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U N I T E D N A T I O N S N A T I O N S U N I E S

U N I T E D N A T I O N S N A T I O N S U N I E S
THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
OP-ED ON THE SUMMIT OF THE FUTURE
By: Michael Mike
World Leaders Must Re-boot Global Cooperation for Today and Tomorrow
Final negotiations are underway in New York for this month’s Summit of the Future, where Heads of State will agree on reforms to the building blocks of global cooperation.
The United Nations has convened this unique Summit because of a stark fact: global problems are moving faster than the institutions designed to solve them.
We see this all around us. Ferocious conflicts and violence are inflicting terrible suffering; geopolitical divisions are rife; inequality and injustice are everywhere, corroding trust, compounding grievances, and feeding populism and extremism. The age-old challenges of poverty, hunger, discrimination, misogyny and racism are taking on new forms.
Meanwhile, we face new and existential threats, from runaway climate chaos and environmental degradation to technologies like Artificial Intelligence developing in an ethical and legal vacuum.
The Summit of the Future recognizes that the solutions to all these challenges are in our hands. But we need a systems update that only global leaders can deliver.
International decision-making is stuck in a time warp. Many global institutions and tools are a product of the 1940s – an era before globalization, before decolonization, before widespread recognition of universal human rights and gender equality, before humanity travelled into space – never mind cyberspace.
The victors of World War II still have pre-eminence in the UN Security Council while the entire continent of Africa lacks a permanent seat. The global financial architecture is heavily weighted against developing countries and fails to provide a safety net when they face difficulties, leaving them drowning in debt, which drains money away from investments in their people.
And global institutions offer limited space for many of the major players in today’s world – from civil society to the private sector. Young people who will inherit the future are almost invisible, while the interests of future generations go unrepresented.
The message is clear: we cannot create a future fit for our grandchildren with a system built for our grandparents. The Summit of the Future will be an opportunity to re-boot multilateral collaboration fit for the 21st century.
The solutions we have proposed include a New Agenda for Peace focused on updating international institutions and tools to prevent and end conflicts, including the UN Security Council. The New Agenda for Peace calls for a renewed push to rid our world of nuclear arms and other Weapons of Mass Destruction; and for broadening the definition of security to encompass gender-based violence and gang violence. It takes future security threats into account, recognizing the changing nature of warfare and the risks of weaponizing new technologies. For example, we need a global agreement to outlaw so-called Lethal Autonomous Weapons that can take life-or-death decisions without human input.
Global financial institutions must reflect today’s world and be equipped to lead a more powerful response to today’s challenges – debt, sustainable development, climate action. That means concrete steps to tackle debt distress, increase the lending capacity of multilateral development banks, and change their business model so that developing countries have far more access to private finance at affordable rates.
Without that finance, developing countries will not be able to tackle our greatest future threat: the climate crisis. They urgently need resources to transition from planet-wrecking fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.
And as leaders highlighted last year, reforming the global financial architecture is also key to jump-starting desperately needed progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Summit will also focus on new technologies with a global impact, seeking ways to close the digital divide and establish shared principles for an open, free and secure digital future for all.
Artificial Intelligence is a revolutionary technology with applications and risks we are only beginning to understand. We have put forward specific proposals for governments, together with tech companies, academia and civil society, to work on risk management frameworks for AI and on monitoring and mitigating its harms, as well as sharing its benefits. The governance of AI cannot be left to the rich; it requires that all countries participate, and the UN is ready to provide a platform to bring people together.
Human rights and gender equality are a common thread linking all these proposals. Global decision-making cannot be reformed without respect for all human rights and for cultural diversity, ensuring the full participation and leadership of women and girls. We are demanding renewed efforts to remove the historic barriers – legal, social and economic – that exclude women from power.
The peacebuilders of the 1940s created institutions that helped prevent World War III and ushered many countries from colonization to independence. But they would not recognize today’s global landscape.
The Summit of the Future is a chance to build more effective and inclusive institutions and tools for global cooperation, tuned to the 21st century and our multipolar world.
I urge leaders to seize it.
U N I T E D N A T I O N S N A T I O N S U N I E S
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Western Developed Economies Asked to Spend Equally on Warfare and Climate Debt

Western Developed Economies Asked to Spend Equally on Warfare and Climate Debt
By: Michael Mike
Countries in West Africa have been asked to come together to fight for climate justice as separate agitation would yield no result.
The Western developed economies have also been asked to allocate the same resources being spent on warfare on issues around problems climate change.
These are the agreements of environmental crusaders from countries of West Africa during the West Africa Climate Justice Roundtable in Abuja on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Roundtable, the Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey said the rich countries spent $2.7 trillion in warfare in 2024, insisting that the same amount should be spent as climate debt especially to Africa and other developing countries who bear the major brunt of climate change.
That’s how much is spent, a military armament. So to me, climate debt per year can be equated to how much money they’re spending on warfare and destruction.
Bassey, while speaking on “Linking Challenges and Creating Connections: Building a Regional Climate Movement in West Africa,” noted that undoubtedly, climate change represents the most significant challenge facing the West Africa, both in terms of its impact and the urgent necessity for action.
He noted that: “The shifting climate has extensive implications and consequences in every aspect of human existence, spanning nations and climes. The challenges extend beyond the global shifts in weather; they also encompass the ways these changes interact with and impact people’s lives, including their livelihoods, security, and overall wellbeing. In addition to the direct impacts of climate change, the repercussions of inadequate efforts to tackle the issue have frequently led to complications that worsen the challenges faced by individuals, particularly within local communities.”
He lamented that: “West Africa stands as one of the world’s most susceptible areas to the effects of climate change, affecting sectors such as energy, agriculture, health, water and sanitation, security, ecosystem resilience, and migration patterns.”
Bassey noted that: “At present, the increase in temperatures in West Africa surpasses the global average, and this pattern is anticipated to persist in the foreseeable future. The effects of climate change in West Africa will be significant under both the 1.5 degrees and 2.0 degrees Celsius temperature target scenarios being bandied in climate policy circles around the world. West Africa is expected to experience a significant increase in the number of hot days across all these scenarios.”
He decried that: “Regrettably, policy makers in Africa persist in their inability to take action and implement measures that effectively tackle climate change issues. African leaders and policymakers have frequently allowed the continent to serve as a testing ground for unproven and controversial climate change response strategies and misleading solutions, such as the so-called ‘smart agriculture,’ GMOs, REDD+, and carbon markets… blue carbon… solar radiation management & other geoengineering experiments.”

He stated that: “The vast majority of people in West Africa who are impacted by climate change have frequently been overlooked in the policies and responses designed to tackle the crisis,” stressing that:
“The mechanisms for responding to climate change frequently adhere to the same neo-colonial and exploitative frameworks that caused the crisis in the first place.”
He revealed that: “The West Africa Climate Justice Movement recognises that within the West African context, climate justice entails ensuring that those most affected have a say in developing the solutions,” noting that: “For many of these frontline communities, effective solutions entail protecting lands and water bodies from reckless extractivism and pollution, protecting rainforests and mangroves, and stopping mega-projects and industrial agriculture.”
He said: “Simultaneously, there is a need to support and promote transformative economies through agroecology, the establishment of community-owned and controlled energy democracies, food sovereignty, and just transitions.”
He insisted that: “Climate justice efforts in West Africa also focus on holding corporations and historical polluters accountable for their contributions to climate change and demanding that they address the damage they have caused.
Bassey decried that: “Climate change is already causing significant loss and damage in West Africa, including displacement, loss of livelihoods, and damage to infrastructure.”
He noted that the West Africa Climate Justice Movement aims to engage all crucial stakeholders and actors across the region—be they campaigners, policymakers, or frontline communities—to unite in the pursuit of building popular power.
He added that: “The movement focusses on developing strategies, enhancing solidarity across nations, sharing knowledge, and supporting collaborative climate justice initiatives grounded in a mutual understanding of the interconnectedness of the climate crisis and the necessity for unified action.”
Bassey, while noting that West Africa Climate Justice Conference, Abuja, Nigeria
builds on previous engagements with frontline civil society organisations, communities, academics and movement leaders across the region, disclosed that: “Between 2021 and 2024, the movement held meetings, organized collaboratives events and presented a united front at the UNFCCC Conference of Parties.”
He said: “The upcoming conference aims to further develop and share critical climate change impact connections and interpretations across West Africa, strengthen platforms for interactions between communities in the region around different climate change impact and amplify the voices of West African climate actors, communities and organisations in the global climate change conversations.
“One of the key outcomes of the conference will be the adoption of a common West Africa Climate Change resolution as a core demand of the region at COP 30.“
End
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Troops neutralise 2 bandits, recover arms in Plateau ambush

Troops neutralise 2 bandits, recover arms in Plateau ambush
By: Zagazola Makama
Troops of Sector 2, Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), in conjunction with members of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN), have neutralised two bandits and recovered arms and ammunition during a special operation in Wase Local Government Area of Plateau State.

Sources told Zagazola Makama that the operation followed credible intelligence indicating that bandit leaders were distributing arms captured from local vigilantes during a recent attack at Odare Forest on July 6.
According to the sources, the troops laid a successful ambush along routes linking Dutsen Zaki and Odare Forests.

“At about 1330 hours on July 14, the troops made contact with the bandits. Two of the criminals were neutralised while others fled with possible gunshot wounds,” the report said.
The troops further exploited the general area and recovered one AK-47 rifle, six AK-47 magazines, 27 rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition, and a Boxer motorcycle.
The sources added that the recovered items were in custody while follow-up operations were ongoing to track down and neutralise other fleeing members of the bandit syndicate.
Troops neutralise 2 bandits, recover arms in Plateau ambush
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Touray Condoles Nigeria on Passing of Buhari

Touray Condoles Nigeria on Passing of Buhari
By: Michael Mike
President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, Dr. Omar Touray has condoled the government and people of Nigeria on the loss of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
A condolence message signed by Touray read: “It is with deep sorrow that the world learnt of the passing of His Excellency General Muhammadu Buhari, former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“On behalf of all the institutions of the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS), H.E. Dr Omar Alieu TOURAY, President of the ECOWAS
Commission, extends his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family, to His
Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and to the entire Nigerian people.
“ECOWAS salutes the memory of this distinguished statesman whose invaluable contributions greatly advanced democracy and regional integration in West Africa and across the African continent.
May his soul rest in paradise.”
Touray Condoles Nigeria on Passing of Buhari
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