President Bola Tinubu on Thursday departed New York after attending the 78th session of high-level meetings of the UN General Assembly.

While in New York, the president participated in some of the high-level events, including a bilateral meeting. Mr Tinubu, who arrived in New York on Sunday, was among the leaders that adopted the political declaration to accelerate the 17 goals on Monday at the SDG summit.

Before the opening session, Mr Tinubu met with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss economic and regional ties.

On Tuesday, the president attended the opening of the UN General Debate in the company of the foreign affairs minister Yusuf Tuggar and the permanent representative of Nigeria to the UN, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande and the chief of staff, Femi Gbajabiamila.

Mr Tinubu later delivered Nigeria’s statement to world leaders, affirming democratic governance as the best guarantor of the sovereign will and well-being of the people, saying military coups are wrong. 

In his inaugural speech on behalf of Nigeria and Africa, he said Nigeria’s accord with the objectives and guiding principles of the world body: peace, security, human rights and development.

Mr Tinubu, as ECOWAS chair, solicited help to re-establish democratic governance in a manner that addresses the political and economic challenges confronting that nation, including the violent extremists who seek to foment instability in our region.

On Wednesday, he met with some Nigerians in the U.S. for a town hall meeting, urging them to return home.

After interacting with the Nigerians, he met with the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, where he noted that African nations would start to take appropriate actions against actors that illicitly siphon and smuggle out the continent’s vast mineral resources.

The Nigerian leader told the UN chief that human rights are used to deter actions against such actors that smuggle out African resources and bring in Western-made weapons.

On Thursday, he rang the bell at the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System (NASDAQ), becoming another African president to do so after the Tanzanian leader in 2011.

(NAN)