Director, CDD-West Africa, Dr Dauda Garuba, at the news conference on Monday in Abuja
By Perpetua Onuegbu
A civil society organisation, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), has decried the inability of most African countries to organise credible elections several years after gaining independence from colonial masters.
The Director, CDD-West Africa, Dr Dauda Garuba, while speaking at a news conference on Monday in Abuja, questioned whether the democratic model being practised on the African continent was the right one.
Garuba also noted that more than six decades after independence, most African nations had failed to break free from the shadows of colonial structures that once shaped their governance and economic outlook.
“It’s over 60 years since most African countries gained independence, and yet we are still running after our colonial masters.
“If after experimenting with a system for six decades, we are still promising citizens basic things like schools, roads, water and electricity, then something is fundamentally wrong,” he said.
“If a path has yielded no results for 60 years, it is time to sit back and analyse what went wrong,” he said.
Using Nigeria as an example, he recalled once-vibrant industrial hubs—Orile in Lagos, Bompai in Kano, and Sabon Gari in Kaduna—where manufacturing used to thrive.
“Today, many warehouses in these areas have been converted to churches, a trend that is symbolic of the country’s shift away from production.
“The only thing we produce in Nigeria now is religion,” he said, stating that this shift had contributed to the erosion of the country’s economic base,” he said.
Garuba recalled how generations of students drew inspiration from radical thinkers, such as Frantz Fanon, Amílcar Cabral and Walter Rodney.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the news conference was ahead of a Frantz Fanon Centennial Conference scheduled for Nov. 27 to Nov. 28 in Jos, Plateau capital.
NAN also reports that the conference will be hosted by CDD-West Africa and Council for Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODEDRIA), in partnership with Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The conference, with the theme: “Fanon and the African Condition: Reflections on an Enduring Legacy,” will mark 100 years since the birth of Frantz Fanon, one of the most influential anti-colonial thinkers of the 20th century.
According to Garuba, the ‘high-level intellectual forum’ is an opportunity for a deep re-examination of Africa’s political and developmental trajectory.
“The upcoming conference seeks to create a platform where academics, policy makers, activists and practitioners from various fields can engage in honest reflection and propose alternatives for Africa’s development.
“This conference is an opportunity to talk to ourselves about what is holding Africa back and how we can rescue the continent from its current challenges,” he said.
Garuba further stated that the conference would feature a keynote address by a renowned Political Scientist, Prof. Adele Jinadu.
He said that no fewer than 70 academic papers across 10 thematic streams would be presented at the occasion, with roundtables on labour, gender and decolonial thoughts, among others.
“The conference will offer a timely opportunity to explore how Fanon’s ideas help Africans interrogate the structures that enable colonial violence, patriarchy and economic subjugation.
“The conference, which will also convene researchers and students from across Africa, will offer new ideas for repositioning Africa towards the future envisioned at independence,” he said.
(NAN)