Renowned historian and public intellectual, Professor Toyin Falola, and Professor of Political Economy, Adelaja Odukoya, have urged African countries to transform their abundant natural resources into productive power through industrialization, value addition, and stronger domestic production capacity.

They made the call at the maiden Adeleke University Toyin Falola Annual Lecture (AUTOFAL), held in Ede, Osun State, on Thursday, where speakers examined Africa’s development prospects and its position in a changing global economic order.

The lecture, organized in honour of Falola, had as its theme, “History, Power and Accumulation: Reimagining Africa in the Globally Disorderly Order.”

Delivering the guest lecture, Odukoya argued that the possession of abundant natural resources would have limited developmental value unless African countries developed the productive and technological capabilities to process them and retain more of the wealth generated.

He said Africa needed to move beyond extracting and exporting raw materials to building industries capable of creating, retaining and extending value within domestic economies.

“What is germane and at the core of development transformation is how value is created, retained and extended through production,” Odukoya said.

He warned that increased investment and exports would not necessarily translate into meaningful economic transformation if they failed to strengthen local industries, facilitate technology transfer and expand domestic productive capacity.

According to him, African countries risk remaining economically dependent if they continue to export raw materials while importing finished products manufactured from their own resources.

Odukoya also cautioned against equating economic accumulation with development, stressing that the generation of wealth must be accompanied by investments in productive capabilities that improve the long-term economic prospects of African countries.

“Accumulation is not synonymous with development,” he said.

The argument has particular implications for Nigeria, whose economy has long depended significantly on the extraction and export of crude oil. Odukoya’s position was that the country’s development prospects would depend not only on the revenue generated from natural resources but also on how effectively the wealth was channelled into domestic industries and technological advancement.

Falola, whose intellectual contributions the annual lecture seeks to celebrate, also emphasised the need for Africa to convert its resource endowment into economic and political power.

“It is more important to know how Africa turns its great resources into power,” he said.

He argued that the continent’s resource challenges could not be fully understood without examining the historical processes through which its wealth, labour and knowledge had been extracted and accumulated.

According to Falola, colonialism was not merely a political arrangement but also an economic system that shaped the extraction and transformation of African resources, influencing the continent’s position in the global economy.

He, however, maintained that understanding this history should encourage African countries to pursue more equitable participation in the global system rather than withdraw from it.

Falola called for stronger institutions, greater investment in knowledge production and increased confidence in Africa’s capacity to influence global economic and intellectual processes.

He also stressed the need to connect university research with public policy and industrial development, arguing that the continent’s development would require coordinated efforts among academic institutions, governments and businesses.

“There must be universities that generate new knowledge; there must be governments that translate this knowledge into policies; there must be industries that add value to the continent’s natural resources,” he said.

The inaugural lecture provided a platform for discussions on the relationship between history, power, wealth accumulation and Africa’s development, with the speakers emphasising that sustainable transformation would require African countries to build the productive structures needed to retain more value from their natural resources.