Nigeria has formally taken over as chair of the United Nations General Assembly’s Fifth Committee, the body responsible for the UN’s budget and administrative affairs, its ambassador said this week.
Jimoh Ibrahim, Nigeria’s permanent representative to the UN, said the chairmanship would not be treated as business as usual, pledging to push for greater transparency, accountability and administrative reform. He said resources within the organization must be used responsibly and produce tangible results for the UN’s 193 member states, adding that every dollar the UN spends must be properly accounted for and justified.
Ibrahim said the committee would examine the structure of the UN Secretariat, pointing to what he described as a heavy concentration of staff in senior positions that could be limiting opportunities for new hires. He also identified the roughly $110 billion United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund as an area requiring close scrutiny.
The Fifth Committee, formally known as the Administrative and Budgetary Committee, underpins nearly every other area of UN activity, since peacekeeping, humanitarian operations, development programs and human rights work all depend on the budgetary and staffing decisions it shapes. Ibrahim said the position would be exercised in the interest of the full UN membership rather than narrow national interests.
Nigeria’s assumption of the role follows the General Assembly’s broader leadership elections earlier this year, in which Khalilur Rahman of Bangladesh was chosen to preside over the Assembly’s 81st session.
