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Africa: Time For Africa’s Seat at the Security Council Table is Long Due

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Africa: Time For Africa’s Seat at the Security Council Table is Long Due


Year after year, Africa’s leaders take the long journey to New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly. And year after year, they repeat the same demand: Africa must have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. The hall listens politely, the cameras click, and then nothing changes. The speeches are filed away, the issue is ignored, and the cycle continues.

Enough is enough.

Africa is not a bystander in the United Nations. It is the backbone of the institution. The continent supplies the largest share of peacekeepers, carries the heaviest weight of UN humanitarian interventions, and makes up over a quarter of the General Assembly’s membership. African soldiers have shed blood to keep the peace in conflicts not their own. African states have opened their borders to refugees from crises created by wars in faraway lands. Yet, when the Security Council decides the fate of nations, Africa is locked out of the room where the world’s most powerful decisions are made.

Why? Because the current permanent members—the P5 of the United States, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom—will not loosen their grip on privilege. For them, Africa’s exclusion is convenient. To share power would mean to share influence, and the P5 are unwilling to do so. They hide behind procedural excuses, but the truth is simple: they do not want to give up even a fraction of control.


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But Africa must also look inward. If tomorrow a seat were granted, who would occupy it? Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt all make strong claims. Yet regional rivalries, mistrust, and political ego weaken Africa’s collective demand. The Ezulwini Consensus, which calls for two permanent seats for Africa, was meant to settle the matter, but even that unity is fragile. Without solidarity, the continent hands the P5 the excuse they need to stall reform.

So what can be done? First, Africa must recognize its leverage. This is no longer the Africa of the 1960s. The continent is home to vast mineral wealth, youthful populations, fast-growing economies, and geostrategic importance that both East and West covet. Africa has bargaining power—if only it chooses to use it. That means refusing to lend legitimacy to a broken system. Why continue parading to New York each September to repeat the same words to deaf ears? A coordinated boycott of the General Assembly would echo louder than another round of speeches.

Second, Africa must settle its house. Decide now, not later, how representation will work. End the rivalry, choose the candidates, and present a united front. Division has been the P5’s greatest weapon. Unity must be Africa’s greatest strength.