President of United Nations General Assembly, Maria Fernanda Espinaso, with President Buhari at Aso Rock. Nigeria’s hope to join the security council of the United Nations (UN) may not come to fruition anytime soon, as the big five – Britain, United States, Russia, France and China – are yet to arrive at a consensus to welcome more countries into their fold.

Twenty-five years after the mandate to reform the council, the President of the UN General Assembly, Fernanda Maria Espinosa Garcés, yesterday regretted that the world leaders had not demonstrated the political will to push the initiative through.
Specifically, Nigeria and others have consistently agitated for the expansion of the UN Security Council from its current five permanent membership with veto powers to admit more nations.

On the prospect of expanding the council and having Nigeria on board, she said: “Regarding the question of UN Security Council reform, I have to say very honestly that this is one of the most complex, divisive and contentious negotiation processes at the UN. “As you know, the reform of the security council is under the responsibility of the UN General Assembly and I have appointed two co-chairs to lead the works of the inter-governmental negotiations that have been taking place for 10 years now. “The process of reforms started 25 years ago and the mandate to negotiate the reform came 10 years ago when I was the Ambassador of Ecuador at the UN. And at the time, I thought we had a resolution to start the negotiations and with a great naivety, I thought this is going to be a process that will perhaps be for two or three years.”

Photo Credit: Twitter/MBuhari