Nigeria to sign Paris Agreement during UN General Assembly
Weeks after the United States of America and China signed the historic Paris Agreement, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, on Saturday disclosed that President Mohammadu Buhari of Nigeria would sign the Agreement during  the 71st United Nations General Assembly taking place in New York, next week.
At a news conference in New York on Saturday, Onyeama said with the signing of the agreement, Nigeria will join other world countries that would have signed the treaty.
United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, had early this month invite leaders to a high-level meeting on September 21 to facilitate an early entry into force of the Paris Agreement when more nations ratify it.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally-binding global climate deal at the Paris climate conference (COP21) in December, 2015.
The agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C. The agreement is due to enter into force in 2020.
The minister said that some of the world leaders, including President Barrack Obama of America and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, had already signed the Treaty.
Onyeama said that top on Nigerian UN agenda during the General Assembly was to engage African Union and other countries to work towards the reform of the United Nations.
He said that the leaders would also be engaged to be more democratic and responsive to the needs of the world.
“In addition to the wave of change, Nigeria will like to propose to the UN body to create an agency dedicated for the youth,†Onyeama said.
The minister assured the international community that Nigeria would support a new UN Secretary-General that would be development and Africa-friendly as well as sympathetic to the course of Nigeria.
On investment, power and insecurity in Nigeria, he said that the Federal Government had established various security mechanisms to create attractive investment environment for would-be investors.
“With the fall in oil price, Nigeria is looking into diversification of its economy towards agriculture and solid minerals.
“It is expected that there will be a lot of investment opportunity for foreign investors during the US-Africa Business Forum, scheduled to take place next week in New York.
“Nigeria has been invited as one of the focal countries whose economies search light is beamed on,†he said.
He also said that Nigeria would host a high level side event on Climate Change, to showcase its efforts in the Ogoni clean-up.
This event, according to him, will come up after the president has signed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
The minister also addressed issues of poverty, migration, human rights, terrorism and security and on challenges in retrieving Abacha’s loot and other Nigeria’s assets stashed abroad.
