Scholars canvass home-grown ideas for sustainable development

IF the African continent must develop, its governments must embrace home-grown economic ideas, as those from the West will continue to retard it, scholars, labour and civil society leaders have said.
They further accused the West of administering unequal economic measures for depressed Western economies like Greece and Spain, which got bailout, as against those of Africa, where stringent measures such as subsidy removal and privatisation are recommended.
The forum resolved that development ideas native to Africa be adopted to solve Africa’s economic problems while scholars are strengthened to develop models best suited to the continent’s problems. That way, Africa could move from being an extractive and consumer continent to a producing continent and manufacturer of finished goods.
These were some of the ideas generated yesterday in Lagos at the launch of a book, Patriots of Poverty, by a lecturer at Lagos State University, Ojo, and a leftist ideologist, Dr. Sylvester Odion Akhaine.
The gathering comprised many intellectuals, labour and civil rights leaders. Akhaine said that part of his motivation is his realisation that nations dominate others through the twin-weapon of ideas and armour, noting, “the current global powers have these two and have continued to use them for effect.
“Mental slavery is so potent that once subjected, the slave drivers have no need for the armour. Today, our people are weighed down by mental slavery, softened by both idea and armour. Many African radical thinkers have tried variously to free our people from this burden.” Notable poet and essayist, Mr. Odia Ofeimun, lamented the collapse of the different radical ideologies into one pool, which has stunted debates on how society should go.
He said though Nigeria is too endowed to collapse, production or manufacturing and farming are the means through which it can stimulate development and until this is done, Nigeria and Africa would remain in the shadow of the West, suffering chronic debts.
“There are two ways of improving the country. You either build factories or farms. Others are mere derivatives,” Ofeimun said. “If you don’t do so to improve your economy and politics, effort to wipe out corruption is a mere waste of time.” Former Director-General of the Centre for Black and African Arts and Culture and Dean of Student Affairs, the University of Lagos, Prof. Tunde Babawale, said it was unfortunate that African governments have continued to fall for the economic ideas of the West.
According to him, the West was being hypocritical when its finance institutions sold to African governments such ideas as government not doing business, subsidy removal, and private public partnership, whereas they subsidise a lot of things for their own people. “We’ve always taken a particular road, got bad results and still followed it. Meetings with G-7 member-countries is not the answer. We must look inwards.”
However, the Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Lagos State University, Prof. Ayo Omotayo, asked the author to stop blaming the West for Africa’s woes, stating that the time had come for Africa to evolve solutions to its problems. Meanwhile, the Managing Director of The Guardian, Mr. Emeka Izeze, commended the gathering for its intellectual fervor, though he lamented the sheer absence of ideas in the polity.
He noted: “Ideas are no longer commonplace in this country, we have no solution to the commonplace problems. It is the responsibility of academics. “We’re not looking for uniformity; the day we have uniformity, we’re finished. Now, it doesn’t matter the party in power, they don’t seem to have ideas that will solve all the problems of society.”
He recalled his conversation with a former British Prime Minister, who said that Africa has 80 per cent of the arable land in the world and so should feed itself and the world. Sadly, he noted, this is not happening, adding: “the West is unwilling to solve the problems of Africa because they know Africa has land.”
Gbenga Adebusuyi represented the book launcher and Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, while the Executive Editor of The News, Kunle Ajibade, was the reviewer.