*General Assembly Debate Opens Today
As the 79th session of the annual United Nations General Assembly opens today Tuesday Sept 24, the Nigerian national statement is expected to be among those to be made on the first day of the meeting, Empowered Newswire reports.
But there are conflicting signals here at the New York headquarters of the global body over whether the absence of the Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu could affect the prominent day one slot earlier given to Nigeria on the assumption that the country would be represented by its head of state-the President.
Due to domestic challenges at home, especially the flooding disaster in Maiduguri, Borno State, President Tinubu announced last week after returning from a trip to China and UK that he would not be attending this year’s UNGA in New York.
Since then Nigerian diplomats here at the Nigerian Permanent Mission to the UN have been worried that there may be a change of the slot with the fact that the country would now be represented by its VP. They noted that UN protocols normally indicated that Presidents and Kings would have pre-eminence in speaking order above Vice Presidents.
At a press briefing on Monday, Empowered Newswire had asked the Spokespersons of the United Nations if the slot would change because the President has said he would be absent, and that the country would be represented by the Vice President.
While the Spokespersons at the briefing didn’t have an immediate answer, Empowered Newswire later got a response from Ms. Sharon Birch, the Spokesperson to the President of the UN General Assembly, sent to this reporter last night by email.
According to her “With regard to your question, please see explanation below from our Protocol officers:
“Normally, “after the issuance of the provisional list of speakers the level of representation of a Member State changes, the replacement speaker will be accommodated as the final speaker in their category. Similarly, if the speaker is upgraded to a higher level, the replacement speaker will be last in their category”.
Empowered Newswire then pressed her to further clarify to which she responded that “If a Vice President replaces the President, he will then be the last one to speak in the category for Vice Presidents.”
A senior Nigerian diplomat explained that the response is reasonable since VPs speak after Presidents.
But officials of the Nigerian Permanent Mission have not received any such communication from the UN as at press time, Tuesday morning here in New York. One senior diplomat told me “we tried to maintain the slot,” referring to the slot the UN gave to President Tinubu.
Other top Nigerian government officials here also hinted that Vice President Kashim Shettima would still be speaking today on Day One as far at the Nigerian Permanent Mission to the UN is concerned, on the slot given to the President.
But a UN Secretariat insider observed that “If the VP speaks at the exact slot given the President, then you must commend the diplomatic skill and influence of the Nigerian officials at the Permanent Mission because normally, a VP shouldn’t speak ahead of Presidents.”
According to Mr. Stephanie Dujarric, the Spokesperson to the Secretary-General of the UN, there are already 76 heads of states who have confirmed participation -physically to speak at the UN headquarters as at Monday. Heads of State are Monarchs and Presidents.
In addition, Dujarric said there are also 4 Vice Presidents, two Crown Princes, 42 heads of government -like Prime Ministers and 9 Deputy Prime Ministers.
He also disclosed that on Day One of the Summit of the Future on Sunday-which precedes the General Debate which opens today, there were over 11k people in the UN complex in New York.
As the UNGA General Debate opens, the President of Brazil will speak first, as had always been the case since 1945 following an agreement struck by the Brazilians with the UN, then followed by the US President as the host nation.
The debate starts today 9am New York time and the first debate session of the day goes on up till after 2pm. Then the second session for the day starts at 3pm till 9pm. The debate continues till the end of the week in that format.
Nigeria’s turn comes at the second session of the opening day today, according to the slot reserved for Nigeria’s President. In that schedule, Nigeria’s statement will conclude Day One deliberations of the UNGA General Debate themed “Leaving No One Behind: acting together for the advancement of peace, sustainable development and human dignity for present and future generations.
(See the provisional list of speakers released by the UN-attached to this story. In the list HS in front of the names of the countries mean Head of State. That would be Presidents and Monarchs, while HG is for Head of Government -mainly Prime Minister who come after Presidents as HS.)
