Vice President Kashim Shettima has delivered a powerful call for African self-reliance, urging the African Union (AU) to reinvigorate diplomacy as the primary tool for resolving the continentโs conflicts and to end the interference of foreign military forces. He stated that such external meddling contradicts the very spirit of Africa’s common defence and security policy.
Representing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Shettima addressed the AU Peace and Security Council during the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. He argued that with the United Nations and its traditional partners increasingly focused on conflicts outside Africa, the continent can no longer rely on others to shoulder the immense financial burden of its peacekeeping missions.
โOur continent must continue to maintain a diplomatic approach in its conflict prevention and resolution endeavours,โ Shettima told the council. He urged them to ensure that future peace operations, especially those approved by the UN, include political strategies that tackle the root causes of conflict, rather than just managing the symptoms. The Vice President warned that the current โproliferation of numerous peace initiativesโ on the continent is often counter-productive, undermining the AUโs own official processes.
The heart of Shettimaโs address was a firm condemnation of foreign powers inserting themselves into African crises. He pointed to the presence of foreign military forces, mercenaries, and defence contractors in some AU member states as a direct challenge to African sovereignty. โThis negates the spirit of African common defence and security policy,โ he said, calling it contrary to established African conflict resolution initiatives.
To address this, Shettima pressed the Council to adopt a formal communique addressing these loopholes and to demand the โimmediate and unconditional withdrawal of foreign forces from member countries.โ He also pushed for the Council to remove obstacles preventing the full operationalisation of the African Standby Force, a long-planned continental peacekeeping body, and to adopt a clear strategy for its deployment.
โIt is our view that conflict prevention and resolution on the continent is a matter of solidarity, and working in silos should be avoided completely,โ Shettima stated, emphasising that the AU already possesses adequate mechanisms to handle the continentโs evolving security challenges. He recommended that the Council regularly coordinate with similar structures in regional economic communities to present a united front.
Echoing the need for internal solutions, the UN’s Special Representative to the AU, Mr Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, also urged member countries to establish their own national peacebuilding and conflict prevention mechanisms. โPrevention, indeed, must start at home,โ he remarked, noting a surge in armed conflicts alongside dwindling funds for peace interventions.
In a separate event at the UNGA, Vice President Shettima directly linked lasting stability to another critical area of investment: education. Speaking at a high-level event on education financing, he identified schooling as โthe public investment with the highest returns,โ stating that every additional year in school increases lifetime earnings and directly reduces the risks of fragility and conflict.
He outlined how well-targeted education financing addresses the root causes of instability, such as extreme poverty and youth unemployment, and praised the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) for its multiplier effect. Shettima revealed that in 2024 alone, GPE approved over $1.2 billion in new grants and mobilised more than $1.5 billion in co-financing from other sources.
Linking the theme back to Nigeria, he shared that a notable GPE grant is helping the country integrate religious school children into mainstream education and train teachers, particularly to support girls’ education. He called on international donors to safeguard funding for basic education, arguing that a fully funded GPE is essential to unlock the grants needed where the impact would be most profound.
Together, Shettimaโs interventions in New York painted a comprehensive picture of Nigeriaโs foreign policy priorities: a continent that solves its own problems through robust diplomacy and African-led institutions, underpinned by strategic investments in education as the most reliable foundation for a peaceful and prosperous future.
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