KEY POINTS
- Guardian Nigeria backs two permanent African council seats with veto power.
- The paper notes Africa’s 54 countries hold no permanent council seat.
- It warns disunity could weaken the continent’s reform bid.
Africa’s exclusion from permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council can no longer be defended, and the continent must unite to change it, Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper said in an editorial Monday.
The editorial backed renewed calls from Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Kenyan President William Ruto for permanent African representation on the council. However, it warned that forceful speeches alone would not win the seats.
Speaking through Vice President Kashim Shettima at the 81st U.N. General Assembly in New York, Tinubu argued that the world of 2026 cannot be run on the balance of power that existed in 1945. The Guardian said his argument was sound.
Meanwhile, Guterres has described Africa’s absence as unjust, and Ruto has insisted the continent cannot keep being shut out, the paper noted.
Why Africa wants Security Council seats
The council’s five permanent members, the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France, each hold a veto. Africa, by contrast, has 54 sovereign states and more than 1.4 billion people but no permanent seat, the editorial said.
It pointed to June 2025, when the United States blocked a council resolution calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, even though the other 14 members voted in favor. So a single member, the paper argued, can override an overwhelming majority.
Tinubu wants at least two permanent seats for Africa with full rights, including the veto, plus five nonpermanent seats. Anything less, the Guardian said, would change how the council looks without fixing its imbalance.
Unity seen as the real test
Still, the editorial acknowledged steep hurdles. Changes to the U.N. Charter need approval from two-thirds of the General Assembly and ratification by two-thirds of member states, including all five permanent members.
As a result, the paper urged African governments to stay united under the African Union’s common position on seat numbers, selection, rotation and veto powers. It also cautioned Nigeria against assuming its size alone entitles it to speak for the continent.
Beyond diplomacy, the Guardian said Africa must become more politically united, economically developed and diplomatically focused. The AU’s occasional failure to speak with one voice, it added, makes the continent look divided.
The editorial also urged Nigeria to keep council reform central in talks with candidates for the next secretary-general, including Costa Rica’s nominee, Rebeca Grynspan, whom Shettima has met.
“The world has changed; the Security Council must change with it,” the editorial concluded.
