A former director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, Prof. Patrick Lumumba, has stressed the need for African universities to be respected and adequately funded if true development is to be achieved on the continent.
Lumumba stated this in a lecture he delivered to mark the 50th anniversary of the University of Ilorin, North Central Nigeria.
He noted that Nigeria’s vast human resource potential continues to shine globally, as evidenced by the countless Nigerian engineers, professors, and doctors excelling in Europe, America, and across Africa.
He emphasised that the rise of Africa depends on giving the continent’s scholars and institutions their rightful place, beginning with universities such as the University of Ilorin.
According to him, these unfulfilled promises illustrate the gap between aspiration and action on the continent.
Lumumba, therefore, called on the management of the University of Ilorin to take it upon itself to act towards the achievement of policies that would benefit its immediate community, Nigeria, and Africa as a whole.
He stated that Africa remains the only continent where academics are undervalued while politicians become multimillionaires, a situation which he emphasised must change for the continent to progress.
He also emphasised that the solution to the challenges of Africa lies within a reformed, indigenous educational framework.
He charged Nigerian universities to focus on creating a new generation of graduates equipped to solve local problems, expressing a vision for a time when “the minds of young Nigerians and the minds of young Africans will be decolonised.”
Lumumba said the pathway to self-reliance is a revolution in agriculture led by academia and practical engagement in areas like aquaculture, poultry farming, sugarcane farming, and others.
“I’m looking forward to the day when the engineers produced at the University of Ilorin will solve the problems of the continent of Africa.
“I look forward to the University of Ilorin producing different graduates of agriculture so that when we talk of aquaculture in Nigeria, when we talk about poultry farming in Nigeria, when we talk about sugarcane farming in Nigeria, Africa will be able to feed itself,” he stated.
He, however, opined that the University of Ilorin is already beginning to engage in the necessary large-scale agricultural projects to shift the national narrative from dependency to self-sufficiency.