Nigeria’s bid for inclusion in the permanent seat of the security council of the united nations: An assessment

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the opinions of some scholars on Nigeria‘s agitation for reform and inclusion in the permanent seat of the Security Council of the United Nations, presently occupied by five countries including the United States of America, Russia, Great Britain, France and China. The essence of the reform is to make it look more democratic thereby reflecting all the continents of the world, against the present order. The paper also investigates the elements that undermine Nigeria‘s bid for inclusion in the permanent seat of the Security Council. The paper adopts content analysis in its methodology, with particular focus on secondary data as source of information.. The paper finds out that Nigeria, at present, cannot occupy a permanent seat of the Security Council because of domestic and or internal problems such as political leadership, economic dependency, military capacity and technology, democratic practice, human rights abuses, etc. The paper recommends that Nigeria solves her domestic problems before looking at the world problems. Besides, she can still exercise power at the international system using the machinery of regional platforms like ECOWAS and AU.

Keywords: Nigeria, Security Council, United Nations, Permanent Seat, Agitation