Renowned Pan-Africanist and legal scholar, Professor Patrick Loch Otieno (PLO) Lumumba, has called on African academics to step beyond the confines of their ivory towers and take active roles in shaping political decisions on the continent.
Delivering his message during a media engagement, Prof. Lumumba emphasized that the future of Africa hinges significantly on the intersection of education and purposeful leadership.
Speaking on the continent’s readiness for the Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions, he asserted, “It gladdens my heart that we come here to talk about education. If Africa is to realize the dividends of the 4th and 5th Industrial Revolution, the time is now for the academy and the academicians to recognize that politics is too serious a business to be left to transactional politicians.”
Prof. Lumumba warned that failure to act proactively would continue to hinder Africa’s progress, referencing the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as a delayed realization of ideals originally championed by Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, in 1963.
He lamented the limited intra-African mobility, stating, “The fact that I can’t move from Addis Ababa to Dakar without producing my passport is unfortunate. I ought to be moving from Nairobi to Accra to Monrovia as if it was one country.”
Addressing the media engagement, he encouraged Ghana and its leadership, particularly former President John Dramani Mahama, to pursue bold reforms.
“You have a great country and I am of the view that you can make it even greater… It is not easy, but if it is easy, it is not worth doing,” he remarked.
Read Also: BoG Governor Urges Prudence in Lending Rate Adjustments
Source: Comfort Sweety Hayford/ATLFMNEWS
