Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Prof Nyaudo Ndaeyo has identified need for a new generation of Pan Africanists to create a future United States of Africa that would be among the prosperous nations of the world.
Ndaeyo who made the case while declaring open a three-day conference at the university organized by the Pan African Dialogue Institute (TPADI) in collaboration with the university on dialogue and pan Africanism over the weekend said the new creation will deal with the many challenges besetting the continent.
Represented by Prof. Aniekan Offiong, Deputy Vice Chancellor Administration at the 2-day event which had the theme: “Pan-Africanism: Dialoguing the Past, Present, and Future”, Prof Ndaeyo said there had been lots of progress, development, and inventions in Africa, which the media should also project.
He said though Nigeria and indeed Africa had been navigating through a period of hunger, unemployment and poverty, there was hope that the conference would address and proffer solutions to them.
He however regretted that the continent has been negatively projected and that the false impressions created around it has consistently put it in bad light and scared away investors.
“Africans are here, we were the first to be here and would be the greatest always. The present is even more difficult to navigate with wars, hunger, poverty, unemployment”. He said
The Uniuyo Vice Chancellor paid glowing tributes to the founding fathers of Pan Africanism such as Nigeria’s Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe; former emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie; former President of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and younger leaders like former President Barack Obama, for their contributions, but however noted that Africa’s present socioeconomic situations are far more difficult to navigate than the past.
Ndaeyo who is a professor of farm systems therefore appealed to participants and the institute, which is a civil society think tank for the study, practice and propagation of Pan-Africanism, to recommend how best to address the numerous conflicts in Africa.
He said that the University of Uyo is pleased to collaborate with the institute and has provided a large parcel of land for the proposed building of the institute’s international headquarters.adding that Pan-Africanism, according to the African Union, is an ideology and movement that encourages the solidarity of Africans worldwide.
In his welcome address, the institute’s President, Dr. Effiong Udo, told participants at the 1,000-capacity lecture theatre that the conference and the Africa Day celebrations ‘’encapsulate the institute’s commitment to reviving the best values of pan Africanism – the ideals of unity and collaboration, self-determination, freedom and dignity of the African people worldwide, as well as the celebration of African cultural heritage’’.
The conference opened on Thursday morning with a golf tournament among the visiting dignitaries at the Ibom golf course and a gala night in the evening at the university.
Our correspondent reports that third day of the conference was dedicated to the celebrations of the International Africa Day which holds in several African countries on May 25 every year. This year marks the first time that Africa Day is celebrated in Nigeria since it was set aside by the founding fathers of African Union in 1963 as a day to honour the and celebrate the continent.
