Ambassador R. B. Onemola

Deputy Permanent Representative

Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the UN

New York, NY

7th September, 2011


As Delivered

Allow me to congratulate you, Sir, on your assumption of the presidency of the Security Council for the month of September. Let me also extend our warm appreciation to the Permanent Representative of India and his delegation for the wonderful work they did last month.

 I would also like to thank Ambassador Néstor Osorio for his succinct briefing and commend his excellent leadership of the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1737 (2006). We appreciate the work done by the Committee in the past three months in furtherance of its mandate. We congratulate the members of the Panel of Experts on their reappointment and plan to continue to work with them and the Committee in promoting a more secure world.

 It is encouraging that Member States have continued to report incidents of non-compliance to the 1737 Committee in addition to extending the necessary support to the Panel of Experts in its investigations. Many of the subsequent investigations by the Panel, including the January visit to Nigeria, concern Iran’s transfer of conventional arms and related materiel prohibited under resolution 1747 (2007). This development is worrisome given the devastating effect of small arms on the security, stability and development of countries and regions.

 Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have consistently voiced their concerns about the growing trend in arms trafficking in the subregion, which infringes on the provisions of the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, Their Ammunition and Other Related Materials. We therefore urge Member States to maintain a high level of vigilance in monitoring and curtailing these movements pursuant to resolution 1747 (2007) and to uphold the obligations under the various negotiated instruments on small arms.

 They should also report alleged sanctions violations to the Committee and cooperate with the Panel of Experts in its investigation of incidents of non-compliance. It is essential that States be provided with the resources, facilities and expertise necessary to enhance their ability to fulfill their obligations under these resolutions. We further encourage the Panel of Experts to continue to examine these activities to determine if there are any patterns of sanctions violations and circumventions.

 Nigeria has the utmost respect for the multilateral accountability and transparency mechanisms for arms transfers, including United Nations treaties and protocols dedicated to covering illicit transfers of conventional arms. We have further demonstrated our commitment to this noble goal by signing the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons. We believe that complementary action at the regional and international levels on the marking and tracing of arms will be helpful in underpinning the achievements recorded thus far in the West African subregion.

 The recent report of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) indicates that Iran has not fully met its obligations, nor has it established international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme. We call on Iran to extend full cooperation to the IAEA and respect its obligations under the resolutions of the Security Council. We therefore urge Iran to engage in constructive dialogue as an expression of its commitment to a peaceful nuclear programme.a