The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the University of Ibadan (UI) have brainstormed ways global citizens can build a shared future and preserve common humanity.
The two organisations shared their views on these issues on Thursday during the UNESCO Intellectual Reflection Session with the theme ‘Commons’ as part of the event marking the 42nd General Conference of UNESCO at its headquarters in Paris, France.
During the hybrid version of the event, which was held at the University of Ibadan, under the auspices of the Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC), Research, Innovation, and Strategic Partnership (RISP) of the university, the officer in charge of the communication and information sector of UNESCO’s Abuja office, Ms. Yachat Nuhu, stated that the essence of the conference was to bring together UNESCO member states to deliberate on issues and identify new strategies and areas of collaboration with them.
Nuhu said UNESCO decided not to have the conference at the headquarters level alone because they wanted it to have a global impact, so seven countries were chosen, and Nigeria was one of them.
According to her, the other six countries, aside from Nigeria, were India, China, the United States, Morocco, Mexico, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
“In the course of the event, we will listen to the presentations at the UNESCO headquarters and have a guest speaker on the ground to also give his perspectives relating the deliberated issues to what is happening in the country,” Nuhu said.
DVC, RISP of the university, Professor Oluyemisi A. Bamgbose, SAN, said various sections of the university have worked with UNESCO over the years, and they recognise the important work that the agency is doing across the world.
The DVC stressed that the university is with UNESCO in identifying the elements that enable humans to reweave their common humanity in terms of rights, values, and narratives, amongst others. She, however, added that despite humans sharing universals, there are particulars and specifics that mark people and nations apart.
“Differing geopolitical issues, climate change, wars, coups, cultural orientations, and digital influences are a few causes for concern. These multiple fractures, divisions, and transformations that characterise our world justify the need for us to rethink by bringing stakeholders together to build a world in common,” the DVC said.
The Indian historian, Professor Dipesh Chakrabarty, who spoke from UNESCO headquarters, dwelt mainly on how the environment and natural features of the earth shape the way people, nations, and states relate to one another, organise their societies, and trade.
The professor also revealed how the politics and geopolitics of these natural features, especially if not properly managed or shared, have caused pollution, disasters, wars, and conflicts, among others, consequently depriving people and communities of their fundamental human rights, peace, and development.
Concluding his presentation, he called attention to the need to share and respect the environment, thereby ensuring peace and the development of humanity.
The guest speaker, Professor Senayon Olaoluwa of the Institute of African Studies of the university, titled his presentation ‘Commons, Compromises, and Correctives’.
Professor Olaoluwa’s presentation was conceived in furtherance of Professor Chakrabarty’s keynote and the broad theme, ‘(re)thinking the commons, acting together’. However, he emphasised what human evolution and activities have done to the environment over time.
The professor opined that there was a certain level of credible unity of coexistence between humans and nature in the beginning in ways that affirmed commonality to prevent the current scarcity and devastation of climate change in the digital age.
“The future of our commons must begin with a realisation of the original sense of our commonality, a review of our compromises, and the imperative of correctives to the compromises for the assurance of a just future,” Professor Olaoluwa said.
Comments and contributions followed from the mass of participants drawn from Dominion University, Dominican University, Kola Daisi University, and the host university.
Yachat Nuhu of UNESCO, Abuja, while appreciating the management of the University of Ibadan, speakers, and students, said the outcome of the conference showed that the issues deliberated on are germane to humanity and the environment and called for further insight, research, and collaboration on such matters.
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