The new UN Secretary-General António Guterres has announced Nigeria’s Environment Minister, Amina Mohammed, as his Deputy Secretary-General. Guterres made the announcement through the spokesman of the Secretary-General, Mr. Stephane Dujarric.

 “I am pleased to announce that I will be appointing Ms. Amina J. Mohammed of Nigeria as my Deputy Secretary-General, and Ms. Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti of Brazil as my Chef De Cabinet.

“I also intend to create the position of Special Advisor on Policy, and to appoint Ms. Kyung-Wha Kang of the Republic of Korea to this new role.

“I am happy to count on the efforts of these three highly competent women, whom I have chosen for their strong backgrounds in global affairs, development, diplomacy, human rights and humanitarian action.

“These appointments are the foundations of my team, which I will continue to build, respecting my pledges on gender parity and geographical diversity,” Guterres said.

Mohammed, Nigeria’s current Minister of Environment, served as UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser to the outgoing Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Post-2015 Development Planning.

Guterres had hinted on Monday after he took the oath of office that gender parity would be top of his agenda as the UN scribe.

He said, “I think that one very important element of the agenda would be to give a clear signal that gender parity is a must and so in the appointments I will be making.

“And the first ones would be announced soon. You’ll see that gender parity will become a clear priority from top to bottom in the UN and it will have to be respected by all