Abuja — A world without librarians and a library would be void, unexciting and without consolation of any type, Nigerian Ambassador/Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, Prof. Michael Omolewa has said.

In a Keynote Address delivered at the on-going 47th National Conference/Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Library Association in Ibadan, Omolewa said he came to that conclusion when he attempted to examine why some adult learners had used the British Council Library in Nigeria between 1932 and 1960.

He described the theme of the conference: 'Libraries Create Futures: Building on Cultural Heritage' as topical because the world has gone a full cycle to rediscover itself and "Man is in search of its past and the present so that the future can have a meaning. Cultural heritage has to do with the totality of the experience of man, the past, present and the future."

He noted that cultural differences are recognised even in the global village, adding that, UNESCO, which has been given the mandate to promote world's cultural heritage, has championed the adoption of the historic conventions, the Underwater Cultural Heritage, the Convention for the Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Expressions, which have all been ratified by many countries and are now operational.

The United Nations also launched the 'Dialogue among Civilizations in 2000. Thereafter the UN General Assembly adopted the Global Agenda Among Civilizations the following year.

Omolewa, who is winding down his assignment at the Nigerian Delegation in Paris, said during the past 10 years, he had worked on the subject of building on cultural heritage. "The Almighty God has generously prospered my mission, and given us His vision of Osun Osogbo on the World Heritage List, the Ifa Divination on the Intangible Cultural Heritage List, and had got Nigeria elected to the World Heritage Committee and the Committee on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage."

The conference therefore provided him the platform to thank former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Governors of Osun, Kano and Cross Rivers States, various Ministers of Education and Culture "who", he said, "had made my work easy and pleasurable by their support, understanding and encouragement I consider this platform an excellent safe landing after a decade of assignment and challenge in UNESCO."

While submitting that Africa, the origin of human kind, is blessed with cultural resources in addition to the enormous human and natural resources in the region, and that without an exaggeration, one can conclude that Culture is African; the Professor of Adult Education, admitted that "the Challenge of the protection, the promotion and the preservation of cultural heritage is immense. Globalisation of course has wide implications for the practice of cultural expressions."

Librarians, he said, are known as information managers whose power can always be enormous. They influence every segment of the society of all ages and various calling, and at all levels of the educational system, and social groups.

According to him, "everyone needs the input of the information manager. It is therefore imperative for the librarian to support all initiatives to build a society of the future that will be fair, just and noble. Where there are vices, it becomes mandatory for the librarian to encourage a change in attitude and orientations. In the specific area of cultural development, the librarians can make an investment in the development of cultural heritage literacy and encourage the development of suitable and appropriate curricula, school libraries and community reading rooms.

"If librarians therefore agree to make a contribution to the future of Cultural Heritage of a region or a country or even a family, the result will always be impressive. I am not sure if librarians can create a future. After all they cannot play the part of the Almighty God, the Creator, who remains in firm control of the affairs of man. However I know that librarians certainly do have a responsibility and a duty to make a contribution, a commitment and decisive input to establishing a future of which we will all be proud."

He then charged the conference to focus on a strategy to translate this vision to a mission for all librarians.