Nigeria: Not 'Snubbed' - Nigerian Government Says It Wasn't a Candidate for Election to the UN Human Rights Council

24 October 2024
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Catherine Adeniyi

Not 'snubbed' - Nigerian government says it wasn't a candidate for election to the UN Human Rights Council

IN SHORT: Nigeria received three votes in the October 2024 elections for the United Nations Human Rights Council. But the president's spokesperson says that the country wasn't snubbed - it didn't stand for the election.

The Human Rights Council is the principal intergovernmental human rights body of the United Nations (UN).

It is the successor to the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights. According to the UN:

  • The council consists of 47 member states elected directly and individually by a majority of the 193 states of the UN General Assembly.
  • Elections are held every year. Seats are distributed equitably among the UN's five regional groups, with one-third of the membership renewed each year.
  • Each member serves a three-year term. Membership is limited to two consecutive terms.
  • By December 2022, 123 of the 193 UN Member States had been represented on the council.

The most recent election was in October 2024, with the next term starting on 1 January 2025.

It is in this context that some posts on Facebook claim Nigeria lost its bid to join the council after receiving only three votes.

One of the posts reads: "BREAKING: Nigeria Gets Only 3 Votes As Bid To Join The UN Human Rights Council Gets Rejected. Ghana (179) And Burundi (168) Have Been Voted In. Malawi (182) And Côte d'Ivoire (181) Were Each Re-elected For Second Terms."

Other Facebook posts echo the claim here and here. (Note: See other instances of the claim at the end of the report.)

But did Nigeria lose its bid to join the council? We checked.

Nigeria was not a candidate, says government

In a statement shared on his official X handle, Bayo Onanuga, Nigeria's presidential spokesperson, said the country was not on the ballot for the 9 October 2024 election.

"Contrary to information circulating, Nigeria was not snubbed in this election, as some reports have falsely claimed," Onanuga said. "The country did not stand as a candidate for this cycle of elections ..."

"Whatever vote was recorded for our country must have been cast in error in the secret balloting by some countries which thought Nigeria was on the ballot."

Nigeria did get three votes in the October 2024 election, but it wasn't on the list of candidates for the 2025-2027 or 2024-2026 elections.

According to Onanuga, the false claim was first circulated after the 2023 council elections and is now making the rounds online again.

The Economic Community of West African State regional bloc, chaired by Nigeria president Bola Tinubu, endorsed two member states, Benin and Gambia, for the 2025-2027 term.

The same claim was posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Read the original story, with links and other resources.
Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. Twitter @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org

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