15THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL REFORM: A CASE FOR PERMANENT MEMBERSHIP FOR NIGERIA

Abstract

There is a unanimity among state parties to the United Nations that the United Nations Security Council is in direneed of reform, as well as a growing consensus that Africa deserves at least one permanent seat in a reformedSecurity Council with all the prerogatives and privileges of the existing permanent members of the SecurityCouncil. The question of which African country will occupy such permanent seat has started generating mixedfeelingamong the bigwig countries in Africa particularly Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa. This paper examinedthe growing call for the Security Council reform and Nigeria’s potentials for permanent membership in a reformedSecurity Council as against other African countries especially Egypt and South Africa. The research methodologyadopted by the researcher is purely doctrinal, whereas analytical, descriptive and prescriptive approaches wereemployed. The paper found that the Security Council is not only due for a comprehensive reform, but also that theissue of the Security Council reform has remained one of the major challenges confronting the United Nations inits determination to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. The paper also found that no otherAfrican country could legitimately lay greater claim to permanent membership of the Security Council more thanNigeria because of pride of place it occupies in Africa. This paper therefore called for an urgent reform of theSecurity Council to attune it to the current geopolitical reality of the world. This paper in particular called for theamendment of Article 23 of the United Nations Charter in such a way that Nigeria should be made one of thepermanent members of the Security Council with all the prerogatives and privileges of the existing permanentmembers of the Security Council including the veto power.