United African Coalition

10/17/2026

THE C-10 MEETING IN TRIPOLI: ANOTHER MISSED OPPORTUNITY FOR AFRICA?

By Ambassador Sidique Abou-Bakarr Wai
Former Sierra Leone Ambassador to the United States; ECOWAS Secretary-General; President Emeritus, United African Congress, USA

The recently concluded C-10 meeting in Tripoli has, once again, produced no tangible results.

For more than four decades, Africa has continued to advocate for a singular objective: two permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council, with full veto powers. Yet, after several days of deliberations, declarations, and reaffirmations of the African Common Position, the C-10 has ended exactly where it began.

It remains, in my assessment, a “talk shop club,” where delegates and conveners return to their respective countries armed with press releases, communiqués, and resolutions that produce little meaningful change.

LET US EXAMINE THE FACTS:

* The C-10 does not have a dedicated, independent secretariat.
* The C-10 does not have a dedicated operational budget.
* The C-10 does not have permanent, dedicated staff.
* The C-10 has no veto power on the United Nations Security Council.
* The C-10, in its current form, risks becoming a moving train wreck.

Nevertheless, I give the C-10 credit for maintaining a consistent and unified African position and for vigorously advocating for Africa’s rightful representation on an expanded United Nations Security Council, including two permanent seats with veto powers.

However, whether this demand will ever become a reality remains the elephant in the room.

THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS MOVING FORWARD

My questions are simple and direct:

First, why does the C-10 believe that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (P5) will willingly surrender or dilute their exclusive powers to accommodate Africa in the 21st century?

Second, if the P5 members are unwilling to grant Africa full and equal permanent membership, including veto powers, despite the compelling arguments for fairness, equity, and historical justice, what alternative course of action should Africa pursue?

Third, how long will African leaders continue to repeat the same demands, adopt similar resolutions, and issue declarations without achieving meaningful institutional reform?

Africa cannot continue doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results.

MY PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Recall African Diplomatic Missions and Personnel

All 54 African member states of the United Nations should consider a coordinated withdrawal of their ambassadors and diplomatic personnel from United Nations missions and embassies around the world.

Such a collective diplomatic action would send a powerful message that Africa is no longer prepared to accept indefinite exclusion from the highest levels of international decision-making.

2. Suspend Participation in United Nations General Assembly Sessions

African leaders should seriously reconsider their annual participation in the United Nations General Assembly, particularly the enormous financial resources expended on travel, accommodation, delegations, and ceremonial appearances in New York City every September.

Too often, African heads of state deliver speeches that receive little international attention and produce few measurable outcomes for their citizens.

These annual appearances risk becoming exercises in political theater rather than meaningful diplomatic engagement.

The billions of dollars collectively spent over time on such activities could be better directed toward addressing the pressing economic, social, and security challenges confronting the African continent.

African citizens deserve to know what tangible benefits their governments derive from these expensive diplomatic engagements.

3. Prioritize Peace, Security, and Conflict Resolution Within Africa

African leaders would better serve their countries and citizens by investing greater political attention and resources in resolving conflicts among neighboring African states.

How can Africa effectively demand greater responsibility for maintaining international peace and security while conflicts, political instability, and armed confrontations continue to undermine peace and development across the continent?

Before concentrating so much energy on securing permanent seats on the Security Council, African leaders must demonstrate stronger collective leadership in preventing conflicts, mediating disputes, and protecting African lives.

Africa must first strengthen its capacity to address its own security challenges.

4. Organize, Fund, and Mobilize a Continent-Wide Campaign

History has repeatedly demonstrated that meaningful institutional and political change rarely occurs through declarations and diplomatic statements alone.

Change requires a carefully developed strategy, effective organization, sustainable funding, public education, and mass participation.

If African leaders are serious about reforming the United Nations Security Council, they must take the campaign beyond conference rooms, diplomatic receptions, and summit declarations.

They must involve African citizens, civil society organizations, universities, professional associations, youth movements, and communities across the continent and throughout the African diaspora.

A coordinated, peaceful, and sustained public advocacy campaign should educate African citizens about the importance of equitable representation in global governance.

Without broad public participation and sustained political pressure, Africa’s demands may continue to be ignored.

THE TIME FOR SYMBOLIC DIPLOMACY MUST END

Africa cannot continue indefinitely seeking admission into an exclusive system whose existing members possess the power to deny its rightful representation.

The fundamental question is no longer whether Africa deserves permanent representation on the United Nations Security Council.

Africa deserves it. That argument has already been made repeatedly and convincingly.

The real question is whether the existing international power structure is prepared to accommodate Africa as an equal partner.

If the answer remains no, then African leaders must seriously consider alternative strategies for transforming the international system.

The time has come to challenge not only the composition of the Security Council but also the structures, practices, and leadership arrangements that perpetuate unequal representation in global decision-making.

Meaningful reform may ultimately require a fundamental restructuring of the international system and the emergence of new leadership committed to genuine equality, fairness, accountability, and shared responsibility.

Africa must move from resolutions to action, from declarations to implementation, and from diplomatic symbolism to measurable results.

After decades of advocacy, the continent deserves more than another communiqué.

Africa deserves results.

Ambassador Sidique Abou-Bakarr Wai
Former Sierra Leone Ambassador to the United States
ECOWAS Secretary-General
President Emeritus, United African Congress, USA

10/01/2026

Happy 66th Independence Day Celebration to my beloved Nigeria! 🇳🇬

I am a proud Nigerian in the diaspora. My generation grew up during a prosperous period in Nigeria in the 1960s and 1970s—a time when community, shared responsibility, and looking out for one another were deeply embedded in our values.

We were raised to care for one another beyond our immediate families and, importantly, to give back to the communities and country that shaped us. These are principles we remain deeply committed to.

That commitment is reflected not only in the more than $25 billion we remit to Nigeria annually, but, equally importantly, in the collective work Nigerians in the diaspora undertake to transfer knowledge, create opportunities, and help prepare Nigeria’s young people for the future of work, innovation, and economic sustainability.

Our love for Nigeria is more than a sentiment—it is reflected in the contributions we continue to make toward building a stronger and more prosperous future for generations to come.

Happy Independence Day, Nigeria! 🇳🇬
One Love! ❤️ One Nigeria! 🇳🇬

10/01/2026

Mr. Howard Jordan came to Nigeria from Sarah Lawrence College, New York, about 1971, to complete his B.A. degree. At Ife and Ahmadu Bello Universities, he took courses in the

Departments of Fine Arts, and Sociology and Anthropology.

Howard’s undergraduate training helped him to see African Art from a broader perspective, a quality which made his Master’s Thesis in Art History very original and rather unique.

As one of his field supervisors I can testify that his field data for this work are impressive both qualitatively and quantitatively. At Ife, Apomu and Ijero-Ekiti, all culturally rich areas of Yorùbáland, Howard has independently carried out interesting art-historically oriented investigations as evidenced by his volumes of transcribed oral data, as well as a valuable and rare collection of field photographs and tape-recordings.

His interest is in the meaning, function, and structural analysis of Yorùbá art forms. This is an area in which he has already done very important, though yet unpublished work.

Howard is an energetic worker and a promising scholar who is receptive to new ideas and approaches in his area of interest. I have no doubt that he is capable of making a significant contribution to traditional art history given the appropriate encouragement and environment.

Howard is of outstanding personal characteristics. He is respectful and cheerful, resourceful and very reliable.

Rowland Abiodun
Senior Lecturer in Art and Art History, University of Ife.

09/30/2026

Good Reads: I’m one of these parents…

https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2026/09/parental-support-to-adult-children.html

09/18/2026

A Must Read;

“Jeff Bezos, Amazon, and Big Tech. Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone, and Wall Street. Brad Karp, Paul, Weiss, and Big Law. Mitch McConnell and the United States Senate. Eight individuals in all, together forming an entwined network of power in America, and a new way to understand how authoritarianism can take root in an open society—not by overthrowing institutions, but by bending and bullying them into submission.

The book is a masterful study of the ways people create rationalizations to justify basic human instincts such as greed, vanity and fear—above all fear. Fear is the great enemy of democracy, and the book illuminates how it operates, how it disguises itself, and how it spreads. The book is timeless: its profiles are case studies, but they are also mirrors. They ask readers to examine their own instincts, their own silences, their own thresholds for action. This is not a morality tale with easy villains. It is an attempt to describe the moral mechanics of democratic failure. By studying that failure up close, we may better understand what courage truly requires—and why it is so rarely summoned when it matters most.”

Source: Amazon

09/09/2026

FOR THE RECORD

In recognition of the life, work, and legacy of Chief Bukola Sekinat Sonuga.

I am proud and excited to announce that my book, Orúko Ló N Rọ Ọmọ – A Name Molds a Child, has been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office at the Library of Congress.

This recognition affirms the book as my original literary work and establishes my ownership of its copyright.

For me, this is more than a publication milestone. It is a part of my immigrant legacy—a contribution to the preservation of indigenous knowledge, culture, and the stories we carry from one generation to the next.

I am deeply honored to leave this piece of my story behind.

09/05/2026

Good Reads:

“Tech corporations and executives, not including cryptocurrency, gave $35 million toward Mr. Trump’s record $239 million inauguration fund; Mr. Musk alone spent $290 million on U.S. elections in 2024 and was rewarded with a powerful office inside the government. The returns arrived promptly, with an executive order curbing state artificial intelligence regulation and tariff exemptions repaid in investment pledges. David Sacks, a venture capitalist who opposed regulating A.I., was put in charge of the Trump administration’s policy on A.I.”

“Nvidia, a chip maker with some 42,000 employees, is valued at over $5 trillion, roughly the gross domestic product of Germany, the world’s third-largest economy, with a population of 84 million. Only the United States and China have gross domestic products larger than this one company’s market capitalization. Apple is valued above the annual output of Britain, Alphabet above that of France.”

A playbook to curb the growing power of Big Tech.

09/05/2026

Now Reading

“An intimate, bold work of literary nonfiction, The Black Shield is an urgent exploration of the complex duality of the Black cop. Cooper grapples with a knot of contradictions: Is the Black officer a sign of progressive change, or of a system that shifts its appearance without changing its outcomes? How to reconcile the fact that policing helped lift his family out of poverty while it has kept its knee on the necks of his people? Fearless and singularly powerful, The Black Shield gives us an American story about race and power that has never been told before.”
Source: Amazon

08/27/2026

A Must Watch: Absolute Truth to Power.

A sweeping documentary in search of the American Dream through 1,000 voices in 50 states.

08/25/2026