President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Chile Eboe-Osuji has described President Muhammadu Buhari as one of the most highly respected African statesmen of our time.
He made this known at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York earlier in the week.
Eboe-Osuji expressed reverence for president Buhari, quoting him three times in his speech to the UN.
The speech, which was his first in his capacity as president of the ICC, was on the occasion of presenting the Court’s annual report to the United Nations for 2017/2018.
Osuji made a case for the sustenance of the criminal court, despite opposition from President Donald Trump of the United States.
The ICC president said this year “marks the 20th Anniversary of the adoption of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, fondly called the Rome Statute”.
He stated that the ICC was created to serve as a conscience to humanity in her journey to and through civilisation.
“[The]Mindful[ness] that during [the 20th ] century [in which the Rome Statute was adopted] millions of children, women and men ha[d] been victims of unimaginable atrocities that deeply shock the conscience of humanity,” Eboe-Osuji said.
He went on to quote President Buhari as he made a case for the sustenance of the criminal court.
“One of the most highly respected African Statesmen of our time answered that question in a very straightforward way,” he said.
“As part of his own reflections during the 20th Anniversary of the Rome Statute in July, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari answered that question in these words: ‘With the alarming proliferation of the most serious crimes around the world, the ICC, and all that it stands for, is now needed more than ever, in ways that were unforeseeable to its founders’.
