Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru
By  Tokunbo Adedoja
Nigeria, the first African country to back Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC), was absent at the weekend when the  United Nations General Assembly voted to recognise the transitional authorities as the representative of the North African country.

No explanation was given as at press time last night on why the country did not take part in the voting exercise, as calls to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, did not go through.
The global recognition to the Libyan interim leadership came at the 66th session of the General Assembly of the UN.

With that, Chairman of TNC, Abdul Jalil Mustafa, will speak on behalf of Libya at the UN high-level debate, on September 27.

The UN Credentials Committee, had earlier in the week, recommended that the TNC, which was formed in February in the wake of popular protests against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, should represent Libya in the General Assembly and speak and vote on its behalf.

A motion to defer the matter was however put forward by Angola on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Records of voting showed that 114 countries voted in favour of credentialing the TNC, 17 countries voted against, while there were 15 abstentions. Interestingly, Nigeria did not cast its vote because it was absent at the session.
The counter motion put forward by SADC was also defeated as 107 voted against and 22 voted in favour, while there were 12 abstentions. In this other voting record, Nigeria was also listed as absent.

At the Security Council, a draft resolution to deploy a mission in Libya to support the North African country’s transitional authorities in their reconstruction efforts after the end of the conflict was unanimously adopted by the 15-member council.

The draft resolution was jointly submitted by Germany, Portugal, Bosnia Herzegovina, Gabon, France, Colombia, Lebanon, United Kingdom and United States of America.

As it is customary, the council members were given the floor to make remarks explaining their vote. However, Nigeria did not speak at the meeting.

South African Permanent Representative to the UN, Mr. Baso Sangqu, who spoke on behalf of his country at the council meeting, said South Africa reaffirmed African Union’s (AU) efforts to bring the Libyan crisis to a peaceful end.

Noting that these efforts were directed towards meeting and promoting the genuine aspirations of the Libyan people, he emphatically stated that South Africa supported the concerted reconciliatory efforts of the international community to rebuild a post conflict Libya.

He also said the draft resolution brought to the council was very important to South Africa because it would serve as a foundation for all UN support to Libya’s post conflict reconstruction.

The envoy listed three issues that were critical to South Africa in the context of the resolution.
According to him, though the security situation in Libya had improved, there is still a long way for the Libyan people to go in achieving peace, security and stability.

He also said that the urgent challenge now was ensuring a complete and verifiable ceasefire, including an immediate end to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military campaign as a prerequisite for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

The envoy said since security in Libya had improved significantly, South Africa believes it is time to question the continued imposition of a no-fly zone.

He said South Africa was however disappointed with the failure of the UN Security Council to include in the resolution adopted, an immediate cessation of hostilities and its reluctance to come out strongly in clear support of the 2.5 million African migrants that made up part of Libyan population.

Noting that these African migrants had for decades contributed their quota to the development of Libya and must not be subjected to reprisals and killings, Sangqu said the Security Council should have included in the resolution that all those responsible for the abuse and killings of these African migrants must be held accountable.

Media reports had claimed that over 200 Nigerians are among hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans who were being held in various detention cells in Libya by the fighters of the TNC on allegations of supporting Gaddafi, who has gone underground since the rebel forces took control of Tripoli, the country’s capital.

-ThisDay

Posted by admin on Sep 19 2011. Filed under Africa & World Politics, Latest Politics, United Nations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry