Lagos — Education for All (EFA) by the year 2015 is not negotiable, President of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Professor Michael Omolewa, has said.

In an exclusive interview with THISDAY during the 2004 Holy Ghost Congress at the Redemption Camp along Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, Omolewa noted that nothing should blur the vision that every child in the world must be in school by the year 2015 because education is the cornerstone of a nation's development and the well being of the world.

He explained that Nigeria, as one of the "earliest members of UNESCO subscribes to the organisation's view that education should be a priority together with culture, information, informatics and communication, so that all sectors work together in developing a spirit that would eschew bitterness or war, but work in cooperation with the entire world community to promote peace."

The Professor of Adult Education observed that Nigeria is making progress and gradually reforming itself, just like any other country. "What Nigeria is doing today is to look at itself and try to see how education can reform the challenges of modern Nigerian society to assist in the elimination of poverty, hunger, bigotry, chauvinism, arrogance, deceit, corruption and other vices."

Professor Omolewa said Nigeria has benefited immensely from the quality work of UNESCO. "In the area of cultural preservation, Osun Osogbo festival, by the grace of God, would soon be inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site."

On his attendance at the Holy Ghost Congress, Omolewa said "I came to the Holy Ghost Congress for the first time in 1998 in Lekki, at a time I was asking God to give me a job somewhere. Then the Lord God gave me a job at UNESCO and since 1999 God has moved me from victory to victory to the extent that I would reject anything that would stand between me and the Congress.

"I want to soak myself in the Holy Ghost and thereafter I would be strengthened and further equipped for a greater service in UNESCO throughout the world.

"Two years ago, I asked God to allow me to serve as the President of the UNESCO General Conference and for the first time, Nigeria was elected unanimously by the entire 190 countries. By next year, Nigeria would be going back to the Executive Board and we are going to 12 Inter-Government Councils, including that of the World Heritage by God's Grace.