A claim that the United Nations (UN) would take over the country from the Nigerian president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, if protests continued longer than 15 days has circulated online.
The #EndBadGovernance protest held from August 1 – 10 this year was aimed at calling the Nigerian government’s attention to the increasing economic hardship faced by millions of Nigerians across the West African nation.
An X user, @TheML007, on August 2, 2024, posted the claim thus:
BREAKING NEWS ; UN will take power from TINUBU if protesters continue the protest for 15 days, it used to be 30days but they’re doing Promo at the UN.
Way to go guys.
The post had garnered over 470,000 views, with more than 3,000 likes and over 1,000 comments as of August 22, 2024.
Due to the sensitive nature of the claim, The FactCheckHub decided to verify its veracity.
Recall that The FactCheckHub verified a number of claims during the recent Nigeria protest as seen here, here, here, here, here, and here.
CLAIM
United Nations will take over any country after 15 days of continuous protests.
THE FINDINGS
Checks by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE as the UN does not exercise such power over a sovereign State, according to its charter.
The United Nations, established in 1945, is an international organisation consisting of 193 member states. Its activities and mission are directed by the goals and principles outlined in its founding Charter.
The UN Charter is the constitutive instrument of the United Nations, signed on June 26, 1945. It sets out the rights and obligations of Member States and establishes the principal organs and procedures of the United Nations.
Nigeria became a member state of the United Nations on October 7, 1960 after gaining its independence the same year.
A look at the UN charter indicates that Chapter 1, Article 2(7) states as follows:
“Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorise the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII.
Another look at chapter 7, article 39 and 40 of the charter states that:
“The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security.”
“In order to prevent an aggravation of the situation, the Security Council may, before making the recommendations or deciding upon the measures provided for in Article 39, call upon the parties concerned to comply with such provisional measures as it deems necessary or desirable. Such provisional measures shall be without prejudice to the rights, claims, or position of the parties concerned. The Security Council shall duly take account of failure to comply with such provisional measures.”
From the above articles, it is evident that the United Nations addresses issues concerning the preservation of international peace and security, which are handled by its Security Council.
Speaking with The FactCheckHub, Tope Temokun, a Nigerian lawyer ad human rights activist stated that the UN lacks the legal power or mandate to intervene in such a manner, as sovereignty is a core principle of international law that cannot be overridden, even by international organisations like the UN.
“…that is not true; UN does not have the powers to take over the government of any sovereignty under any circumstance,” Temokun stated.
Similarly, Yunus Adelodun, a UK-based Nigerian lawyer who specialises in Arbitration, Litigation, Data Protection and Privacy, noted that despite the claim trending for a while, there has been no proof of when such power was exercised by the United Nations.
“The claim has been trending a bit. But no one has really provided any proof to back it up with any legal provision or even a precedent where such power was exercised by the UN.
“The UN charter doesn’t provide for such. There are also countless protests in UN member states that lasted more than 15 days without such ‘take over’,” Adelodun said.
However, he highlighted that there is the possibility of the UN imposing sanctions on the government as a result of human rights violation citing the occurrence in Libya 1973.
“There is the possibility of the UN issuing statements, reaching out to governments involved, imposing sanctions maybe due to human rights violations in some cases.
“Although UN Security Council have passed resolutions that led to military operations in some countries in the past like resolution 1973 that led to the invasion of Libya.
“It wasn’t primarily due to demonstrations lasting more than 15 days. Other issues were considered from human rights and international peace angle,” Adelodun further emphasised.
Further checks showed that the claim has previously been debunked by The Cable.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the United Nations will take over any country after 15 days of continuous protests is FALSE; the UN charter does not contains such power as reconfirmed by lawyers.
This report is republished from the FactCheckHub.
Fatimah Quadri is a Journalist and a Fact-checker at The ICIR. She has written news articles, fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy in an effort to combat information disorder.
She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or [email protected]