BEING OPENING ADDRESS AT THE 4th ARCHDICOESAN EDUCATION SUMMIT OF THE CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF IBADAN DELIVERED BY MOST. REV. DR. GABRRIEL, ‘LEKE ABEGUNRIN ON JANUARY 17TH, 2025

The Vicar General,

V Rev. Frs and Rev. Frs.,

Consecrated men and women

All our invited Guests

Our Education Committee members

Dear Teachers, and Pupils,

Parents and Guests,

I am delighted to welcome you to the 4th Education Summit of the Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan. The world is moving forward, and education geared towards the formation of the human person cannot remain in the same position. Contemporary education must be intentional, proactive, and purposeful and that is why the UN Global Compact has become crucial today for many aspects of human life, including the education sector. The concept of the Global Compact on Education is closely related to the UN Global Concept.

What is Global Compact

For the United Nations, the Global Compact “is a strategic initiative that supports global companies that are committed to responsible business practices in the areas of human rights, labor, peace, the environment, and corruption. This UN-led initiative promotes activities that contribute to sustainable development goals to create a better world.” In other words, it is an initiative that encourages various segments of human life to align their strategies and operation with universal sustainability principles and goals of the United Nations. Put differently, the Global Compact is a call for groups and people to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies. Here, the obligation is not left in the hands of individuals but calls on corporate groups to be involved. It is thus a large corporate social responsibility initiative. This is also in line with Pope Francis’s call to be good stewards of creation in Fratello Tutti.

The UN Global Compacts are good values to be pursued by all, no wonder the Church has also embraced it and I urge all our Schools to embrace them so as to make the world and especially our local environment a better place, for us and the future generations. While the focus of the United Nation is on businesses and multinational corporations, it involves all of us especially those in the education sector. Change requires formation of heart and mind to be effective. If we do not form our people, no value will be imbibed by them or utilize for the good of all. Consequently, everyone in the education sector must embrace the Global Compact, teach them to others, and help them to understand them and what is expected of each person. From the Ten Global Compact Principles, we can see the relationship with the SDGs, which is the Sustainable Development Goals. These goals are meant for the good of humanity and if we do not act now, the consequences will be adverse on all of us including the coming generation.

To change course, in other words, for us to live better – let us educate ourselves in responsible and sustainable ways. We must hold ourselves responsible, only then can we hold others accountable. Our Church already identifies for us the marks of Catholic education, in other words, the value systems that shapes our approaches to providing education in the world. These are the values we have been committed to for many centuries and have served us well. Now that the secular world is ready to embrace these principles, let us work hand in hand with them, and equip our children with contemporary skills much needed for sustainable development and success in the world today.

The United Nations Global Compacts call us to focus on human rights, labour, the environment, corruption issues, health, and human development. These are not problems for one nation, but the whole of humanity. True solution and sustainable solution will require collaboration and innovation. We need our schools to take innovation as a priority and see it as necessary for the survival of the world. It is with this in mind that we can understand the Global Compact on Education. On The Global Compact on Education, Pope Francis asserts that “We consider education to be one of the most effective ways of making our world and history more human. Education is above all a matter of love and responsibility handed down from one generation to another.”

Hence the Congregation took up the initiative in 2020, but the outbreak of COVID-19 slowed things down until many local initiative added traction to the initiative. Thus the Global Compact on Education is an initiative promoted by the Vatican and Pope Francis. With all that is going on in the world today, the Global Compact on Education is the Church’s effort to help all educators imbibe the mission of the Church to create fraternity, peace, and justice. It is a clarion call on educators to promote care for others, peace in the world, goodness in society and fraternity in the order to build hope, solidarity, and harmony.

The Global Compact explores ways for the world to rise above the challenges facing the world today in the sure hope that Catholic education has a role to play. No wonder the initial video conference that sets the ball in motion was ably titled “Global Compact on Education- Together to look beyond.” On that occasion on 15 October 2025, Pope Francis said, and I quote

“As such, education is a natural antidote to the individualistic culture that at times degenerates into a true cult of the self and the primacy of indifference. Our future cannot be one of division, impoverishment of thought, imagination, attentiveness, dialogue and mutual understanding. That cannot be our future.”

Today, there is need for a renewed commitment to an education that engages society at every level. Let us heed the plea of the young, which opens our eyes to both the urgent need and the exciting opportunity of a renewed kind of education that is not tempted to look the other way and thus favour grave social injustices, violations of rights, terrible forms of poverty and the waste of human lives.

What is called for is an integral process that responds to those situations of loneliness and uncertainty about the future that affect young people and generate depression, addiction, aggressiveness, verbal hatred and bullying. This entails a shared journey that is not indifferent to the scourge of violence, the abuse of minors, the phenomenon of child marriage and child soldiers, the tragedy of children sold into slavery. To say nothing of the “sufferings” endured by our planet as a result of a senseless and heartless exploitation that has led to a grave environmental and climatic crisis.

The Dicastery has offered three tools to implement the Global Compact for Education: a Vademecum, a book entitled “Education between Crisis and Hope”, and an Exemplar of an agreement that can be used at the local level to create an operational alliance to put into practice the Global Compact for Education. It is thus imperative that all of us in the Education sector commit ourselves and our schools to the Education Compact of the Church.

I therefore urge all our schools and educators and our pastors to make the

1. First, to make human persons in their value and dignity the centre of every educational programme, both formal and informal, in order to foster their distinctiveness, beauty and uniqueness, and their capacity for relationship with others and with the world around them, while at the same time teaching them to reject lifestyles that encourage the spread of the throwaway culture.
2. Second, to listen to the voices of children and young people to whom we pass on values and knowledge, in order to build together a future of justice, peace and a dignified life for every person.
3. Third, to encourage the full participation of girls and young women in education.
4. Fourth, to see in the family the first and essential place of education.
5. Fifth, to educate and be educated on the need for acceptance and in particular openness to the most vulnerable and marginalized.
6. Sixth, to be committed to finding new ways of understanding the economy, politics, growth and progress that can truly stand at the service of the human person and the entire human family, within the context of an integral ecology.
7. Seventh, to safeguard and cultivate our common home, protecting it from the exploitation of its resources, and to adopt a more sober lifestyle marked by the use of renewable energy sources and respect for the natural and human environment, in accordance with the principles of subsidiarity, solidarity and a circular economy.
8. Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we want to commit ourselves courageously to developing an educational plan within our respective countries, investing our best energies and introducing creative and transformative processes in cooperation with civil society. In this, our point of reference should be the social doctrine that, inspired by the revealed word of God and Christian humanism, provides a solid basis and a vital resource for discerning the paths to follow in the present emergency.

I am happy that we have reached out to many experts who will examine the various issues related to Education Global Compact, and especially within the Nigerian environment. I am confident that together, we can chart a way forward that will yield good dividends.

To the greater glory of God, and the good of humanity, I hereby declare open the 4th Education Summit of  the Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan on this day, 17th January 2024, the 11th Year of our stewardship in Ibadan Archdiocese.

Thank you.