In their efforts to do justice to the theme of the 12th Anniversary Lecture of Realnews Magazine, speakers which include Prof Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, Hadiza Bala Usman, Shehu Tijani, Beatrice Eyong, Dr Karim El Ayanoui reel out solutions to African Problems in the advent of Artificial Intelligence and technology.
The theme for the 2024 lecture was tagged “Africa in world shifting geopolitics: Matters Arising on demography, technology, artificial intelligence, natural resources”.
The Chairperson of the occasion Beatrice Eyong in her remarks said;
“Some experts opine that geopolitics is the study of how a country’s geography (location, terrain, land size, climate, soil and raw materials) affect its foreign, economic, military policy and strategy.
“They say the word geopolitics comes from the words “geography” and “politics”. I would also like to talk about what is changing in the geopolitics between countries?
“The rivalry between the stronger countries on earth such as, the US, China and Russia. Today we have the BRICS; the need and fight for more natural resources leading to continuous polarization of Countries.
“The rising number of resource-related conflicts leading to insecurities (even in countries called developed) and the detrimental consequences of those wars.
“The issues related to ineffective democracies in developing countries leading to members of economic blocks breaking away- Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry
“The increased demographics ie. High birth rate vis a vis underdevelopment causing a huge brain drain from African countries through professional and un professional migrations.
“The economic downturn of African Countries and huge gender based violence and the situation of Women and girls especially as it concerns the feminization of poverty, morbidity and mortality leading to the under-development of African countries.
“No country can develop with high rate of gender inequalities and the feminization of under-development”. She opined
The 12th Anniversary Lecture of Real News, a general interest magazine has provided solutions to myriads of challenges bedeviling Africa in the era of artificial intelligence and technology landscape.
Newsconnect reports that apt theme for the 12th edition of the Magazine was dubbed “Africa in world shifting geopolitics: Matters Arising on demography, technology, artificial intelligence, natural resources”.
The Special adviser on Policy Coordination to President Bola Tinubu Bala Hadiza, a keynote speaker said
Africa has a huge population and that population is indeed an asset to us.
While presenting her speech virtually as a result of unforeseen commitment, she acknowledged the theme was apt and timely.
She said;
“We also recognize the need for larger understanding of Innovation and larger understanding of artificial intelligence.
“Africa needs to design its own chart, we need to design what we want. We need to have understanding of what we want from international partners.
“We need to take the lead in terms of what we require in terms of support, need, we also need to know the challenge around the availability of natural resources within the continent, and its relevance to us as Nigeria and the larger states”. She said.
Dr. Karim El Aynoui, Executive President, Policy Center for New South, Rabat, Morocco noted that there must be an objective of having better policies in African institutions. Highlighted that the integration between academic and public policies is lacking adequate alignment.
El Aynoui further note that the policies are to be transparent and better than what it used to be.
“These policies should be evaluated and informed by science,” he said.
Furthermore, Dr. Karim stated that the policies should involve “intuition and reasoning in decision making, thinking and acting, and constant evaluation”. He posited that one of the major challenges of Africa is that the countries are administered as they were run centuries ago.
Engr. Shehu Tijani, Managing Director Amal Technologies, talked about the abundance of mineral resources deposited in Africa, especially in Nigeria. He noted that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer an option for Africa.
“the chips and semi-conductors used for artificial intelligence are found in Africa, especially in Nigeria,” he said. “I keep saying this, that Nigeria is one of the few countries that has the complete supply chain of technological device in terms of raw materials, he continued”.
He sighted an example that the motherboard raw material for a phone an all be found here in Nigeria.
He urged Nigerians and Africa to take advantage of these raw materials to leapfrog on developmental growth.
“We are building a future in which Africa is a pillar in the global economy.
His Excellency Ambassador Prof. Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, former chief of staff to former President Muhammadu Buhari in his keynote speech mentioned that Africa is being pushed back by those who want to maintain the tenacious system beneficial to them.
He stated that the competition for Africa resources is heading towards absurd level. “It must have been noted that there are different African summits with other countries,” he declared. “Every continent wants to have a summit meeting with the 54 leaders in Africa.
“Therefore, there is Africa-China Summit, Africa-India Summit, Africa-Japan Summit, Africa-France Summit and so on”. Gambari noted that these countries could as well have a general meeting with African leaders in Addis Ababa which is the headquarter of the African Union (AU) rather than having separate meetings. The professor encouraged that Africa Leaders should uphold their self-esteem, saying that we should not look down on ourselves as Africa”.
The Publisher of Realnews Magazine Maureen Chigbo emphasized the importance of investigative, robust, and excellent journalism in her opening remarks.
“The world is shifting, the politics is shifting, the geopolitics is shifting, people need to be aware of other variables influencing society like AI, technology.
“Whatever is happening else where affects Africa so we need to be conscious and aware of all the developments and see how we can marry them to develop Africa”. Maureen said.