UN supports FG’s anti-corruption war, insecurity

 The UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, said addressing graft required uprooting its root causes.

Speaking during a visit to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, in Abuja on Tuesday, the Deputy UN scribe stated that the global body would also support Nigeria in its effort to achieve the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals and address humanitarian and climate action challenges through a multilateral approach.

She noted that the UN General Assembly took stock of how the SDGs had fared in the last five years and discovered “unfortunately, countries were not where they should be.”

Mohammed noted, “We are considerably off-track across the globe, it is a global agenda. And as we come to Nigeria we will continue to advocate the decade of action which starts in 2020.

“On the humanitarian side, we know that this has continued to challenge not just Nigeria but the cross-border issues, whether it is the Lake Chad or the borders with Niger Republic or the North-West of Nigeria.”

She pledged the support of the UN to the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement which she explained was critical to achieving regional integration.

Speaking earlier, Onyeama said Nigeria’s priorities were in line with the focus of the UN General Assembly, which he said, related to ensuring quality education, peace and security, climate action and inclusion as well as poverty eradication.

He stated that achieving such priorities would be synonymous with achieving the objectives of the SDGs.

Onyeama also expressed appreciation for the support and intervention of the UN offices in Nigeria in addressing the humanitarian crisis in the North-East and other parts of the country.

He stated, “We know that under the President of the General Assembly, the main focus of the UN for this year – quality education, peace and security, climate action and inclusion, as well as poverty eradication – are goals that we also have bought into and are priorities for us.”