Deputy Secretary-General, at Road Map for Nigeria Conference, Highlights Progress, Strategies in Democratic Governance, Climate Action, Macroeconomic Growth

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed's remarks at the eighteenth annual leadership conference and award ceremony "Political Stability and Sustainable Development in Africa in an Increasingly Unstable Global System: A Road Map for Nigeria", in Abuja today:

I want to start by thanking Zainab Nda-Isaiah and the entire LEADERSHIP Group for this invitation, and for the courage and commitment she has shown in carrying forward the extraordinary legacy of her husband, Sam.

Sam Nda-Isaiah built this newspaper on the belief that a free press is the backbone of democracy. He held the courage of his convictions and stood for freedom of speech, always, and that spirit lives on in the work of many peoples in this room.

We are witnessing immense disruption in the global geopolitical order. Multilateral commitments in place for decades are at risk. Official development assistance is falling as military budgets climb to record highs. The political will needed to tackle climate change and end conflicts is wavering. Peace, sustainable development and human rights - all three pillars of United Nations work - are losing support.

Sixty-six years ago, Nigeria's first Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, stood before the United Nations General Assembly in New York just days after independence and stated: "Africa must not be allowed to become a battleground in the ideology struggle."

He understood that when might overrides right, it is the smallest and most vulnerable countries that pay the heaviest price. That is what we are seeing today, and it is a direct challenge to the very values that created the United Nations in 1945. Nigeria cannot control the global temperature of politics, but it can control how strong its foundations are at home.

The conference title speaks of a road map for Nigeria - but Nigeria already had many and one that we are currently tracking. President Tinubu's Renewed Hope Agenda, and the National Development Plan launched just this week, set out exactly the kind of long-term, inclusive transformation this moment demands. And I want to acknowledge the work of First Lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu, whose work on this Initiative has put the most vulnerable Nigerians - women, young people, the elderly - at the heart of that effort.

What I want to do this morning is not prescribe, but to reflect on how the global picture bears on that agenda, and where the international community can best support it. I will focus on four areas that matter most when it comes to building that foundation: the social contract, inclusive economies, climate and resilience, and how exactly we implement these actions.

First: renewing the social contract. Every stable, prosperous society rests on a basic social compact between citizens and their Government: that institutions are fair, that rules apply to everyone and that those who hold power are held accountable for how they use it.

In countries where institutions have been hollowed out, where corruption has gone unchecked and where people see a system was never designed to work for them, the result is always the same: political instability and a country far more vulnerable to the shocks it will inevitably face.

Nigeria is doing the hard work of building that social compact with the people. More than 25 years of uninterrupted democratic governance since 1999 is itself a foundation - one that many countries on the continent are still working to build, and one that should not be taken for granted.

Nigeria has been engaging with the African Union's governance and accountability mechanisms, the African Governance Architecture, the African Peer Review Mechanism and the continent's shared anti-corruption norms.

This is how trust begins to be built: through consistent, visible action over time, by strengthening institutions and by demonstrating that accountability is real and applies to everyone. That trust must translate into delivery and impact in people's lives.

Nigeria has committed ₦330 billion to reach 8.1 million poor and vulnerable households through its national cash transfer programme. At the same time, the Nigeria Health Renewal Compact has put universal health coverage on the national agenda as a right, not as a privilege. That is the beginning of a social contract being honoured.

A free press is also central to that same contract. When journalism holds power to account, citizens can see what is happening, demand better, and hold their leaders to the standards they were promised. Nigeria has one of the most vibrant independent media landscapes on the continent, and that is an asset that needs to be protected in this age of misinformation.

Independent journalism is one of the most effective counterweights we have. Sam Nda-Isaiah built this organization on that conviction, and the Leadership Group's mission statement says it plainly: "We shall raise our pen at all times in defence of what is right."

The second reflection; building inclusive economies. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union's Agenda 2063 underscore that growth only truly delivers when it is genuinely inclusive, when it creates decent jobs, expands opportunity, and brings along the people who are most often forgotten and left behind.

And let's start with women. They are making it into the room, but the economic system is still not rewarding them when they get there. Women are not just undervalued in the workplace, they are locked out of the most foundational form of economic security. Trying to build prosperity while leaving half the population behind is like stepping into a boxing ring with one hand tied behind your back.

Then there are the young people - girls and boys - who deserve a future. Nigeria is a young country. Seventy per cent of Nigerians are under 35. That is an extraordinary resource - a generation of digital natives already building e-commerce platforms, driving innovation, shaping new industries. The system creates genuine pathways: quality education, lifelong learning, real leadership opportunities.

And those pathways must be safe. In a country where children have been taken from their classrooms, where families have sent their daughters to school not knowing if they would come home, investing in safety and education is again crucial.

The third reflection, we must invest in climate action and resilience. The world will overshoot the 1.5°C limit that is required to keep our planet safe. This is no longer in question. The task now is to make that overshoot as small, as short, and as safe as possible. For Africa, the injustice of this moment is stark as Africa is warming faster than the global average. And yet, it is not Africa that has caused the emissions that are creating global warming.

The global resolve is weakening even as climate impacts intensify in Nigeria. In 2024, floods killed more than 1,200 people, displaced 1.2 million, and tore through 34 of Nigeria's 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

At the same time, Africa is sitting on one of the greatest economic opportunities of this century. Sixty per cent of the world's best solar resources are on this continent. By 2040, Africa could generate 10 times more electricity than it needs, entirely from renewables and yet Africa now receives just 2 per cent of global clean energy investment. And here in Nigeria, more than 86 million people still have no access to electricity at all.

Nigeria is responding to this challenge the right way. Under President Tinubu's leadership, Nigeria has developed a best-in-class action plan for climate, one that treats climate not as a constraint but as an engine for growth, and I want to commend the country for that.

By placing energy access, climate-smart agriculture, clean cooking and water management at the heart of its development agenda, Nigeria is showing what serious climate leadership looks like.

Nigeria cannot close the climate action gap alone, however. Developed countries must triple the adaptation financing we need for serious contributions to the Loss and Damage Fund, and mobilize $300 billion per year by 2035 for developing countries to succeed. Early warning systems need to reach everyone, so that communities have the means to prepare for climate shocks before they hit.

And as Africa drives the global renewables revolution, including through its critical minerals, Africans must be the first and primary beneficiaries of the wealth that they generate.

The fourth reflection is how we deliver on this agenda. There are three means of implementation - finance, trade and technology. Let's begin with the macroeconomic picture.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have both upgraded Nigeria's growth forecast to 4.4 per cent this year. Yet, headline numbers do not tell the whole story. The structural pressures underneath - debt, inflation - have not gone away. And until they do, every shock carries an outsized risk. That risk is inequality, inequality leaves people behind.

Ending the trap of endless debt is key. African economies are caught in a cycle that keeps repeating itself. Every shock forces governments to spend more and earn less at the same time. Borrowing fills the gap. But, excessive borrowing costs consume an ever-greater share of government spending, leaving less to invest in recovery.

Nigeria's debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio stands at around 52.9 per cent - below the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) threshold of 70 per cent. That reflects fiscal discipline, even under sustained pressure. But, discipline alone cannot substitute for a fairer system.

Last July, the international community came together in Sevilla for the fourth Financing for Development Conference, a once-in-a-decade moment to confront the debt crisis head on. The outcome was the Sevilla Commitment: a shared framework to close the Sustainable Development Goals financing gap and begin reforming a system that is failing billions of people.

One of its most significant deliverables was the Borrowers Club: a collective platform to learn from each other in creditor negotiations, to develop smarter debt instruments built for a shock-prone world and to push for reforms to the global financial architecture with a stronger, unified voice.

Trade is the next means of implementation. Over the last 70 years it has proven to be one of the most powerful ladders through which countries develop, selling into large and prosperous consumer markets, importing technology, building industries that did not exist before.

But, with the rules-based trading system under direct attack, for developing countries, which have the most to gain from open trade and the least capacity to absorb the shock of its collapse, the stakes are enormous.

Nigeria's own Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is leading the World Trade Organization (WTO) through exactly this storm. Her argument is worth hearing: trade-enabled growth has lifted over 1.5 billion people out of extreme poverty since 1995.

That record is what is now at risk. Africa's response should be to stay open and to advocate loudly for trade as a driver of development. Turning inward at this moment would be the wrong choice. African economies currently pay around 20 per cent more to trade with each other than with external partners. That is a structural disadvantage and the African Continental Free Trade Area exists to dismantle it.

If fully implemented, it is expected to lift up to 50 million people out of extreme poverty, raise wages for both skilled and unskilled workers, and deliver particular benefits for women's wage growth and market participation. Nigerian firms were already among the first to test that ambition, making their first shipments under the African Continental Free Trade Area in July 2024.

Technology is the third lever. In this new era of technology, digital is no longer a sector of the economy. It is now core infrastructure, the foundation that every other sector runs on. Nigeria is already ahead.

Lagos is home to an immense fintech startup ecosystem, and Nigerian companies like Flutterwave and Moniepoint have achieved billion-dollar valuations and are competing globally. The Nigeria Startup Act, the Central Bank's Open Banking guidelines and the Securities and Exchange Commission's digital-asset rules are building the regulatory architecture that gives Nigeria's ecosystem the stability that it needs to scale.

In parallel, the United Nations is working on the international level on a governance framework for Artificial Intelligence, built with developing countries, not just for them.

The Secretary-General has recommended Nigeria's participation in a new Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and has named Professor Rita Orji - a Nigerian woman and one of the world's leading voices in technology and AI policy - into that panel. That is recognition that Nigeria's expertise belongs in the room where the rules of the road for AI are being written.

These four reflections will give Nigeria the steady foundations to weather the headwinds of this moment. Diplomacy is what amplifies them: when Nigeria shows up consistently in global conversations, it carries its own - and Africa's - voice into the rooms where decisions are being made.

That is precisely why, 66 years ago, Nigeria's first Prime Minister walked into one of those rooms, just days after independence, and told the world what Africa stood for: that this continent would not become a battleground, that people's dignity comes first and that the rules must protect the many rather than reward the very few.

Today, as the continent's largest economy and one of its most influential voices, Nigeria has the power and mor importantly the responsibility to deliver on it. I look forward to exploring this further in the conversation ahead.