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Tinubu Felicitates Jimoh Ibrahim on Election as Chair of UN Budget and Administration Committee
鈥 Envoy to serve as keynote speaker at anniversary conference at Harvard University today
Deji Elumoye in Abuja
President Bola Tinubu has congratulated Nigeria鈥檚 Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Jimoh Ibrahim, on his election as Chairman of the United Nations General Assembly Fifth Committee on Budget and Administration.
Tinubu, in a congratulatory message on Wednesday, stated that the election of Ibrahim was noteworthy at a particularly critical moment for the United Nations, as the world body navigated significant financial realignment while advancing critical institutional reforms to strengthen its effectiveness, accountability, and long-term sustainability.
Tinubu stated regarding Ibrahim, 鈥淵our election to chair this important committee within weeks of official resumption at the UN validates your wealth of experience in public service, diplomacy, business leadership, and governance particularly as member of Nigerian Senate Committee on Budget and Appropriation and Chairman of Inter-Parliamentary Relations.
鈥淵our previous roles in the private sector and public service distinctly equip you to provide the steady, strategic leadership required for this important responsibility.
鈥淭hrough your background as a respected legal scholar with commensurate expertise in International Taxation and 糖心视频 Administration, you have consistently demonstrated intellectual acumen and a deep understanding of the global governance and financial systems, providing valuable insight into fiscal management, institutional efficiency, and sustainable growth.鈥
The president said he was confident that, just as the reforms at home were yielding positive results, Ibrahim鈥檚 experience and unwavering commitment to excellence will justify his selection as Permanent Representative and make Nigeria proud in the work of the Fifth Committee and in support of the broader objectives of the United Nations.
鈥淐ongratulations once again on this remarkable achievement and on the confidence reposed in you by the international community,鈥 Tinubu stated.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim will on Thursday (today) serve as keynote speaker at the Tenth Anniversary Conference of Ife Institute of Advanced Studies at Harvard University, Massachusetts, United States of America (USA).
The envoy had on April 11, 2026 been invited by Department of African and African American Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University to deliver the keynote address.
In the one-page invite signed by Chair, African and African and American Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Professor Jacob Olupona, Nigeria鈥檚 Permanent Representative at the United Nations was expected to speak on 鈥淭he Nigerian Project Revisited: Crisis, Continuity, and Possibility.鈥
The invitation letter read thus, 鈥淎pril 11, 2026
Harvard University, Dept of African and African American Studies Massachusetts, US 鈥楻e: invitation to Serve as Keynote Speaker at the Tenth Anniversary Conference of the Ife Institute of Advanced Studies.鈥
鈥淎frica continues to produce exceptional individuals. Yet, it has not built institutions that can consistently sustain excellence. This conference asked why and whether that can change at scale.
鈥淔or the past decade, the Ife Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS) has worked to address this gap by investing in rigorous and independent scholarship.
鈥淪ince its founding, IIAS has trained over 850 scholars, many of whom now shape academia, policy, and public life in Nigeria and across and beyond Africa. That progress is meaningful, but insufficient to meet the scale of the challenge.
鈥淎t this ten-year mark, we are convening a small invitation-only gathering at the John Knowles Pane Concert Hall, Department of Music, Harvard University on June 4, 2026, to discuss the theme, Budding Lasting Instruments: Path, Scholarship, and the African Project.
鈥淚 cordially invite you to deliver the keynote address titled: The Nigerian Project Revisited: Crisis, Continuity, and Possibility.
鈥淭his keynote sets the conceptual and historical foundation for the conference by reviewing the theme of 鈥渢he Nigerian project鈥 as an unfinished and contested enterprise. 鈥淢oving beyond familiar narratives of failure and dysfunction. The address interrogates how Nigeria鈥檚 institutional challenges have been shaped by deeper tensions between inherited structure and lived realities formal governance and informal practice, aspiration and accountability. What does it mean to speak of Nigeria as a 鈥減roject.鈥 and who bears responsibility for its construction? By tracing patterns of continuity alongside moments of rupture.
鈥淭he keynote reframes crisis life not as an endpoint, but as a condition that reveals both the fragility and the latent possibilities of institutional life.
鈥淭he address, thus, opens the conference space for rethinking what it would take to build institutions that are not only functional, but meaningful and enduring.鈥 Jacob Olupona, PhD, Chair, African and African and American Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
