Nigeria must rise for Africa to develop, says Lumumba
Professor Patrick Lumumba, Kenyan activist, and iconic public speaker has said Nigeria is very crucial in driving development in Africa owing to its economic and diplomatic strength as well as its rich history in the continent.
Lumumba during his address at the just concluded annual Face of Okija Cultural Festival said Nigeria leads on the continent in terms of art and culture with prominent personalities from the country having global recognition
“Nigeria remains great because Nigeria has been the cradle of culture in the continent of Africa. When one signs about Nigeria, one will see Nigeria has the greatest county in the continent of Africa,” he said.
“I remember over 25 years ago when I started my education, I heard about this land of Igbo from great writers such as Chinua Achebe. If it was not for the books of Chinua Achebe that I read with other Nigerian authors such as Flora Nwapa, the poetry of Christopher Okigbo and Wole Soyinka,” he said.
“Even in those early days, I was able to recognise that what a young man cannot see even standing on the Iroko tree, an old man will see while sitting down. I remember those days with nostalgia and I also remember that it was not only in literature that I met great Nigerians. I actually learned English from a Nigeria author, Ogundipe through his books.
“This means that Nigeria and Igbo land has always been present in our lives in Africa and when we started talking about the independence of Africa one will, of course, read ‘The Great Zik of Africa’ if not, one hasn’t read history. So, therefore, there is a sense that Nigeria and Igbo land has always been present.
He noted that culture is dynamic and value needs to be added to it. “Therefore, we are here to celebrate the culture at the helm. The Obijackson Foundation is an event that started five years ago, so it is no longer an event, it has graduated into a festival and I dare say it must even have graduated into a movement,” he said.
The professor called for the need to celebrate culture saying that countries that fail to recognise it would eternally be salve, while urging Africans not to afford the misfortune of communing with other civilisations.
“We are here to tell ourselves that we can no longer apologise to our condition. We have come here to remind ourselves that we can no longer be nostalgic of the past without projecting into future. We have come here in order to celebrate the future as informed by the past and that is why the Face of Okija is the re-energisation of what is, and the recognition that we must search for that Africa that is the cradle of humanity.
“Those who are in the business of revising history have attempted to deny that fact but now it is recognised beyond peradventure that humanity and civilisation started here in Africa when Europe was still dwelling in the caves. There were organized kingdoms in this part of the world when Europe does not know what astronomy was, Africa is the cradle of civilisation and Africa is where we must be,” he said.
“But you know our civilisation was rudely interrupted. It was a rude interruption that saw some of our men and women being spirited away into other parts of the world. If Europe is what it is, it is because of Africans, If America is what it is, it is because of Africans and if Latin America is what it is, it is because of Africans. If the Greeks are great philosophers, it is so because the great philosophers were in the land of Oduduwa, if the Jews have the gift of prophecy it was because of the Igbo of Africa,” he added.