Nigeria and Africa at the center of global governance.
