Nigeria supports Ban Ki-Moon's second term bid

The Federal Government of Nigeria will support UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon for a second term, the Nigeria Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Bukun-Ölu Onemola, has said. 

Ban had announced on Monday that he would seek a second five-year term as head of the UN after his current term expires on December 31. 

He told reporters that he had sent letters to the 15-member Security Council and 192-member General Assembly “humbly’’ offering himself for consideration for a second five-year term. 
 
After the briefing, the secretary-general met with African ambassadors to the UN where he formally informed them of his self-nomination. 

Onemola, who was present at the meeting, said there was no “dissenting voice” from all the 28 African representatives who spoke at the meeting. He said the speakers expressed the view that Ban had placed African issues such as democracy, preventive diplomacy, counter-terrorism, health, MDGs, in the front burner. 

 “They eulogised his competence in driving issues of mutual importance to Africa,” he said. 

  The Nigerian representative also referred to the UN chief's recent trip to Africa, stressing that it demonstrated his commitment to the goals.

“In the case of Nigeria, we are encouraged by his work in the area of women, UN women and children, sustainable development and we hope that he continues giving his voice for Africa,” he said.

“The uncompleted African agenda should be implemented and completed under his watch, during his next term,” he said. 
 
The ambassador did not specify what the “uncompleted African agenda” was but he stressed that the African bloc at the UN was strongly united in giving the former South Korean Foreign Minister another fresh term in office. 
 
Critics of Ban, who took over the job from the Ghanaian Kofi Annan in 2007, accused him of being too timid to confront the world powers and worst human rights abusers.
 
But in his briefing on Monday in New York, the UN chief took time to outline some of his accomplishments, including raising climate change to the top of the global agenda and responding quickly and effectively to humanitarian emergencies. 
 
“We have saved many lives and sown the seeds of peace in Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Côte d’Ivoire,” he said. “Amid the worst economic crisis in (generations), we kept the world’s focus firmly on the needs of the most vulnerable.”