By Elizabeth Uwandu
The enthronement, appreciation of indigenous languages, and the celebration African’s ingenuity in virtually all fields of life formed the one day Distinguish lecture series organised recently by Lagos State University, LASU, Ojo.
The lecture series tagged.” Third world universities, challenges of knowledge production, utilization and administration in the 21th century and “African languages in knowledge production, utilisation and administration in the 21th century, “ delivered by two guests lecturers from the United States Of America, USA , Prof Toyin Falola , a Nigerian Historian and Professor of African studies, University of Texas-at-Austin, and Prof. Fallou Ngom, a scholar of Anthropology, Boston, University, was convened by Prof. Amodu Sanni and hosted by the LASU Vice Chancellor, Prof. Lanre Fagbohun.
Speaking on the “Third world universities, challenges of knowledge production, utilization and administration in the 21th century,” Prof Falola said that until Africans began to appreciate their enormous impact in the advancement of knowledge and revolution the world over, their achievements will remain unsung.
Prof. Falola who gave 10 pointers of achievements of Africans within and in diaspora noted that, “ Complaints and looking down on ourselves undermine our achievements. This as the massive expansion in world’s knowledge and revolution in Africa, largely achieved by us never get celebrated.”
“We are part of a global knowledge economy. So professionals in Africa have to create a diaspora of knowledge that should be continuously celebrated and reinvented. “added the Africa Historian
For Prof Ngom, who spoke on “African languages in knowledge production, utilisation and administration in the 21th century,” Africans should reject any form subjection by the West to undermine the continent’s rich epistemology of her culture and traditions.
On his part, Prof. Oke Bukola ,Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission,NUC, while commending the lecturers for their contributions to African history debunked the claims that Nigerian education system was bad. His words, “Age, number of professors and the contents are pointers to great Nigeria achievements when comparing to the history and peculiarities of great universities like Harvard, Cambridge who boost of huge budgets, many professors aside other qualities. For instance, the entire annual budget for Harvard University is equivalent to the budget of 153 Nigeria universities for a period of 30 years. All we need more efforts should be geared into promoting our ingenuity. “revealed Prof. Bukola.
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