Remarks by Nigeria's Honourable Minister of Culture,
Mr. Director-General,
____
Tourism and National Orientation: Senator Bello Jibril
Gada during the Signing of Agreement between UNESCO
and Nigeria on the Establishment of the UNESCO Category
Two Centre called: Institute for African Culture and
International Understanding [IACIU] Abeokuta, Nigeria
Wednesday 8 April, 2009
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris: France
Your Excellencies, Ambassadors and Permanent Delegates,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
I bring you greetings from President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, GCFR. It is with profound appreciation
and a feeling of honour that I stand here to thank UNESCO for granting Nigeria the hosting right
to the first Category II Institute dedicated to Culture in Africa. The Institute of African Culture
and International Understanding located at Olusegun Obasanjo Library, Abeokuta with its offshoot,
the Centre of Black Culture and International Understanding located at Osogbo has truly placed
Nigeria as the home of Cultural Diversities and Global Understanding
We are highly grateful of this recognition and are fully committed to the realisation of the ideals
of the Institute to give greater recognition to cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue in
order to reinforce social cohesion in Nigeria’s pluralistic society and beyond. We are committed to
networking with other national, regions and international institutions to promote understanding,
appreciation and genuine cooperation among specialist in African Culture and we would fully promote
the Institute as a major centre for the study of tangible and intangible cultural heritage as well
as cultural expressions in the African region and the Diaspora.
Mr President looks forward to continuing fruitful cooperation with UNESCO in its useful service to
the international community at large. He is fully committed to a seven-point agenda and a united
Nigeria, where the Diaspora and other people of the world would employ Culture and Creativity as a
framework to drive poverty alleviation and generate employment and thus act as a strong force that
should be deployed in the current worldwide fight against economic depression.
It is indeed our happiness to note that today UNESCO stands firm at the heart of the United Nations
System, with its clear mandate and recognised responsibilities in some of the most critical areas of
human endeavours that affect national aspirations and genuine intergovernmental cooperation. This is
why UNESCO, in its history, has been described in so many different ways as the intellectual arm of
the United Nations system and the soul and conscience of the UN system among others. This different
description underlines the richness of UNESCO in its areas of concern and activities.
Director-General, we take this commendable opportunity to thank you for your inspired leadership of
the secretariat. We thank the Africa Group for their collective support for this product of Africa.
We thank the secretariat for the exemplary work they put into the realisation of this project and we
thank the entire member states of UNESCO for approving the Category II Centre to Nigeria. Please be
assured that Nigeria would uphold the sanctity and the goals which necessitated the establishment of
this International Institute.
Thank you and God bless.