NIGERIAN PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OBASANJO CALLS FOR REINFORCED NORTH-SOUTH CO-OPERATION

Paris. October 15 (No.2001-104) - “UNESCO’s agenda has suddenly become part of the agenda of the highest political order in the world,” President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria declared, referring to the attacks of September 11 in the United States, as he addressed UNESCO’s General Conference in Paris this morning.

Speaking at the opening of the General Conference, UNESCO’s supreme ruling body which every two years brings together the Organization’s Member States to decide on its programme and budget, the President said that in the light of the events of September 11 “this General Conference offers a most welcome forum to reflect on implications of an entirely new dimension of terrorism, and the threat to world peace based on shared global values and conventions. There is an urgent need to revisit and strengthen the global system of interaction and co-operation if organizations of the UN system, such as UNESCO, are to live up to their potential and expectations.”

He said that “Nigeria, for one, looks to UNESCO to serve as a steady forum where nations of the world can reaffirm their commitment to peaceful ways of conduct, to a redoubling of their efforts of tolerance, and giving practical meaning to the much wanted - and much needed - concept of dialogue among cultures, civilizations and religions.”

Regretting that the recent Durban Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Other Forms of Intolerance, “was overshadowed by discord and political disputes,” President Obasanjo said: “We seem to have lost an opportunity to face the real challenges of changing the prejudices, biases and discrimination which had formed the bedrock of human inhumanity to man.”

“These are the challenges set out in the Constitution of UNESCO,” he said. Emphasizing the importance of the return of the United States and Singapore to full membership of the Organization, he praised moves in the U.S Congress to restore membership: “We hope that the next few weeks will bring a fruitful conclusion to these welcome moves.”

President Obasanjo voiced concern over budgetary restrictions imposed on UNESCO and appealed “to our fellow member countries, especially the industrialised nations, to help change this rather counter-productive budgetary policy.”

Stressing progress achieved in education in Nigeria, President Obasanjo praised co-operation with UNESCO notably regarding basic education, technical and vocational education, and science policy.

He welcomed UNESCO’s emphasis on poverty eradication in its programmes and said that “the eradication of poverty cannot be contemplated without dealing with the scourge of illiteracy and a systematic way of raising the level of knowledge of the populace at large.”

President Obasanjo pointed out that: “UNESCO has an important role to play […] to emphasize the crucial significance of education and cultural dimensions, and to equally highlight the significance of introducing scientific and communication dimensions in successful poverty reduction policies. The face of poverty cannot be captured in monetary terms alone, it is much more complex and diverse.”

“The educational challenge is greatest in Africa,” President Obasanjo said, warning that “it is quite possible that half way through the next decade, more than 30 percent of children will never attend primary school, or learn to read and write. This is politically and morally unacceptable.”

He added that “our education for all obligations are compounded by the tremendous needs for preventive education to counter HIV/AIDS.” President Obasanjo called on the international community to contribute generously to the UN HIV/AIDS Global Trust Fund.”

“Developing countries feel deserted by the dramatic drop in official development assistance,” he said, calling on all development partners, to “set a moderate scale of 0.5 per cent of GDP in the next five years. […] Let me plead once again, that African countries should be relieved from their debt burden that impedes national development and the provision of education and other social services.”

President Obasanjo recognized “that recently there has been some movement regarding debt relief such as through the programme for Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). But this is hardly enough,” he said. “What is required is a total eradication of the burden, so as to give a survival chance to the countries struggling to simultaneously make ends meet and to pay debt. We must also design innovative initiatives […] such as debt-for-education swaps.”

President Obasanjo highlighted the importance of UNESCO’s work in bridging the digital divide between developed and developing countries and cautioned that “if there is no effective action to arrest and close the gaping ICT [information and communication technologies] chasm that now separates the industrialized world from most developing countries, we will all be courting disaster. Inequalities are bound to deepen and will condemn a sizeable part of the world community to the ghetto of marginalization and underdevelopment. The consequences cannot be imagined.”

“It is only through genuine international solidarity and co-operation that we can work together for the good of all peoples, and in fulfilment of the hope that inspired those founders of our Organization, to envision a UNESCO that can indeed advance, through educational, scientific and cultural relations of the people of the world, the objectives of international peace, and of the common good of mankind”, he concluded.

 

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