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Global inequality must end now – Tinubu *Seeks Africa’s inclusion in UN, G20 leadership
Every effort to solve many crises facing the world will come to naught if a conscious effort is not made to offer Africa and other developing countries some spaces as participants on the leadership of big global stages such as the United Nations and G-20.
This was the warning President Bola Tinubu, sent to members on Monday, on arrival for the meeting of the G-20, which kicked off in Rio de Janeiro on the same day, warning that nobody should be left out in the move to make the world a livable place.
Tinubu, who conveyed his position through Yusuf Tuggar, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emphasised the urgent need for the United Nations Security Council reform to ensure its continued relevance in global interventions, reiterating Nigeria’s readiness and capability to represent Africa within the group, also called on the G20 to champion the noble ideal, having admitted the African Union as a group member.
Hear him: “The Security Council should expand its permanent and non-permanent member categories to reflect the world’s diversity and plurality. Africa deserves priority in this. The Security Council should expand its permanent and non-permanent member categories to reflect the world’s diversity and plurality better.
“Africa deserves priority in this process, and two permanent seats should be allocated to it with equal rights and responsibilities. Nigeria stands ready and willing to serve as a representative of Africa in this capacity.”
He noted that the G20 now wore a toga of a forward-looking international institution that upheld reform-minded multilateralism, commending its decision to grant permanent membership to the African Union and for its consistency in sustaining the tradition of inviting guest countries to join the group.
Advancing that the disposition would allow the opportunity for more inclusive and effective discussions to address shared global challenges, he said: “Some permanent members of the Council have shown promising signs of support for this process, which is a positive development. We welcome this shift in attitude and call for a faster pace to the long overdue change.
“The world faces various challenges, including extreme poverty, inequality, climate change, terrorism, and global conflicts. These issues are exacerbated by longstanding inequities in the global governance system, which have led to unsustainable sovereign debt and distortions in access to capital markets, trade imbalances, unfair representations and hindered development in the Global South.
“It is our responsibility to find pragmatic solutions to fix these imbalances. Particularly pressing is global taxation, which profoundly impacts developing countries. The current international tax system, largely shaped by the interests of more affluent nations, often leaves developing countries at a disadvantage, especially in taxing digital economies.
“This systemic imbalance has led to significant revenue losses, hampering our efforts towards sustainable development and economic self-reliance.”
Tinubu while noting that Nigeria, alongside other African Group member states, championed a historic initiative at the United Nations, called for a framework Convention on Tax to establish a more equitable and inclusive global tax system.
He urged the G20 to heed the call by countries, especially those of the global South, to reform the international financial architecture, adding: “Multilateral institutions must be revamped to bridge the gap between the Global North and South. This is the path for the future and one the G20 must champion. Nigeria is committed to being part of that future through active participation in the G20 and our steadfast support for achieving SDG 2030 targets.”
On the same day he signed in to the global push to end the biting hunger many countries, including Nigeria are currently grappling with, saying the phenomenon must be given all the attention it deserves.
Tinubu, who made the commitment, also hailed the creation of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, championed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, describing the alliance as pivotal in the global fight against hunger and poverty.
At the 19th G20 Leaders Summit in the Brazilian capital, where he described the initiative as the right step to address one of the world’s most significant challenges, he said: “This bold and visionary step underscores Brazil’s leadership in addressing one of the most urgent and persistent challenges facing our world today. The creation of this Alliance marks a significant milestone in our global efforts to eradicate hunger and poverty, and it also sends a powerful message of solidarity to vulnerable populations around the globe.
“By fostering collaboration between governments, international organisations, and civil society, this initiative offers a comprehensive approach not only to addressing immediate needs but also tackling the structural causes of hunger and poverty.”
The President, while comparing the global initiative to one of the eight priority areas he outlined at his inauguration 18 months ago, expressing Nigeria’s eagerness to adopt international best practices to advance its economic development.
Stressing that Nigeria’s endorsement of the declaration of commitment to join the Global Alliance was a significant step in its efforts to address hunger and poverty by leveraging international cooperation and resources to bolster domestic strategies, he added that by supporting the initiative, Nigeria has also demonstrated a solid commitment to realising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 1, which focused on eradicating poverty, and SDG 2, which aimed to achieve zero hunger.
His words: “These goals are at the core of Nigeria’s development agenda, and the Alliance offers a platform to accelerate progress towards them. By collaborating with international partners, Nigeria aims to leverage best practices, innovative solutions, and financial support to enhance its efforts to combat poverty and hunger. The endorsement reinforces Nigeria’s role as a key player in global efforts to promote sustainable development and improve the quality of life for all its citizens.”
Atiku Abubakar seventh attempt at the presidency has been halted by the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which held that David Mark is not the fit and proper person to assume the position of the National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) – the camp that produced the former Vice President as candidate of the party.
Hours after the former VP, who had attempted the bid for the nation’s number one job and is on the seventh edition by virtue of his nomination for the 2027 presidential election by the Mark, agreed with the position of the Federal High Court, Abuja, restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising or participating in any state congresses organised by the former Senate President.
Justice Okon Abang, while reading the lead-judgement in the three-to-one split, said there was no reason for the appellate court to set aside the April 29 order by the lower court, adding that Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, who barred Mark and his executives from interfering with the tenure and functions of the party’s elected state executives, was in order.
Agreeing that the responsibility for conducting state congresses of political parties rested with elected state executive committees and not with the national leadership, he ordered INEC not to recognise the executive produced as a result of the defective process.
Though his position was echoed by Donatus Okorowo in the majority, Justice Abba Mohammed, who disagreed sharply, with a dissenting judgment, held that the case that precipitated the restraining order bordered on a non-justiciable internal affair of a political party, adding that lower court was wrong to have assumed jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
By Ken Harries Esq
Some speeches disappear with the applause that greets them. Others acquire greater force with the passing of time. Their words do not change; history simply grows into them. Years later, they resonate with fresh power, not because they have been rewritten, but because the nation has finally arrived at the realities they foresaw.
One such speech was delivered in April 2012 at the 2nd South South Economic Summit in Asaba. There, Senator Godswill Akpabio, then Governor of Akwa Ibom State, presented what many regarded as an ambitious vision for maritime corridor and blue economy development.
Speaking before political leaders, investors, and development stakeholders at the 2nd South South Economic Summit in Asaba, Akpabio outlined what many regarded as an ambitious vision for a model state in particular and regional development in general. Long before the Ibom Deep Seaport became a national priority, he argued that Nigeria needed new maritime gateways, integrated industrial clusters, aviation maintenance facilities, and modern logistics infrastructure to unlock economic growth. His vision was not simply about building a port; it was about creating an economic ecosystem capable of transforming a region and strengthening the nation’s competitiveness.
Fourteen years later, those remarks read less like political advocacy and more like an economic blueprint whose underlying logic has steadily been vindicated by events and times. Looking back today, his address appears almost prophetic—not because it predicted the future in mystical terms, but because Nigeria has gradually grown into the ideas it contained.
Truly visionary speeches never fade; they gather strength with time. This one deserves renewed attention, not because every prediction has materialised exactly as envisioned, but because it reveals a quality increasingly scarce in public leadership: the ability to think beyond electoral cycles.
Nigeria has never lacked projects. What it has often lacked are leaders willing to imagine the infrastructure of tomorrow while grappling with the demands of today. Akpabio’s vision was shaped by precisely that instinct.
At a time when public discourse was largely focused on roads and recurrent expenditure, he spoke instead of logistics corridors, industrial ecosystems, aviation maintenance, manufacturing clusters, export processing zones, maritime and blue economy opportunities, and security reform—not as isolated initiatives, but as interconnected pillars of national competitiveness.
His vision for the then proposed Ibaka Deep Seaport, now known as the Ibom Deep Seaport, best illustrates this broader philosophy. Rather than presenting it as another state prestige project, he framed it as a strategic response to structural inefficiencies in Nigeria’s maritime sector and the wider economy. He argued that the Lagos ports were already burdened by severe congestion, with vessels waiting for extended periods to berth, driving up costs, disrupting supply chains, and delaying the delivery of critical imports, including pharmaceuticals.
His objective, however, was never to rival Lagos, but to complement it. The distinction is fundamental. No major trading nation concentrates all its strategic maritime infrastructure within a single corridor. Successful economies spread capacity, ease bottlenecks, and create multiple gateways through which commerce can flow efficiently. Nigeria has long recognised this principle in policy documents; Akpabio was among the few public leaders articulating it so clearly more than a decade ago.
Equally significant was his emphasis on geography. He reminded his audience that Ibaka possessed a naturally deep coastline requiring little or no dredging, with water depths of approximately fifteen to seventeen metres. According to his account, the location had been identified as suitable for a deep seaport as far back as 1963, yet decades passed without meaningful progress. His observation that “being a minority area, there was nobody to push it” reflected a broader concern that strategic national investments have too often been influenced by political considerations rather than economic merit.
Whether one agrees entirely with that assessment is, in many respects, secondary. The larger point is that Akpabio consistently argued that national infrastructure should be driven by economic logic, strategic necessity, and long-term national interest rather than sentiment or political convenience. More than a decade later, that remains a lesson Nigeria is still striving to learn.
Yet, to see the 2012 Asaba address merely as a speech about a deep seaport is to miss its larger significance. The Ibom Deep Seaport was never presented as an end in itself. It was conceived as the anchor of a much broader economic ecosystem—a platform around which industries, manufacturing, aviation, logistics, free trade, and investment could flourish.
Akpabio envisioned the acquisition of about 14,000 hectares of land to support a self-sustaining industrial city comprising fertiliser and ammonia plants, refining capacity, manufacturing facilities, and a Free Trade Zone. What development economists today describe as industrial clustering was already embedded in his thinking. The port was simply the gateway.
That broader vision deserves a discussion of its own. Today, Ibom Deep Seaport in that Asaba Speech has berthed.
•Ken Harries Esq is an Abuja-based Development Communication Strategist.
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Monday, granted allowed Uche Nnaji former Minister of Science and Technology, to go home, on the condition of a N20million bail bond.
Nnaji, who was arrested at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja on July 1 by officials of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Offences Commission (ICPC), while returning to Abuja, was granted bail after pleading not guilty to a six-count certificate forgery charge.
The anti-corruption agency alleged that Nnaji, Minister of Science and Technology between August 16, 2023 and October 6, 2025, when he resigned office after a crisis regarding his university degree broke out is currently the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu for in the 2027 general election, squaring up against Peter Mba, the incumbent, who incidentally won his office in 2023 under the same PDP, before defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
He was accused of forging his academic credentials, especially a degree certificate from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) alongside presenting a bogus National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate during his ministerial screening process in 2023.
At the proceedings on Monday, the former Minister pleaded not guilty to the charges, and following an application by James Onoja (SAN), his lawyer, was granted to bail in the sum of N20 million with one surety in the like sum, who must also be a civil servant resident in Abuja, not be below grade level 15.
The court, which ordered the surety to depose to an affidavit of means, mandated the former Minister to also surrender his international passport and not travel outside the country without permission, while fixing September 21 for the commencement of the trial.
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