COMMUNIQUE ISSUED BY BOSAS INTERNATIONAL LAW BUREAU, BRADFORD BRANCH, United Kingdom, after the successful conclusion of the International Seminar on the FUTURE OF AFRICA AND THE NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER, at the University of Bradford, School of Management and Law, Heaton Mount, Bradford, 3rd-7th December, 2012.
The Academic Chancellor, BOSAS INTERNATIONAL LAW BUREAU, Abuja, Nigeria, Professor Dr. Emmanuel Omoh Esiemokhai, the Founder of THE BRADFORD INITIATIVE, summoned an International Seminar on the FUTURE OF AFRICA AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER, at the School of Management and Law, University of Bradford, United Kingdom, from 3rd-7th of December, 2012.
2. The Operational Headquarters for the Seminar Series is situated at the Bradford Branch of BOSAS INTERNATIONAL LAW BUREAU, West Riding House, Suite No. 6, 1st Floor. Bradford BD1 4HR, United Kingdom.
3. Invitations were respectfully sent to the Academic world-wide, to all Nigerian Governors, Ministers, Directors-General, many Africans and to those in the Diaspora, who responded very well.
4. Senior Professor and former Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, Professor Orji Umuozurike sent a message of solidarity to the Seminar and applauded the idea of hosting the Seminar and requested to be sent a copy of the communiqué.
5. The learned Dean of Law, Professor Chris Gales delivered a hortatory speech to the Seminar, in which he stressed the importance of education in development. He explained the difficulties students in the United Kingdom are facing as a result of financial constraints in the United Kingdom.
6. The well-articulated views of the former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, were well received and discussed. In his speech, the former Governor pointed out that “failure of leadership impedes our progress.” He said that the resultant failure of progressive reform has led to Africa’s people suffering the worst social conditions regarding food security, health care, education, housing, water, poverty and corruption.”
The Seminar contributors agreed with this position and urged African states to always publish their budgets before and after their presentations, so that ministers can be held accountable for serious lapses in their ministerial duties and called upon African Presidents not to hesitate in removing government officials, who are not performing adequately. They also recommended that the people should always vote for capable leaders.
The Seminar expressed strong apprehension that Africa may not deliver on “the milestones set for the Millennium Development goals for 2015.”
7. The Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in his address entitled, “MY VISION AND THE FUTURE OF NIGERIA IN 2015,” began by “acknowledging that the Continent had a very bad start, currently is badly positioned and has a bleak prospect.”
He narrated how Africa was incorporated into the global capitalist economy through slavery and colonialism. He presented concrete plans to accelerate economic development in Osun state beyond 2015.
The Seminar adopted the position that in spite of the Afro-Asian struggles to deal with the inequality in the international division of labour in the global system, a lot still needs to be done by Africans through adopting economic measures that would reduce their debt peonage and dependence on Euro-American states, which are now in financial turmoil.
(9)The Founder of the Bradford Initiative, Professor Dr. Emmanuel Omoh Esiemokhai, listed some basic principles that have guided and would guide subsequent dialogues on the future of Africa.
(a) That there is no end to the ingenuity of man.
(b) That given favourable conditions and opportunities, the people of Africa can perform creditably.
(c) That the people are entitled to hold political, economic and societal views different from those of temporary occupiers of state power. They should not submit to the gusty winds of privileged, governmental rhetorical erudition, because when tested by rigorous thought, we discover that the fragile glow of policy, often end up flickering in the face of strong riposte. Governance always gets into the tangled web of dogmatism, which stifles societal progress.
(10) Every African political leader is hereby invited to send their proposals or visit and address the International Seminar on their VISION OR VISIONS for Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa etc. Active responses are being received at the BRADFORD INITIATIVE OFFICE, at West Riding Building, Floor 1, Suite 6, Bradford, BD1 4 HR United Kingdom or e-mail eesiemokhai@ yahoo.com.
(11) There were active discussions on how Africa can engage the World in constructive negotiations on its oil and hydrocarbon minerals, how to forge a viable common market, how to finance the African future, expansion of Africa’s international trade, developing infrastructure for Africa’s economic growth and how to deal with the inequality in the international division of labour, which does not favour African states.
(12) African graduate participants, who recently had their Convocation lunch at the Bradford Hilton, attended the International Seminar and expressed concern that they were going back to a Continent that has no plans and no work for them. They lamented the new immigration policies of European governments, which have made it very difficult for them to find jobs and accommodation in European cities. Mr. Evans Peters from Trinidad and Tobago urged African leaders to rescue their well qualified graduates from having to take menial jobs to survive in Europe.
The Seminar resolved to send urgent messages to the African Union and ECOWAS as well as individual African leaders, drawing their attention to the plight of their citizens in the Diaspora. The Seminar appealed to Diaspora Organizations in African states to raise the desperate conditions of African graduates in Europe and America with African leaders.
The Seminar called on the United States Government to re-assess its African economic policies and engage more actively in US-African trade relations.
The Obama administration should ignore the revisionist introspection of some upstart American scholars, who associate Africa with one disaster or the other. By the time the dewy eyes of genuine mourners of the African condition dry up, a Chinese backed African economic renaissance would have gone into over-drive.
(12) In order to ameliorate the desperate condition of the African graduate in Europe,Huron Blue Company Ltd and BOSAS INTERNATIONAL LAW BUREAU, Bradford Office, have set up a Legal Aid department to deal with “HARDSHIP CASES. The responses are enormous.
(13)The Bradford Chambers of Commerce has a networking system to collaborate with African companies that seek partnership in all kinds of businesses. Contact eesiemokhai@yahoo.com, jerokus@yahoo.com
(14) The Seminar recommended that courses in International Law and Diplomacy should be held at the Bradford Initiative Seminar Room, to prepare University students for rigorous academic pursuit in the field. Contact The Executive Director at West Riding House, Floor 1, suite 6, BD1 4HR, Bradford, United Kingdom.
(14) The next meeting of the International Seminar on the Future of Africa and the New World Economic Order will hold at the University of Bradford School of Management, Heaton Mount, Keighley Road Bradford, BD9 4JU, United Kingdom, February 7-10, 2013, from 11 am-4pm.
Registrations should be sent to The Executive Director, The Bradford Initiative, West Riding House, Floor 1, Suite 6, Bradford, BD 1 4HR, United Kingdom, before February 1, 2013.
The Seminar Communique Collective
Bradford, United Kingdom
DECEMBER 10, 2012.
