Nigeria has insisted on the implementation of the two-state solution to end the Israel-Palestinian crisis.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Dunoma Umar, disclosed this at the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the United Nations in Abuja.

The Permanent Secretary, who was represented by Ambassador Wahab Akande, Director of Protocol, MFA said: “Nigeria like the rest of the world, stands and says, without doubt, that a two-state solution remains the only path to lasting peace for Israel and Palestine, where both States live in peace and prosperity.

“We attest the opportunities that peace brings, just as the extremist hopes to drive apart rival communities and different religions. We thus work through multilateral platforms within the rule of law, to build the consensus and support that makes this immensely difficult and dangerous task that much easier.

“This is how to deny the enemies the space to stoke tension and cause despair. By our experience that this offers the best, perhaps only hope for peace, reconciliation and victory for the civilised values of a shared humanity.”

Speaking on the reform of the UN, Ambassador Umar said that Nigeria demands for permanent seat at the Security Council is a demand for fairness, for continental equitable representation.”

Besides, he said the demand for reform is one that projects credibility to the very institution upon which the hope of multilateralism rests.

He said: “The United Nations will discover its true relevance only when it sees the world as it is, not as it was. Nigeria’s journey tells this story with clarity: when the UN was founded, we were a colony of 20 million people, absent from the tables where decisions about our fate were taken; today, we are a sovereign nation of well over 200 million, projected to be the third most populous country in the world, with one of the youngest and most dynamic populations on earth by 2025. A stabilising force in regional security and a consistent partner in global peacekeeping, our case for permanent seat at the Security Council is a demand for fairness, for continental equitable representation, and for reform that projects credibility to the very institution upon which the hope of multilateralism rests.” (The Nation)