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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Culture & Society

Experts Call on African Governments to Invest in Local Skills and Homegrown Solutions

From The Punch · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Experts at a Federal University Lokoja conference urged African governments to base sustainable development policies on local skills and indigenous knowledge.
  • Speakers said imported knowledge systems had weakened connections to African cultural and problem-solving traditions in areas including health, education, agriculture and environmental management.
  • They called on universities to reorient research and education while treating indigenous knowledge as a practical resource for food security, health, justice and resilience.

Africa does not lack solutions, Dr Zakariya Zakari told an international conference in Nigeria. What it lacks, he said, is the political will to trust its own knowledge.

Zakari, chief executive officer of MNI Analysis Partners, made the argument while delivering the lead paper at the second International Conference of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Federal University Lokoja. The conference, held from August 30 to September 2, focused on African Indigenous Knowledge Systems and decolonial practice for sustainable development.

For five or six decades, we tried western knowledge and we failed. Therefore, we need to return to our African Indigenous knowledge.

· Dr Zakariya ZakariZakari urged African governments to build development policies around local knowledge and skills.

He said decades of reliance on imported knowledge had left Africa behind and urged governments to launch what he called an “indigenous revolution” built around local skills and knowledge systems. “For five or six decades, we tried western knowledge and we failed. Therefore, we need to return to our African Indigenous knowledge,” he said.

Africa does not lack solutions. What we lack is the political will to trust our own knowledge.

· Dr Zakariya ZakariHe argued that Africa’s main obstacle was political confidence in indigenous expertise.

Zakari argued that colonialism had “colonised knowledge,” disconnecting Africans from cultural, traditional and problem-solving systems, particularly in health, education, agriculture and environmental management. He urged universities to lead a shift in thinking and to press governments to develop policies rooted in indigenous values.

Keynote speaker Prof. Olushola Omotola of Federal University Oye-Ekiti said indigenous knowledge should not survive only as heritage preserved at the margins. It should serve as “living infrastructure for food security, health, justice, resilience and equity,” he said. Omotola also challenged scholars to confront academic barriers that can lead international journals to reject African research when it does not fit dominant ideological views.

Living infrastructure for food security, health, justice, resilience and equity.

· Prof. Olushola OmotolaOmotola described the practical role indigenous knowledge should play in African societies.
About this summary

Originally published by The Punch in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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