Nigeria assumes leadership of African Group in UN
Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Aminu Wali, on Tuesday assumed the chairmanship of the African Group at the UN.
A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent at the UN, reports that Wali took over the rotating Chairman of the Group for the month of January from Niger’s Ambassador Aboubakar Abani.
This is the second time that Wali will head the group, the first was in November, 2005.
At an informal ceremony at the UN headquarters, Abani called on members and other diplomats at the UN to accord the new chairman all the support and cooperation.
The group, is a contact point on issues relating to African interest, as well as a common front to push Africa’s agenda at the UN.
The new UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon had last Friday met with members of the group to discuss issues affecting Africa.
“Ban, however, was silent on the issue of new appointments and the fate of the three Africans serving as Under Secretary-General at the UN,’’ a source close to the group told NAN.
The three include Nigeria’s Prof. Ibrahim Gambari (Political Affairs), Anna Tibaijuka from Tanzania (Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) and Gambia’s Abdoulie Janneh, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).