RENOWNED public speaker and international mediator, Prof. Patrick Lumumba, has called for respect, due and prompt funding of African universities if the continent is determined to develop.

He appealed yesterday while speaking as a guest lecturer at the ongoing University of Ilorin’s 50th anniversary celebration.
Lumumba noted that Nigeria’s vast human resource potential continues to shine globally, as evidenced by its countless engineers, professors, and doctors in Europe, America, and across Africa.

According to the Pan-Africanist, “the rise of Africa depends on giving the continent’s scholars and institutions their rightful place, beginning with universities such as the University of Ilorin.”
Reflecting on Africa’s past commitments, he recalled the 1980 Lagos Plan of Action, where leaders pledged to strengthen education and intra-African trade, but it was eventually jettisoned.

Also, he cited the 1991 Abuja Declaration, in which African nations promised to allocate 15 per cent of their national budgets to health, a target still unmet decades later.
According to him, “these unfulfilled promises illustrate the gap between aspiration and action on the continent.”

Lumumba, therefore, advised UNILORIN management to act towards the achievement of policies that would be of benefit to its immediate community, Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

He submitted that Africa remains the only continent where academics are undervalued while politicians become multi-billionaires, a situation which he emphasised must change for the continent to progress.

He lamented the nation’s current state of food dependency, noting that despite the ongoing cultural debate over Jollof Rice between Nigeria and Ghana, the country continues to heavily import rice, beef, and poultry.