Stakeholders discuss federalism at today’s Guardian memorial lecture and book presentation
It is human to celebrate anniversaries, whether they are personal milestones or national or important historical events. Institutions and businesses are no exception, and every major milestone is an opportunity to pause and reflect.
The Guardian will today launch a major campaign to celebrate its 40th anniversary on July 4, 2023.
Today’s celebration, held at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) on Victoria Island, Lagos, is an opportunity to reflect on the Nigerian nation.
Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, will deliver a commemorative lecture on the theme “For the world to respect Africa…”.
The two-in-one program will be followed by a public presentation of a Guardian Federalist paper entitled “Federalism is the answer…If federalism is the answer, what’s the problem?”
The keynote speaker is Professor Egosa Osagye, Director, Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA).
The event will provide an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss the country’s distorted federal structure and propose solutions to some of the challenges the country has faced since the introduction of the federal system.
This book is a collection of 61 editorials written for the Guardian between October 2020 and December 2021 on what form of government is best for the country.
The newspaper said in an editorial on January 14, 2021: “While politics and shenanigans are global, in federalism there is plenty of Democratic steering power to impose unyielding character on the general will and explore institutions to build a system that works for everyone. .”
Nigeria became a republic in 1963, technically switching from a unitary state to a federal state. “But it was symbolic federalism and was never meant to be substantive. Nigeria does practice quasi-federalism, which centralizes all power and He has developed a strong personality towards governing bodies,” the Guardian said in an editorial.
Looking at the American federalism that Nigeria is striving to emulate, the Guardian said: “This is different from our case, where in 2019 the Office of the President strangely removed the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, the Honorable Justice Walter Onnoghene, through an administrative tribunal headed by the Attorney General.” The Constitution allows judges to hold the position of Supreme Court justice for life in order to deepen their independence and protect democratic ideals. That is federalism and constitutionalism in action. ”
Over the years, the Guardian has evolved innovative methods and systems to maintain the public’s support for its motto: True, Trustworthy, Yesterday and Tomorrow, as the ‘conscience’ continues to be ‘fed by truth’. I’m here.
Other highlights include former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley’s inaugural lecture titled ‘Debt Trap, Structural Adjustment and the Future of the Third World’, to a week-long package of five-year anniversary celebrations. , includes a public presentation of the book Prospects of Nigerian Literature: Volumes I and II from 1700 to the Present, which is a compilation of excerpts from the Guardian Literary Series, which is a pre-eminent lecture series in the country’s media landscape. It has become a thing.
The success of the 1988 lecture led to subsequent annual editions until 1992, featuring highly eminent figures who were world figures with national and international issues at the center of their discussions.
In the 1989 edition of the lecture, Professor Ben Nwabueze was the guest speaker. The topic was “Our March to Constitutional Democracy.” The following year (1990), Salim Ahmed Salim, then Secretary-General of the Organization of the African Union (OAU), gave a lecture on the “European Economic and Monetary Union planned for 1992 and its possible impact on Africa”. did. The late Professor Emeritus JF Ade Ajayi in his 1992 lecture spoke on “The Problem of the Nation from a Historical Perspective”. In early 1991, the lecture featured the late Professor Ali Mazrui, a renowned historian, as a guest speaker.
Guest lecturer Adesina was born on February 6, 1960. Adesina is often described as “Africa’s supreme optimist” and is widely admired for his visionary leadership and his passion for Africa’s transformation.
A former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture, Adesina graduated from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1981 with a Bachelor’s degree (First Class Honors) in Agricultural Economics. He holds his Master’s degree (1985) and PhD in Agricultural Economics (1988). ) He received his Ph.D. with honors from Purdue University in the United States. Best paper of the year.
Adesina was awarded the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Social Science Fellowship in 1988, which launched his international career.
A bold reformer, Adesina served as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture from 2011 to 2015, turning around Nigeria’s agricultural sector within four years. During his tenure, Nigeria ended 40 years of corruption in the fertilizer sector by developing and introducing an innovative e-wallet system. The system uses mobile phones to provide subsidized agricultural inputs directly to farmers at scale. This e-wallet system, in his first four years from its inception, he disseminated to 15 million farmers and dramatically changed their lives.
Professor Osagye, the keynote speaker, holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Ibadan (1986) and is a Professor of Political Science at the same university.
He was appointed Director-General of the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) by the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in March 2021 and most recently served as Vice-Chancellor of Igbinedion University. The record stood for 14 years (from 2004 to 2018).
Osage was the 2019 Claude Eyck Professor at Uppsala University and the Nordic-African Institute in Sweden, and a fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa.
He was also the Van Zyl Slabbert Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Cape Town in 2017 and the Emeka Anyaoku Professor of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London in 2014. Anyaoku’s inaugural lecture in April 2014, “A Nation of Our Own: Second Independence, Federalism, and Decolonization in Africa,” was the first inaugural lecture given by a Nigerian in the University of London’s history.
Prior to joining Okada, he was the leader of the Ford Foundation-funded Ethnic and Commonwealth Studies Program and director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Ibadan. From 1994 until 1998, he served as Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Transkei, South Africa.
He also served as a visiting professor/fellow/distinguished senior fellow at the Carter Center at Emory University (1989), the University of Liberia (1989/90), the Salzburg Seminar in Austria (1993), and the University of Cape Town in South Africa (1994). Ta. ), the Nordic and African Institute in Uppsala, Sweden (1994), the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland (1999, 2000), Northwestern University, USA (2002, 2004), the University of Cambridge, UK (2003), and many universities and research institutes in the UK. India (2005, 2009), Dartmouth College (2005), Yale University (2009).
Source: guardian.ng