Nigeria”s ambassador to the UN, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, was elected Tuesday President of the UN General Assembly for the next 74th session.
In this way, it becomes the second Nigerian to occupy the office, after Joseph Nanven Garba, who headed the largest United Nations agency in 1989.
Muhammad-Bande, 62, was elected by acclamation, said the current President of the General Assembly, Maria Fernanda Espinosa.
The Nigerian diplomat was Director General of his country’s National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies and holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from Boston University and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
Muhammad-Bande will replace the current President of the UN General Assembly, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, the fourth woman to hold this responsibility.
The Presidency of the Assembly changes each year through an established rotation among the five geographic groups of the Assembly: Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Western Europe.
