Appraising the United Nations Organisation at 75

The United Nations Organisation (UNO) was inaugurated on October 24, 1945 as the successor to the League of Nations, which emerged after the First World War fought between 1913 and 1918. The League could not satisfactorily ensure and maintain world peace culminating, inevitably, in the cataclysmic convulsion that precipitated the Second World War (1939-1945).

Seventy five whole years have passed since the founding of the alternative global body tasked with the responsibility of ensuring world peace, moderating tension and saving humanity from another apocalyptic moment that would threaten the very fabric of human existence. We at Naija Times felicitate with the UN and all peoples of the world for this remarkable milestone.

During these seven and a half decades, the United Nations has undoubtedly succeeded against all odds to meet the goals, objectives and aspirations of its founding fathers. The Organisation has, with its two-pronged strategy, through preventive mechanisms and coordinated responses to conflicts, stemmed the unebbing tide of war and hostilities in dangerous spots of the world. Whether in the former Yugoslavia, in Bosnia, in Sub-Saharan Africa or war-torn areas in Asia, the United Nations has proved its relevance by preventing another devastating war that would spill beyond its immediate boundaries to engulf the whole world.

The Organisation, through its charter on human rights and self-determination of the peoples of the world, has protected the interests of the weak, the marginalised and other minority categories against the powerful. Even though this perspective is not without the self-demonstrative potentials, the body has, regrettably, also been severally manipulated by some of the dominant industrial nations of the world, just to achieve individual national agenda.

Again, the UN has not been able to stem the troubling issue of racism. There is so much tension and hate today borne out of an exuding sense of vengeance and intolerance among several tribal groups around the world. Despite all these challenges, the UN has remained a potent instrument as a voice for the voiceless, hope for the hopeless and a fortress for the vulnerable.

For instance, the Organisation vehemently disapproved of the US invasion of Iraq but was defied by the Allied Forces; sanctioned Iraq for overrunning Kuwait, its next door neighbour, and has consistently advocated the peaceful and amicable resolution of the age-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In Africa too, the UN demonstrated its continued relevance and significance through its interventions in the imbroglio in Rwanda, Burundi, Angola and Mozambique, and helped in the peace process in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, Somali and Sudan, among others. Although these efforts are in collaboration with regional bodies, the UN has saved weak and vulnerable groups against powerful and dominant elements in these countries.

The UN also played a leading and prominent role in the liberation struggles of peripheral countries under the imperialist and colonialist stronghold of their metropolitan exploiters. This was particularly so in Africa and Asia where the bulk of these colonised countries are to be found. The role of the UN in dismantling the leviathan of apartheid in South Africa leading to the release of Dr. Nelson Mandela in 1990 and the non-racial election in 1994 has remained a monumental mark of achievement in human history. Other sub-nationalities in the former Soviet Union and countries like Eritrea now hope for and enjoy self determination as enshrined in the UN Charter on Human Rights.

The pivotal role the United Nations played in modulating the tensions that defined the hostile relationship between the East and West during the Cold War or local wars cannot be overemphasised. That period in human history was marked by mutual threats of destruction of the world and the human race by power blocs through weapons of mass destruction in the arms race that characterised the tension. That the UN was able to creatively handle this raging storm and contained it, thereby forestalling another vitiation of world peace, is an eloquent testament to the historic importance of the Organisation in its seventy-five year existence.

Through affiliate organs like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF); projects like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Office of Sports for Peace and Development, the Office of Special Representative for Disaster Management, among several others, the Organisation has succeeded in making the world a better place for human habitation. It also established the Economic Commissions for the various regions/continents of the world (e.g. UNECA), which advise continents on economic development policy and the UNCTAD/UNDP Report on the Creative Economy, which elevated that sector to a major GDP contributor to the economies of many nations.

The global body demonstrated leadership in the search for cure for HIV/AIDS and the current COVID-19 pandemic. By constituting itself into one formidable body as world power or umpire, and overseeing the variegated paradigms instituted by governments all over the world in their socio-political and economic engineering processes, the UN has made a most valuable contribution towards promoting democracy and constitutional governance, the rule of law, fundamental human rights, freedom and, most importantly, ensuring lasting world peace.

Critical also is the role of the UN in the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that has been bringing erring Heads of States and Governments to book for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The UN role was via the Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the establishment of an International Criminal Court which adopted the Rome Statute.

It is for the culmination of these legendary landmarks that we celebrate the United Nations as it marks its 75 years of existence as the single, biggest government of the world. We are further encouraged by the reforms that have been instituted since the time of Dr. Kofi Annan to the present time of Antonio Guterres as Secretary General. The Organisation has been restructured for effective, efficient and optimal performance. The UN has expanded its scope to cover a large number of issues such as health, environment or climate change, globalisation, women empowerment among others. From just about 50 nations when the charter was signed in San Francisco in 1945, the Organisation has grown into a 193-member world body.

However, the biggest failure of the UN seem to be its inability to effectively broker peace where it is most needed, serving instead the interests of rich and powerful nations. This has significantly contributed to the proliferation of medium and small arms around the world. The suffering of people caught in medium and small conflicts as in Syria, Libya, Yemen and Afghanistan and the concomitant humanitarian crises, like the plight of the IDPs in Nigeria as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency calls for serious UN intervention. It is our hope and wish that the Organisation will cease to be an exclusive club of a select few canonised to lord it over others.

Consequently, we call for the enlargement of the veto-wielding Security Council held by the United Kingdom, France, the United States of America, China and Russian Federation, to create a space for Africa. In addition, the world should be mindful of the looming tension (disagreement) between the United States and China due to economic and political interests in Africa and Asia.