By Hauwa Yusuf Funtua in Paris.
The election of members of the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO took place on Wednesday 11 November 2015.
The names of new member states elected to the Executive Board were announced at the Twelfth Plenary Meeting of the General Conference by His Excellency Mr Michael Worbs, Chairperson of the Nominations Committee and endorsed by the 38th President of the General Conference Mr Stanley Mutumba Simataa.
Nigeria was re-elected into the Executive Board as a member under Electoral Group V(a) with seven seats to be filled out of 12 African countries. The seven countries that scaled through the elections include Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.
Nigeria was re-elected with a total of 132 votes in a keenly contested election amidst a lot of intrigues and political maneuverings.
In what can be described as one of her best moments, the Nigerian Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO Paris Ambassador Mariam Katagum thanked God for the victory and used the opportunity to thank the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari as well as other stakeholders who have assisted the delegation with reciprocal arrangements especially the Federal Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education.
She said, “With this victory, we will work harder with other countries especially now that we are going into the Sustainable Development Goals SDGs and we are looking forward to when we can enhance the development of our country particularly Africa as a whole”
She also said that, her mission has had side meetings with UNESCO officials concerning projects in Nigeria and use the opportunity to pursue those projects and see how they can bring the desired change in Nigeria.
On how the victory will impact on Nigerian delegation Ambassador Katagum said ” The Executive Board is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the decision of the General Conference are implemented within the two year period and to ensure that the Secretariat is compliant with the decisions taken as well as the day to day running of programmes ”
She added that ” In the Executive Board you also have the opportunity to formulate policies, discuss new programmes and see how they affect your region and our concern is Africa, as Africa is rising, there are a lot of initiatives, although when we compare with other regions we still have some challenges especially in human capital development. So for us on the Executive Board is to try and see how the programme in Africa can be redesigned, refocused and restructured, already there are a lot of reforms in structures at UNESCO for Africa but we are not satisfied, we want to ensure that these reforms also go in line with the new 2030 agenda”
In the various positions contested at the 38th session of the UNESCO General Conference Nigeria was also elected into the UNESCO Intergovernmental committees, Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB), Intergovernmental Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) and International Hydrological Programme (IHP).
Ambassador Mariam Katagum was emphatic in saying that the win is a victory for all the Nigerian Delegates and her team in the Nigerian permanent delegation who have worked tirelessly and their goodwill towards the success of Nigeria in all its works in UNESCO. She said the positions won means more work and greater glory to Nigeria.
