UN General Assembly
1969

55. The tragic civil war in Nigeria continues, but the Organization of African Unity is making every effort to bring about a peaceful settlement through negotiations. 56. The General Assembly, during its fifteenth session, in resolution 1514 (XV) declared, inter alia, that all peoples under alien subjugation have a right to self-determination and that, in Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories or all other Territories which have not attained independence, all powers must be transferred to the peoples of those Territories without any conditions or reservations or pretexts, in accordance with their freely expressed will and desire. 57. Unfortunately and regrettably, those aims have not been fully implemented. My delegation finds itself utterly bewildered by the continued dominance of colonial Powers in the dependent Territories in the face of such unambiguous principles universally accepted. The popular aspirations of peoples in some areas are being systematically denied. Some colonial Powers show no respect for the principles of the Charter and the principles enunciated by the Organization and ignore the expressed will of all its Members as