I am deeply impressed by this new building. I know that you moved just two months ago. Congratulations!

I am also here to congratulate once again your people and your country and your President [Goodluck] Jonathan on the recent elections, the very successful elections. It is a testament of your matured democracy. All international monitoring groups have witnessed that this election was conducted in a transparent and credible manner. I sincerely hope that this will give very good momentum to further build upon this successful election.

I would like to again [say that I] appreciate Nigeria's multifaceted partnership with the United Nations. I am grateful for Nigeria's generous contribution to the troops of the United Nations peacekeeping operations. You are the number fourth largest troop and police contributing country, participating in nine peacekeeping missions. That is almost two-thirds of our total of UN peacekeeping operations. Just a week after your independence 50 years ago, you were the first one to contribute and participate for the peace and stability in Congo -- and I do really appreciate it.

Thank you very much for recommending and producing such distinguished United Nations senior advisors starting from Mr. Babatunde Osotimehin, our new Executive Director of UNFPA, and Ibrahim Gambari, my Special Representative in UNAMID in Darfur. Just a few days ago, I appointed another very distinguished female Nigerian diplomat, Margaret Vogt, as my Special Representative [...] in Central African Republic. You have also Major General Obi who is now Force Commander in Sudan, in UNMIS. I really appreciate such a distinguished contribution of Nigerian citizens and I hope that with this we can expect an even more strengthened and further contribution of Nigeria to the work if the United Nations.

I do appreciate again the role of Nigeria in this region. As the presidency of ECOWAS, you have greatly contributed to a peaceful [resolution] of the sometime turbulent democratic process in Côte d'Ivoire. I am just coming from the inauguration ceremony of President [Alassane] Ouattara of Côte d'Ivoire. You were there together with President Jonathan. It was a historic day -- historic not only for Côte d'Ivoire but for the people of the entire continent. It sent a strong message that people have their right to choose their own people and that a democratically-elected person should lead a country. You lead by example through successful and transparent presidential elections and parliamentary elections last month and again I sincerely congratulate you.

I am here to discuss with you on how United Nations and Nigeria - as regional leader of Africa and global leader in diplomacy - how we can strengthen our partnership in working for peace and stability and development and also in promoting human rights around the world.

I thank you and congratulate you for your role – your very successful leadership role – in the Security Council as Member of the Security Council. As Secretary-General, I am very happy to work with you on all the matters of the United Nations agenda. Thank you very much for your warm hospitality and support.