Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has urged the Federal Government to make history by signing or submitting instrument of ratification of the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, TPNW, on September 26, 2019, in New York.
A high-level ceremony for signatures and for the treaty will be held during leaders’ week on September 26, 2019, at the United Nations General Assembly.
All governments across the globe have been invited to participate at the ceremony by the co-sponsoring governments of Austria, Brazil, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa and Thailand.
President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, in a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, dated September 13, 2019, noted that the signing would complement the Non-Proliferation Treaty, NPT, and offer the best hope of moving from a world with nearly 14,000 nuclear weapons to zero nuclear weapons.
Wabba said: “Today, nuclear arsenals are being modernised and new nuclear weapons are being developed. For the coming years, it is estimated that governments will spend over $100 billion annually on nuclear weapons.
”At the same time, the world’s fragile arms control architecture built over five decades is collapsing. In light of the heightened tensions among nuclear-armed states, it is more important than ever that world leaders speak out against nuclear weapons and work together to strengthen international legal norms against their use, development, and retention by any state.
“Trade unions are committed to a world free of weapons of mass destruction and to general disarmament, as the maintenance and strengthening of peace is a precondition for economic progress and social justice.
”In addition to the immediate threat that nuclear weapons represent to the existence of humankind, the enormous cost of a renewed nuclear arms race is a shameful waste of precious human, natural and capital resources that should be redirected to reverse climate change, eliminate poverty and address other social and economic needs.
“The TPNW lays the foundations for a world free of nuclear weapons. It offers a pathway forward at a time of great global tension and crisis. It complements the Non-Proliferation Treaty, NPT, and offers the best hope of moving us from a world with nearly 14,000 nuclear weapons to zero nuclear weapons.
”This is an urgent humanitarian necessity. Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, have both acknowledged the importance of this treaty in making progress for a nuclear weapons-free world.
”On September 26, 2019, a high-level ceremony for signatures and ratification for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will be held during leaders’ week at the United Nations General Assembly.
”All governments have been invited to participate at this ceremony by the co-sponsoring governments of Austria, Brazil, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa and Thailand.
”The Nigeria Labour Congress calls on the Nigerian government to participate in this historic event by signing and or submitting its instrument of ratification of the TPNW, indicating in advance its intention to do so to the UN Office for Legal Affairs at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
”We look forward to hearing your response on our government’s intentions with relations to the September 26 signing and ratification ceremony.”
