In his documentary, ‘The Africans: A Triple Heritage’, Mazrui (1986) laments that despite being rich in all mineral resources, Africa continues to be inhabited by the poorest people on earth. He continues to state that the digging of the African minerals continues for the collective burial of the continent and its people.
Many scholars may agree with Mazrui, while our political leaders may loath his pronouncement, but the truth of the matter needs to be spoken and told to the affected people of Africa. There are many schools of thought today pointing at the main cause of underdevelopment in Africa, but what Africans need now is more action than mere cheap talk.
What is equally painful is the finger pointing at African academicians as doing very little or nothing to assist the people in harnessing the resources for the benefit of the Africans. African politicians know better that the larger blame for the continent’s underdevelopment lies squarely at their door steps. The African government system has created a docile academic elite, which can only dance to the tune of the masters.
Any other constructive and independent academic thinker is always seen as a threat and danger to the security of the country hence earning the concept of “enemy of the state”. In order to silence the ideas of progressive intellectuals, all methods of frustrating them are always put in place.
After independence, the instruments of development are always stifled and neglected. In terms of education, for example, the status of this main component of development is always neglected to such an extent that it becomes irrelevant to its consumers. The current state of education in many regions leaves much to be desired, as there are too few textbooks, desks and other learning and teaching materials in schools.
It is true government is allocating a huge amount of money of its national budget to this sector, but what happens to this money with a small population is anyone’s guess. There can be no development if the education sector does meet the developmental challenges of any nation. But in a situation where the education system is still pegged to the old colonial ways, without radical change, it becomes difficult for it to deliver services according to the needs of the nation. At higher tertiary levels, the education system is more controlled by the state.
It should be known that universities were established to serve as creators of knowledge, where scholars should argue and defend their research and theories. Fellow academicians should critique theories formulated by other scholars in a professional manner and come up with related or reviewed literature. The quest for wanting to learn and know more about the surrounding and environment in which humankind abode originated from the time of creation. White (1975) relates the narrative of the first holy couple in the Garden of Eden in which Eve was mingled with curiosity and admiration and questioned why the fruit was withheld from them and went on to taste it.
Omoregbe (1985) further elucidates that humankind has a strong natural desire to know and by nature curious. Yet his knowledge is so limited that he does not know even himself. He does not know why he exists and he has no answers to his own basic questions about himself. He questions his origin and destiny and the reason for his being in the world.
More still, he is not sure what happens to him when he leaves the world against his will and questions whether his life has got any meaning at all. This deep reflection led to the formation of schools and ultimately higher institutions of learning like universities in which humankind have the liberty of creating knowledge and formulate theories, becoming think tanks of nations. Universities equally encourage the advancement and development of knowledge, and its application to government, industry, commerce and the community.
During colonialism Africans were denied the opportunity of establishing institutions of higher learning on fake basis of lack of resources both human and capital, yet it was just a way of retarding the educational development and emancipation of the indigenous people. But after independence Africa saw and witnessed the mushrooming of universities in every corner of the continent. These institutions of higher learning became centres of prestige and to some extent havens of resistance as students started challenging the oppressive regimes of many African leaders.
It is this state of affairs in which radical academicians are always labelled as stooges or neo-colonialists who collaborates with the West to unseat the status quo or amalgamate with the undesirable forces to advocate for regime change. In the whole process of suspicion and mistrust the essence of development and the aspirations of the electorate are finally thrown in the doldrums of progress.
The political leaders being scared of having their ignorance exposed and the loss of confidence and votes eventually build an impregnable wall around them. The words of academic reason and wisdom are not taken seriously and eventually seen as destabilizing the country. This is so because our leaders in Africa are insensitive to constructive ideas and therefore fail to take academicians in their strides of development and in some case, the latter lose the academic taste and their lives. For political leaders to accuse academicians of not doing enough to assist governments begs the question as the latter hold the Damocles sword.