(1) Strongly held views on the future of Africa or the lack of it, were truly descriptive of the past and present conditions of the Africa homeland. These formed the core of discussions about Africa’s future at the International Seminar of the future of Africa and the new world economic order.
(2) Professor Dr. Emmanuel Omoh Esiemokhai told the Seminar that to understand the reasons for the crises in today’s world economy, it was important to reflect on the OLD WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER. That order was characterized by availabity of manufacture of goods, which were shipped to faraway places, from where raw materials were bought cheaply or simply exploited by force.
(3) Through a prolonged era of colonial rule, the slave trade and unequal exchange, the states of Portugal, the Netherlands, Great Britain (as it was then) France and Spain, became very prosperous and built great cities.
(4) As the centuries hurried by, human intelligence confronted the injustice in world societies, from the struggle of William Wilberforce to the French and American revolutions. The overthrow of the iron law of oligarchy, ushered in humanitarian considerations in the Old World Order
(5) As the convoluted rays of imperialism flickered by the dawn of actions at the barricades, notions of freedom for nations changed the order of things. Through struggles for independence and other violent anti-colonial actions, seventeen African nations became independent in 1960.
(6) With the rise of Japan, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, it became fashionable for Afro-Asian states to adopt independent socio-economic measures that competed with European states. As Afro-Asian states rose, so Europe declined.
(7) Since wisdom comes through suffering, African states have passed through poor governance. The exclusion of Africa intellectuals from vital positions in government has enthroned mediocrity, which has had the effect that governance has been reduced to avaricious accumulation of wealth for personal aggrandizement, while the populace is left uncared for. The social conditions of the African masses are abject.
(8) The Seminar reviewed in detail, the governance style of Ayub Khan of Pakistan, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Li of Singapore, Chief Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria, who showed exceptional leadership abilities and urged African leaders to demonstrate innovativeness that leads to good governance.
(9) The Governor of Osun State commissioned Professor Dr. Emmanuel Omoh Esiemokhai, to review his published work entitled, AWO IS STILL RELEVANT, 1997 ,and to head a team of well-known Nigerian authors to produce a bigger volume for launching on March 6, 2013, in Oshogbo, Nigeria. This work is underway.
(10) The Seminar condemned the rising tide of racial abuse of Africans, who play professional football in Europe. The Seminar held that any racist postulations that are degrading and inhuman are retrogressive steps in human relations and that the human rights of all people should be respected. There is no justification for racist attacks, since no-one came to this world choosing to be brown, black, pink or pig-coloured. That the notion of superiority of one race over another has been disproved by scientific evidence and the progress made in the area of science and technology. That any racist manifestations should always be roundly condemned because of the dangerous emotion s that are unleashed each time such attacks manifest. The Seminar condemned the Ukraine, some East European people in Slavic enclaves, who lacking in culture and sophistication and intellectual habits of mind seek to display their uncouth behaviours in stadia across Europe. The Seminar recommends that the Governing Councils of various sporting events should put in place, harsher disciplinary measures that would punish miscreants sufficiently.
(11) The Seminar held that spiritual ignorance about God’s CREATION of different human beings is directly responsible for the uninformed attitudes of racists, race conscious social humans and wickedness in low and high places. Africans must improve their intellectual development, social and cultural awareness in order to educate racists and colour-conscious individuals.
(12) The Seminar observed that it is those people, who cannot compete successfully that resort to racist tantrums, just like politicians, who cannot govern well resort to cutting tapes, speech-making, endless promises of things to be done that are never done and then rely on police and military intelligence operations and legislative props to stay in office.
(13) The Seminar encouraged Africans to write books in order to forcefully canvass their world-views that reflect their societal goals. In some African states, those characters, who successfully embezzled state funds, remain in politics, harassing serving government officials with the decadent opinions that failed many times before. Unlike European leaders, who go into political retirement, most former failed African leaders keep intervening in politics, spewing inanities of inconsequential import.
(14) The Weekly seminars on International Law and diplomacy are being attended by young diplomats, government officials, law students and the Bradford literary circles at the BRADFORD INITIATIVE SEMINAR ROOM at West Riding House, Floor 1, Suite 6 Bradford BD1 4HR United Kingdom.
(15) Bradford is a multi-racial and multi-cultural city, where intellectual activities, concerts and British intellectual life are at its best. Whether you love to go shopping, walk around the city-center, discuss world affairs in smoke-filled cafes, eat out, Bradford is the place to be.
The Bradford Initiative Collective
