LAGOS – A don, Prof. Adigun Agbaje, on Saturday said Africa would not make any sustainable progress in building democratic structures and achieve economic development without coherent, legitimate and effective states.
Agbaje, a professor of political science at the University of Ibadan, made the assertion while delivering a lecture at the 4th Convocation at the Caleb University, Imota, Lagos on Saturday.
The theme of the lecture is: Lying in State; Leadership and the Travails of Democratic Governance in Africa.
According to him, the quality of leadership in Africa today matters in its search for sustained democratic governance, but only in contexts outlined by other actors that equally matter.
”In this regard, the coherence and nature of the state and society stand out, along with the prevailing culture of service and incentive rewards, as well as the array and vitality of institutions.
“A basic step towards securing democratic governance on the continent beyond its current level is to work towards the full emergence of a leadership group that is more broad-based.
“It equally requires to be inclusive at all levels of governance, public and non-public, one with an ethos of speaking the truth to itself and to the people it leads.
“’We must also consider commitment to service rather than plunder and that it sees its own future as being inextricably linked to the full consolidation of democratic governance in the land,’’ he said.
Agbaje said that those who provide leadership for countries and the continent must by now, be fully seized of the fact that they cannot aspire to lead in any direction other than one towards democratic governance.
The lecturer, a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, contended that such democratic governance must also not be devoid of development, justice and equity.
According to him, the realities of today’s contemporary world, showed that even for Africa, neither electoral chicanery nor dictatorship, deception nor economic retrogression, can be sustained as long term objectives of statecraft.
He said that it could also not be in anybody’s strategic interest.
Agbaje further noted that other strategic variable for sustainable development was that of a country’s educational system.
He said that some of the leading countries with responsive leadership and stability in democratic governance were also leaders in education.
Agbaje emphasised the need for adequate skills development among the younger generation, adding that it was only through skills acquisition that a sustainable long term development could be achieved.
In his welcome address, the Vice-Chancellor of Caleb University, Prof. Ayodeji Olukoju, said that 13 of the 167 graduating students were conferred with first class degrees.
Giving a breakdown of the graduating students, Olukoju said that 44 received second class upper honours while 68 were conferred with the second class lower honours.
He said that 41 others obtained third class degrees.
The Vice-Chancellor said that the overall best graduating student and the best graduating students in the three colleges of the institution were all female.
He said that the university would continue to build on the resources available in order to take both the institution and the students to highest heights.
Olukoju admonished the graduating students to be good ambassadors of the institution by contributing generously to national development.
The overall best graduating student, Miss Rita Aladi , 20, of the Department of Bio-Chemistry, said that she almost dropped out of school as a result of financial constraint.
Aladi attributed her success to God and determination. (NAN)