Vice President Kashim Shettima has met with UN Secretary-General António Guterres at UN headquarters in the United States, where they discussed key issues.
Part of the discussion was Nigeria’s quest for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Vice President Shettima emphasised the need for the UN to “support Nigeria even more so that we achieve more,” highlighting that “we are aspiring to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council.”
Vice President Kashim Shettima @officialSKSM met United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres @antonioguterres in New York, pushing Nigeria’s bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. #Democracy #UKNigeria #GlobalLeadership pic.twitter.com/aBA7uaaAgs
— Voice of Nigeria (@voiceofnigeria) September 26, 2025
Other Issues
The two leaders also held bilateral discussions focusing on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), climate change, collaboration on strengthening democracy in Nigeria and the African region.
They also considered Nigeria’s partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on regional initiatives for democracy and security.
Speaking about the visit to the United Nations, Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar disclosed that the UN has a very strong presence in Nigeria, with many of its agencies domiciled in the country.
The Minister said the UN Secretary-General commended the Vice President for emphasising Nigeria’s need for a permanent position on the UN Security Council.
Also, Minister of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy Dr Bosun Tijani, said the Nigerian delegation had a very cordial engagement with the UN Secretary-General.
AI
He highlighted Guterres’ comments on artificial intelligence and his hope and expectation that Nigeria will continue to play a significant role in that field.
“He was extremely happy when we mentioned that Nigeria, just a few days ago, released our first multilingual and multimodal large language model—the first of its kind on the African continent, backed by any government.
“Even as we were leaving, he (Guterres) mentioned that he would love to see Nigeria support other African countries to ensure Africa is not left behind in artificial intelligence and that we can leverage it properly for development,” the Minister disclosed.
Poverty Reduction
Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Yusuf Sununu, stressed that the Nigerian government had fruitful discussions with the United Nations Secretary-General, highlighting President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s efforts in addressing humanitarian crises and poverty reduction.
“We highlighted that we have one of the largest national social registers containing almost 18.9 million households, and we have reached over 8.1 million Nigerians through conditional cash transfers.
“We also highlighted the government’s efforts to promote inclusivity for people with disabilities,” he disclosed.
Sununu added that the humanitarian ministry is affected by funding reductions to UN organisations, noting that the World Food Programme (WFP) currently supports about 1.3 million Nigerians receiving emergency food transfers.
The minister stressed that the Nigerian government is working earnestly to fill the gap.
He disclosed that the UN Secretary-General assured Nigeria of continued support to improve the ministry’s capacity, authenticate its national social register, and secure more funding for intervention and poverty reduction activities.