NIGERIA AT EXECUTIVE BOARD SESSION 179

Statement by His Excellency:
Professor Michael Abiola Omolewa
Nigeria's Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization [UNESCO] - during the
179th Session of UNESCO's Executive Board:

General Debate: Items 4 And 5 of the Agenda
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France
1 to 17 April, 2008

Thank you, Mr. Chairman

President of the General Conference

Mr. Director-General

Distinguished Members of the Executive Board

Ladies and gentlemen

Dear friends:

The Delegation of Nigeria vibrantly joins its voice to those who have
welcomed our highly experienced Chairperson of the Board, congratulates
the Director General for his incisive and multi-faceted presentation,
and fully endorses the position of the Africa Group as articulated by
our Vice-Chairperson, Professor Brian Figaji, representative of
South Africa.

Mr Chairman, fifty years ago, the head of the Nigerian delegation to
the General Conference, Mr E. E. Esua, observed that the contribution
of UNESCO to the development of his country was intangible. As he
forcefully put it at the time:

"Mr. President, permit me to add, not in any spirit of criticism, that
compared with the other Specialized Agencies of the United Nations,
such as the ILO, WHO and FAO, UNESCO makes the least impact, if any,
upon Nigeria. In fact, as far as we in Nigeria are concerned,
UNESCO has largely remained a “distant rumour”. Any average person
in Nigeria can point to concrete achievements in that country by
ILO, WHO and FAO, and yet the problems confronting Nigeria in the
field of education are very pressing, and call for the most urgent
attention. I do not wish to lay the blame for that unfortunate
situation at the door of UNESCO. Perhaps it is because Nigeria
has not asked that she has not received."

Mr Chairman, I am pleased to confirm that the picture painted in
1958 has dramatically changed: Nigeria has since frequently asked
and benefited from UNESCO in the various areas of the mandate of
the organisation, while the country has also steadily remained an
active partner with this unique and specialised organisation.

We are most grateful to all the member states and the various
geographical groups that have continued to support our efforts.
The latest demonstration of the willingness of UNESCO to support
the initiatives of Nigeria was the decision of the 177th session
of this Board, and the subsequent approval at the 34th session
of the General Conference, to establish a category 2 Institute
of African Culture and International Understanding in Nigeria,
subject to the presentation of a feasibility study by the
Director General for the consideration of the Board at this
session. We have noted the decision by the Director-General to
withdraw the item from the agenda of this session, and we are
confident that he and his entire team at the secretariat will
continue to give the proposal all the assistance requested by
the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

It is within this context of Nigeria-UNESCO Cooperation that my
Delegation joins other members of this Board to mourn the
transition of Ambassador Dragoljub Najman, former Ambassador
of Serbia to UNESCO and the inaugural Chairman of the
UNESCO-Nigeria Committee on Special Plan for Cooperation.
As many people testified at his funeral, which I attended in
person in Belgrade, Ambassador Najman was a dedicated
professional and diplomat who generously shared his
encyclopaedic knowledge of the United Nations System in
general, and UNESCO in particular, while always retaining his
soft spoken manner and gentle smile. As we remember him, let
us strengthen our resolve to contribute more firmly to that on
which he focussed the greater part of his life, namely, seeking
the means to achieve a primary mandate of UNESCO, which is
to attain a more peaceful and more humane world.

And while still on the issue of the development of Africa, my
Delegation is delighted to confirm that Nigeria will be hosting
the advocacy meeting of the African World Heritage Fund later
this month, as a further demonstration of the country’s
commitment to the important subject of heritage protection,
promotion and conservation in the region. We are delighted that
many key dignitaries from the three organs of our organisation
are already planning to attend, and we sincerely hope that many
Delegations will join us to see for themselves the product of
several years of fruitful cooperation between
Nigeria and UNESCO.

Mr. Chairman:

Like many other countries in Africa, the Caribbean and South
Asia, Nigeria is concerned about the slow pace of progress
in the Education For All (EFA) programme and remains
particularly disturbed by the prediction that Nigeria may
not achieve the EFA goals. My Delegation would want to see
an accelerated pace of performance, the strengthening of the
Regional Office for Education in Africa (BREDA) and the
effective support for the literacy, technical and vocational
programmes in the region.

Mr. Chairman:

Related to the issue of EFA performance is the outcome of
the Seventh E9 Ministerial Review Meeting held in Bali,
Indonesia, from 10-12 March, 2008. Please allow me to
pay glowing tribute to the Government and People of that
great country, Indonesia, for the excellent hosting of
the meeting.

The Bali Declaration recognised the crucial importance of
the success of EFA in the E-9 Countries, which, together,
account for about 60 percent of the World population. We
therefore call on the Executive Board to support and adopt
the draft decision which is being proposed for the promotion
of the efforts of the E-9 countries for the attainment of
EFA by the target date of 2015. We should also recognise
the importance of South-South Cooperation where experience
is shared by countries with similarity of challenges.

Ladies and gentlemen:
We will make our detailed observations on the programmes
known during our contributions at the F and A and the PX
Commissions.

Thank you and God bless you.

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