Foreign Minister, Zainab Hawa Bangura has strongly denied allegations that her country’s ambassador to the United Nations voted against Nigeria’s membership on the UN Security Council. Some Nigerians had alleged that Sierra Leone and Liberia voted against Nigeria’s membership.
Mrs Bangura told the Voice of America that her country would forever remain grateful to Nigeria for the support it received from the continent’s most populous nation during the Sierra Leone civil war in the 1990s. She also said Nigeria’s election to the Security Council was the result of a concerted African effort.
“I knew when the voting was going on; I had given instructions to the Permanent Representative to New York on how we should vote.
In addition to that, a decision had already been made at the ECOWAS level that the entire ECOWAS membership should vote for Nigeria.That was endorsed at the African Union. So there is no way Sierra Leone can vote against Nigeria,” she said.
“Sierra Leone is a country that is very grateful for what we have benefited from Nigeria. The two Presidents – President Yar’Adua and President Koroma have an exceptionally wonderful relationship,” Bangura said.
She said rumors that Sierra Leone voted against Nigeria’s membership in the UN Security Council were being circulated by people who Bangura said are not interested in the good relations between Nigeria and Sierra Leone on the one hand and Nigeria and Liberia on the other.
“If there are any two countries in West Africa that have benefited from the generosity of Nigeria in terms of what Nigeria has done because of the wars in both Liberia and Sierra Leone, I think it’s those two countries,” Bangura said.
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