Developing Countries Seek Equity, Not Sympathy

President Bola Tinubu has called for equitable access to capital for developing countries, saying such would provide the much-needed resources for development, thus solving some of the most pressing challenges in the world today.

Speaking at the 19th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement at the weekend in Kampala, Uganda, the Nigerian leader pointed out that the developing world is not looking for sympathy or begging, but fair and equal opportunity.

Chaired by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, this year’s summit was attended by many presidents and heads of government. The Non-Aligned Movement is the largest gathering of countries, second only to the United Nations General Assembly.

President Tinubu noted that the combined population of the 120 countries that make up the Non-Aligned Movement is over 4.4 billion or about 55% of the world’s population, yet the total financial resources available to all these countries are much less than that of some countries.

“The total budgetary resources for the 120 countries is less than $3.5 trillion, which is less than the budget of United States alone. Whereas the aggregate public debt of less than $6.6 trillion, mostly at higher interest rates and shorter tenor, is about one-sixth of one or a few developed countries,” he said.

These startling statistics, according to the Nigerian leader, is a clear evidence that the non-aligned countries suffer lack of access to capital and resources for development.

“More often than not, public debt available to developing countries is far more expensive and not substantial enough to make an impact. Therefore, we wish to advocate a financing mechanism and equitable capital market access that can provide adequate financial resources to the Global South,” he said.

Represented at the summit by the minister of budget and economic planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, President Tinubu also listed the challenges facing the world currently to include climate change, conflict and wars, terrorism and widening inequality.

“All these are happening as we are battling to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not possible for any one nation to tackle these multidimensional challenges,” he said, stressing that this calls for greater collaboration between and among member-states as they struggle to achieve sustainable development goals.

According to him, the theme of the summit which is “Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence” bear relevance with respect to the current trend of wars, proliferation of small arms and light weapons, threat of use of nuclear weapons and the dangerous polarisation between developed countries, similar to the era of cold war.

“In this regard, we must recommit to the foundational principles of the Non-Aligned Movement to better assure of global peace and security,” he said.

On climate change, the Nigerian president pointed out that the developing countries were moving forward on the issue with courage and ambition.

“Developing countries have striven in the last two decades under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process to make common but differentiated responsibilities a basic orinciple of global climate action.

To move forward decisively, access to affordable climate finance and technologies is critical, he added.