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President Bola Tinubu has said terrorists despise Nigeria because it chooses tolerance over tyranny, adding that its bitter experience has shown that violence never ends where it begins.
Vice President Kashim Shettima, who represented President Bola Tinubu at the ongoing 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, delivered the national statement on behalf of the country.
Speaking on global security challenges, Shettima said terrorist groups across regions sought to poison humanity with hate and division.
“We are despised by terrorists because we choose tolerance over tyranny.
“Their ambition is to divide us and to poison our humanity with a toxic rhetoric of hate,” Shettima said.
He explained that Nigeria’s stand against violence was not only because of international law but also due to its own experience with insurgency.
“Our difference is the distance between shadow and light, between despair and hope, between the ruin of anarchy and the promise of order.
“We do not only fight wars, we feed and shelter the innocent victims of war,” the statement read in part.
On the Israel-Palestine crisis, the federal government reiterated its support for a two-state solution as the most dignified path to peace.
“We say without stuttering and without doubt, that a two-state solution remains the most dignified path to lasting peace for the people of Palestine.
“The people of Palestine are not collateral damage in a civilisation searching for order.
“They are human beings, equal in worth, entitled to the same freedoms and dignities that the rest of us take for granted,” Shettima declared.
Turning to domestic reforms, the Vice President stressed that peace required tough economic choices.
“The price of peace is eternal vigilance. We in Nigeria are already familiar with such difficult choices: infrastructure renewal or defence platforms? Schools or tanks?
growth and prosperity,” he said.
According to him, FG has taken necessary steps to restructure the economy and remove distortions such as subsidies and currency controls that had favoured a few at the expense of the majority.
The Vice President added that the inaugural West Africa Economic Summit, held earlier this year in Abuja, had exceeded expectations and shown what innovation could deliver.
Tinubu’s statement further urged the United Nations to re-examine the best use of scarce resources, especially in tackling climate change, which he described as a security issue with direct implications for migration and stability.
PUNCH Online had reported that Shettima is in New York to represent President Bola Tinubu at the session, which runs until September 28.
He is scheduled to deliver Nigeria’s national statement, unveil the country’s new Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement, and take part in side events, bilateral meetings, and roundtables.
This year’s 80th session began on September 9, while the high-level General Debate, the main platform for heads of state and government to address the Assembly, started on September 23 and will feature more than 150 leaders.
