New York, United States - September 26, 2025 Vice-President Kashim Shettima met with UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York to discuss Nigeria’s bid for a permanent seat on the Security Council. The meeting, held on the sidelines of the 80th UN General Assembly, also focused on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), climate change, and strengthening democracy in Nigeria and Africa. “Nigeria is aspiring to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council,” he said. Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar said Guterres commended the Vice-President for emphasising Nigeria’s aspiration, adding that the UN has a strong presence in Nigeria with many agencies domiciled in the country. Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr ‘Bosun Tijani, said the Nigerian delegation had a cordial engagement with Guterres. “He was extremely happy when we mentioned that Nigeria, just a few days ago, released our first multilingual and multimodal large language model—the first of its kind on the African continent, backed by any government. “Even as we were leaving, he mentioned that he would love to see that Nigeria supports other African countries to ensure the continent is not left behind in artificial intelligence and that we can leverage it properly for development,” Tijani said. Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Yusuf Sununu, said Shettima also highlighted the Tinubu administration’s efforts on humanitarian crises and poverty reduction. “He highlighted that we have one of the largest national social registers containing almost 18.9 million households, and we have reached over 8.1 million Nigerians through conditional cash transfers. “He also highlighted the government’s efforts to promote inclusivity for people with disabilities,” Sununu said. According to him, Shettima noted that funding cuts by UN organisations have affected humanitarian response, but the World Food Programme has supported about 1.3 million Nigerians with emergency food transfers. Sununu said the UN Secretary-General assured Nigeria of continued support to strengthen humanitarian response, authenticate the national social register, and mobilise funding for interventions. “Generally, the Secretary-General thanked the Nigerian government, especially the President, for the ongoing support to the United Nations and assured us that the UN will continue to support Nigeria’s wishes and aspirations,” he added.