NIGERIA’S QUEST FOR A PERMANENT SEAT IN THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL PRO AND CONS

NIGERIA’S QUEST FOR A PERMANENT SEAT IN THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL PRO AND CONS

ABSTRACT

The demand for the reform of the United Nations is due to the evolving international system. The international system has gone through such a rapid transformation to the extent that the UN structures as they were at the time of its establishment are making the UN not to function effectively as expected by majority of its members. Hence, the argument that the Security Council membership is expanded to include major financial contributors and the equitable representation of the regional spread. There is every indication that Nigeria has all it takes to represent Africa in an enlarged Security Council. But considering the vagaries associated with international politics a lot still need to be done by Nigeria to garner overwhelming support from Africa to enable her emerge as a consensus candidate for Africa. This work examined Nigeria’s quest for a permanent seat in the security council of the United Nations and the possibility of Nigeria representing Africa in an enlarged security council. This paper research work was able to find out the reasons for the sudden clamour for the democratization of the United Nations Security Council and the possibility of Nigeria being accepted into this seat. This paper adopted the Neo- realism, Liberalism and Veto power theory as a frame work for the analysis of Nigeria’s quest for a permanent seat in the Security Council and the democratization of the Security Council.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The united nations in the last few years undergone serious reforms among which is the resolution to increase the membership of the non permanent members of the security council in which the African continent has been allotted two slots Nigeria was a serious contender of one of those slots in which it was able to get. Currently no African state is a permanent member of the security council and this is a major reason why Africa was allotted two slots in the non permanent members of the security council been that Africa is the second most populated continent in the world behind Asia. One of the biggest achievements of Nigeria in her fifty four years of independence is being a non permanent member of the Security Council. The current reform of the United Nations is golden opportunity which Nigeria cannot afford to miss. Being a member of this exclusive club will be recognition of the country s strength, economic and strategic importance and political maturity. Despite all her short comings, Nigeria has emerged biggest democracy on the African continent. The return of the country to the part of democracy after years of successive military regime has increased its legitimacy in internal affairs. Nigeria has contributed immensely too many peace keeping operations around the world. If these and other credentials are to yield the desired result the country must contend with the slow pace of economic recovery, the challenges posed by other serious African contenders particularly Egypt and South Africa.

In the 21st century, the world has indeed become a ‘’global village’’ what happens in one remote corner of the world is quickly known by others at the farthest and remotest corner. The consequences also spread fast and given the asymmetrical nature of the world, they have different and varying impact. This accounts for the reason why United Nations permanent members are reluctant towards the admission of an African state as permanent member of the Security Council because of the existence of so many short coming

HISTORY OF THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL

The year was 1945 was the second war enveloping much of the globe in the last 30 years was coming to an end. In this environment, representatives from China, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States met at the Dumbarton Oaks mansion in Washington D.C. for the initial discussions that would lead to the creation of the United Nations. The representatives were well aware of the guiding principles of the League of Nations, and also of its multiple failures. Though many felt that the League of Nations had the capacity to discuss significant international affairs, the body was not constructed in a manner which was able to produce successful measures to deter aggression and prevent conflict. Firstly, the United States, by now a prominent global power, did not join the organization, although the organization was originally the Woodrow Wilson’s, the president of the United States at the time, idea after World War I. This handicapped the League from the beginning by preventing it from achieving maximal financial backing and international political support. Secondly, there was no clear division of duties between the League’s Assembly and Council committees. Thus, tasks were often mismanaged. Additionally, all resolutions required a unanimous vote to pass, a rarity in the arena of international politics. Since there was no clear sense of collective security, individual Member States of the League continued the policy of pursuing narrowly defined interests of their own country’s foreign policy. In 1945, the nations represented at Dumbarton Oaks were mindful of these failings of the League of Nations. The representatives acknowledged the consensus that the newly proposed international organization should contain a principle organ tasked specifically with promoting international peace and security. After careful consideration at the San Francisco Conference later in 1945, delegates from countries that would become the first member states of the United Nations came to the conclusion that a smaller body acting as the United Nations’ defense advisor and operations executioner, specifically charged with “the maintenance of international peace and security,” should be commissioned. Thus, the United Nation’s Security Council was born The Security Council is comprised of fifteen member states, with five nations holding permanent seats and ten holding rotating elected seats. The permanent five members are China, France, Great Britain, the Russian Federation (in place of the former Soviet Union) and the United States and are often referred to as the “P-5” Members. The five permanent members retain veto power over any resolution discussed in the Security Council. These permanent members were given veto powers primarily to ensure that no P-5 member would attack another P-5 Member as well as to ensure that the leading nations were in unanimity before taking action on a particular issue, establishing a unanimous coalition of the powerful. The ten nonpermanent member states are elected for a period of two year terms with five rotating out each December. These states are represented geographically, whereby there are three African, two Latin American, one Arab, one Asian, one Eastern European and two Western European states on the Security Council at any given time. Furthermore, Member States on the Council are mandated by the United Nations Charter to have a representative from each of their states present at the organization’s headquarters in New York City so that the Council may operate “continuously” without delay or hesitation. Current members of the Security Council include: Permanent Seats: China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the United States; Nonpermanent Elected Seats: Belgium, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Indonesia, Italy, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Panama, South Africa, and Viet Nam.. Security Council members must be ready to convene at any given time to decide on “the fate of governments, establish peacekeeping missions, create tribunals to try persons accused of war crimes, and in extreme cases declare a nation to be fare game for corrective action by other member state.” This legislative right was granted to the Security Council through the UN Charter and is apparent in the associations between Articles 37 and 39, which allow the Council to settle a particular dispute and make its accords compulsory on any parties involved or on the international community as a whole, hence, becoming international binding documents. Therefore, it is in this regard that the Security Council has the capability and authority to exercise powers from existing international law by creating binding resolutions.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Existing literature A.S Akpotor and P.E Agbeka in his book ‘ Nigeria’s quest for a permanent

seat in the security council’ and Sokore Collins ‘ Nigeria’s UN Seat Bid And the Tsunami

Gyration Gang’ have attempted to present both the advantages and the disadvantages that are inherent in Nigeria’s bid for a permanent seat of or at the UNSC. These they have done without paying adequate regards to the complex implications, which may not necessarily be negative, that the bid could attract to Nigeria. Really Nigeria’s attempts at assisting the United Nations in finding solutions to some of the numerous politico-security challenges that had happened in some regions of the international system, and her contribution to several of Africa countries, present her as about the best African candidate for a permanent seat at UNSC. However, the groundswell of anomie within her confines and the grave ignominy in which she is held by some of her neighbors, no thanks to the fraudulent activities of some of her citizens in diasporas and some of the elites that are wont to siphon and launder funds from the governmental coffers, seem capable of hurting her candidature. In view of this, one notes that the existing literature have mostly paid attention to the advantages and/or disadvantages that her candidature would engender, with distasteful disregard for the implications therein. Without grappling issues with extant literature therefore, this study seeks an interrogation of the fallouts that would be engendered by Nigeria’s candidature for a permanent seat at UNSC.

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

During the course of this work it will research on the enlightenment of Nigerians on what

we stand to gain by being a member of the permanent seat of the UN Security Council. Its

implications on our finances and the responsibility this post is going to impose on Nigeria as a

nation and also as the ‘Giant’ of Africa. It will be analyzing the reasons why Nigeria is likely to

get the seat despite the fact that it’s competing against strong nations such as South Africa and

Egypt.

TOPIC: NIGERIA’S QUEST FOR A PERMANENT SEAT IN THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL PRO AND CONS

Chapters: 1 - 5
Delivery: Email

Number of Pages: 70

Price: 3000 NGN

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