Nigeria

Nuclear-weapon-free state

Voted in favour of adopting TPNW

Has signed TPNW, but not yet ratified

Nigeria has signed but not yet ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Geoffrey Onyeama, the minister for foreign affairs of Nigeria, signed the treaty on 20 September 2017. The country’s federal executive council approved ratification of the treaty at a meeting on 27 November 2019.

Nigeria participated in the negotiation of the treaty at the United Nations in New York in 2017 and voted in favour of its adoption.


In an address to the United Nations ahead of the signing ceremony, the president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, said: “The crisis in the Korean peninsula underscores the urgency for all [UN] member states, guided by the spirit of enthroning a safer and more peaceful world, to ratify without delay the treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons.”

Nigeria has promoted universal adherence to the treaty, including by co-sponsoring a UN General Assembly resolution in 2019 that calls upon all states to sign, ratify, or accede to the treaty “at the earliest possible date”.

In a statement to the United Nations in September 2019, Nigeria said that it would “continue to engage other nations on the need for the treaty to be taken as an important global instrument for the promotion of international disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation”.

It said in October 2019 that it “remains proud to have participated in the processes leading to [the treaty’s] adoption, as well as being one of the first states to sign the treaty”, and its support is “guided by our principled position on the denuclearisation of the world”.

In its opening statement to the negotiating conference, Nigeria described the initiation of the treaty-making process as “an epic accomplishment” after almost half a century “of minimal progress” in multilateral efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament.

Nigeria, Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, and South Africa comprised a “core group” of states that played a leading role in bringing the negotiations about and ensuring their ultimate success. 

In 2016, Nigeria was a co-sponsor of the UN General Assembly resolution that established the formal mandate for states to commence the negotiations in 2017 on “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”.

Nigeria was among 127 states that endorsed a “humanitarian pledge” in 2015–16 to cooperate “in efforts to stigmatise, prohibit, and eliminate nuclear weapons”. The pledge was instrumental in building momentum and support for convening the negotiations.

Nigeria is a state party to the 1996 Treaty of Pelindaba, which established Africa as a nuclear-weapon-free zone.


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Local Partner Organizations

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  • Achievers University Owo

    website

  • Christian Council of Nigeria

    website

  • Cultural Youth Initiative Movement of Nigeria

    website

  • Global Network for Human Development Nigeria

    website

  • IANSA Women Network-Nigeria

    website

  • Kairos Nigeria

    website

  • Lastborn Humanity and Development Foundation

    website

  • Poverty and Associated Maladies Alleviation Initiative (PAMAI)       

    website

  • Smiles Africa International

    website

  • Society of Nigerian Doctors for the Welfare of Mankind

    website

  • Social Welfare Network Initiative

    website

  • Women's Right to Education Programme

    website

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