African nations have been urged to close ranks and outgrow religious extremism and conflict in a bid to overcome challenges and make meaningful progress.
Making the call on Thursday, in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, were the Director of Pan African University of Life and Earth Sciences, Prof. Titilayo Akinlabi, and other members of the academic community.
They were unanimous in their opinions on the need for African countries to review their relationships and show greater commitment to overcoming the various challenges threatening their survival.
Fielding questions from journalists at the sideline of the 2021 African Union Day celebrated by PAULESI at the Faculty of Technology, University of Ibadan, Prof. Akinlabi said that “From the African Union perspective, there are lots of policies that AU tries to implement which are communicated through the Presidents of member countries, Ambassadors and Ministers of Foreign Affairs to try and implement those policies.
“Because it is political, many of those policies we see are not being implemented; the African Union Commission does not come with a force, it is voluntary participation so countries see it as optional. They buy into it if they feel comfortable.
“Another issue is on finance. AU recommends so many good things to be done such as free education, health, food and security and so on; but many countries don’t have the funds to carry out the dream of the Africa we want.
“For me, I am still optimistic that through awareness creation and advocacy, we will definitely get there and reap the fruits of all the AU’s initiatives.”
Dr Michael Oladunjoye, Deputy Director, PAULESI, who explained that the university community comprised of students from various African countries, stated that synergizing would promote healthy dialoguing that could consequently leapfrog Africa into glory.
Oladunjoye said, “Their coming together is a great opportunity for us to see how we can proffer solutions to some challenges that Africa is facing.
“The university ensured that most of the projects the students embarked upon are geared toward addressing African problems so that we can collectively move Africa forward.”
Explaining that the pandemic affected learning globally, he said that the university created a robust environment leveraging technology.
A visitor from the Federal University of Technology, Akure to PAULESI, Dr Oluwaseyi Bamisaye, emphasized the importance of unity among the African countries, saying, “Once we are able to put aside our religious and ethnic differences and face the facts, we can achieve unity.
“Just like the developed countries, we should have a well established structure and put some policies in place that are fundamental, that cannot be easily changed, which will drive governance and economic development.”
The theme of the 2021 Africa Union Day is ‘The Arts, Culture and Heritage: Levers for building the Africa we want.’
Stephen Cooper II, a student of PAULESI from Liberia, said that the various countries in the continent should unite and shun their differences.
Dwelling on the crust of the African Union Day marked on Thursday, Akinlabi said that the event, which holds annually on September 9, highlights the successes made by the Africa Union in line with its vision 2063.
This year’s event featured different Africa dances. Among others, Nigerian dance, South African dance and East African dance were showcased by the students.
A drama on ‘Unity in diversity’ was also presented on the occasion, as well as presentation of greetings and simple expressions in Wollof, French, Arabic, English and sundry other African languages were done by the students of the university who donned colorful uniform adire attires.
