Arts & Culture
BOOK REVIEW
Published
1 year agoon

BOOK TITLE: Philosophical Psychology And Power Of Imagination (Book 1)
AUTHOR: Rev. Fr. Dr. Mark Omorovie Ikeke
PUBLISHER: Concerned Development And Environmental Ethicists, Effurun
YEAR: 2022
PAGES: 148
BOOK REVIEWER: Sunny Awhefeada
The realization that we live in a fast-changing world inundated with unimagined oddities, complexities and intricacies, compels us to think anew and reimagine ways through which we can come to terms with the compelling issues of the day. Our world is assailed by novel challenges which demand new engagements. Contemporary realities change from age to age and epoch to epoch. Every generation, every society has its core challenges as well as antidotes. However, the world of the last twenty years, beginning with the turn of the present century, has created challenges that can be best described as stranger than fiction. The phenomenal advancement in science and technology which is presently driven by information and communications technology (ICT) has not only foisted on humanity the concept of a global village, encoded in globalization, but has seriously impacted on lives in Third World countries in more ways than one.
The West from whence technology spewed forth globalization produces and the Third World consumes. What the West produces are often entrenched in culture conflict with the essential way of life in the Third World. The new deal from the West thus creates a new paradigm shift for the Third World which often leads to dislocation. Although, I am not one to blame Africa’s nay Nigeria’s woes on the West, it is trite to state that despite the benefits of Western incursion into Africa, its brash advancement has had negative consequences for the continent. Colonialism, economic exploitation, let us take a leap to the present, cybercrime, terrorism, wars, drug abuse and other confounding indices of immorality that have held Africa down are largely the consequences of our encounter with the West.
Some of the questions that should arise from the foregoing grim scenario should be: should Africa nay Nigeria wallow in anguish and do nothing about her fate? If Africa nay Nigeria were to escape from the sordid predicament what should she do? What route should she follow? These salient questions have refreshing, insightful and inspiring answers in the book Philosophical Psychology and Power of Imagination by Rev. Fr. Dr. Mark Omorovie Ikeke, an Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy as well as founder and teacher of Potentiality Thinking, a priest and professor for whom the pulpit and podium have become habitats.
The book under review is being presented to commemorate the twenty fifth (quarter of a century) ordination anniversary of Rev. Fr. Mark Omorovie Ikeke as a priest. Dedicated to all those who stood by him in the last twenty-five years as well as his “father of blessed memory, Mr. Julius Efeaguono Ikeke”, the book is divided into ten illuminating chapters which attest to the infinite possibilities of the human imagination in its capacity to change the world for good. The compelling and academically crafted chapter one is the book’s introduction where Fr. Ikeke puts his academic prowess to task by enunciating the concepts of philosophy, psychology and then tweaking them into the complex manifestation of philosophical psychology and philosophical science. I do not want to entangle or frighten this audience with the details of Fr. Ikeke’s disquisition in this chapter. It is better left for a seminar on campus.
The other nine chapters, apt, telling, pointed and inspiring as they are, speak to the motif of the book which inheres in the positive and transformational power of imagination. Hear the titles of the chapters: Meaning of Imagination, Boosters and Bandits of Imagination, Profiles in the use of Creative Imagination, the Power of Imagination in Entrepreneurship, Ideas: Product of Imagination, Creativity: the Product of Imagination, the Role of Reading, Listening and Speaking in Fostering Creative Imagination, Critical Thinking: A Critical Tool for Imagination and last but not the least, Dreaming and Your Imagination.
As earlier noted, the chapters speak to different, but related concerns which coalesce into the book’s motif. The priest and teacher as explicator, Fr. Ikeke through the chapters takes us through the meaning of imagination in its variegated essence. The artistic and fictional manifestation of imagination, conditions necessary for imaginative flowering, indigenous knowledge systems as conditioned by folk imagination and the salient point that every field of human endeavor is conditioned and advanced by imagination.
He argues, and convincingly, that western and indigenous philosophies are products of imagination and that the creative mind is perpetually at work to advance humanity. He links the possibilities inherent in the power of imagination to the military victories of Hannibal of Carthage, the Wright Brothers who invented the airplane, the magic of the internet and communication gadgets, as well as how the alternative views that change the world from Galileo to the present were products of the human imagination about what can be and what could have been.
It is appropriate to insert two quotes from the book under review to depict Fr. Ikeke’s sublime thought on and articulation of imagination. Here is the first:
Imaginative people are dreamers. They are equally achievers. They know thata new world is possible than the present one. Think of religious thinkers like Confucius, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Buddha and many others. They dreamt of a new world different from the one they met. They are all products of imagination.
The figures mentioned in the foregoing excerpt remain the most significant in the annals of humanity and their followers continue to grow in number till this day. The primary essence of what powered the alternative order of reality they envisioned is entrenched in imagination.
READ ALSO: Sam Ukala: A Valediction Forbidding Mourning
The second quote is a clarion call to deploy imagination to change our world for good:
We must use our mind and imagination to further the human story and make this planet a better place…..feed your imagination with positive and healthy images.
There is a great power that you have been given, go and prosper with it. Your imagination is the key to your wealth and health. Use it wisely.
If we want to change the world for good then we must heed Fr. Ikeke’s call and recharge our imagination to help illuminate our path. His is a clarion and timely call. The ravages of COVID-19 and the new world order it foisted on us as well as the imminence of a New Brave World come 2050 makes this call truly compelling. This book is a must read for our youths, ourselves, our parents, and friends. I strongly recommend this book to all.
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Arts & Culture
The Public Academic In The Eyes Of Change: No Time To Cry
Published
2 days agoon
March 30, 2023
Being a review on ‘The Unending Quest for Reform’ being a book by Prof. Tunji Olaopa
By Olufemi Awoyemi
Professor Olaopa is the quintessential academic with high socio-political values, a deep sense of the urgency for action, and an abiding enthusiasm for the possibilities of the future if the proper actions are taken. He reminds me of the character Sekoni, in Professor Wole Soyinka’s 1965 novel, ‘The Interpreters.’ Sekoni was feisty, sincere, cerebral, and messianic. He needed to see a better society, he needed to see his people do better. But unfortunately, Nigeria happened to him. The same society that he craved to improve, spat him out like a discarded cigar butt and stamped his remaining dignity and self-awareness into the dirt. Indeed, his friends (and perhaps enemies) learned a bitter lesson: inciting meaningful change is a dangerous enterprise.
Society all too often makes the capital mistake of assuming that to see comprehensive socioeconomic progress, political leadership must be top-notch, a cut above the ordinary, and committed to seeing new concentric heights of prosperity and progress. The assumption, as well-intentioned as it seems, is wrong. No matter how sincere and hardworking the political leadership of a country is, if the bureaucratic structure needed to turn ideas into projects, programmes, and processes is effete, ineffective, and evasive, the possibilities of political and economic success are slim. The bureaucracy that drives the engine of public policy is more important than the lofty ideas that inspire leadership. No leader succeeds without a bureaucracy that gives life and meaning to political ideas and ideals. A measure of how well a leadership will perform can be gleaned from how well politicians have structured the public service to meet clear and consistent social and economic objectives.
If a nation’s public service bureaucracy is corrupt, inept, and incapable of introspection and self-correction; the country is sentenced to a life of struggle, pain, and poverty. No matter how rich a country is in natural and human resources, if the bureaucratic structures that turn the wheels of administration are clogged by the grit, grease, and dust of poor public service management, the nation cannot progress. Citizens become frustrated, treasuries get looted, and resources get depleted. In the words of Francis Fukuyama in his book, ‘The Origins of Political Order’, stable democratic societies require three characteristics: a strong state, the rule of law, and accountability.
These considerations, however, skipped a fourth and powerful democratic feature, the need for a professional and forward-looking public service bureaucracy. In many democracies, public service hides behind the finger of political gamesmanship and in many ways shapes the outcome of a politician’s dreams, wishes, and aspirations. The politician may have his or her say, but the civil service bureaucrat often has his or her way.
The author alludes to the innate difficulties in turning good policy into institutional action. His early epiphany of the difficulties in administration occurred while he was ‘sucked’into the vortex of student union politics at the University of Ibadan. In chapter eight of the book he points out that ‘With unionism, I began so early to fathom some of the heavy tasks of decision-making, policy formulation and design. By being invited to be a part of the University of Ibadan’s evolving strategic plan at the time, I was drawn into the inner sanctum of serious and institutional policy infrastructures that all the theories learnt from my public administration classes would not have afforded me’
He further observed that ‘Most outsiders to politics and administration are only satisfied with the superficial analysis of the layman: politicians and administrators are greedy; there is more than enough to go around for all Nigerians. It is so easy to come to such a conclusion because politicians and administrators do not themselves help matters. In a country where public officials steal with impunity and the newspapers report, on a daily basis, news of massive theft of our common patrimony, it takes little reflection for the ordinary citizen to surmise that governance is an easy business. Is it not to just provide electricity and build schools?’
In her insightful book ‘China’s Gilded Age’ Professor Yuen Yueng Ang explained that corruption is a universal phenomenon. Nevertheless, in countries like Nigeria, public office corruption is shaped in the manner of ‘petty theft’ and ‘grand theft’ rather than ‘transactional theft’ that involves ‘speed money’ and ‘access money’ as is the case in more developed economies like China. In China, a corrupt public official would enhance and promote business activity by helping the entrepreneur meet his or her business objectives. In Nigeria, the public officer would prefer to create stumbling blocks that frustrate enterprise and then insist on ‘compensation’. The different corruption vectors to a large extent determine the pace of entrepreneurial growth and economic development.
Contrary to popular opinion, corruption is not a socioeconomic deal breaker. What is a deal murderer is the lack of professionalism in Nigeria’s public service and the predominance of ‘grand theft’ as against ‘speed’ or áccess’money. The absence or the non-compliance of public officers with standard operating procedures (SoPs) rips at the heart of the civil service, smashing its credibility to smithereens. The consequence of an institutionally weakened public sector operation is typified by the poor state of Nigeria’s port operations. Public policies mean little, if anything if they are not accompanied by globally recognised best governance practices and unrelenting commitment to projects, procedures, or policy deliverables.
Olaopa precociously, or perhaps viscerally, understood this in his active days as a student union leader and more contemporarily as a resident academic in the federal public service. He came to the realization that policy success is less a matter of hope and desire as it is a matter of goals aligned to procedures set for implementation. The goals of governance are usually clear, but what appears hazy is the how and when of execution. Tackling execution at the highest professional standard is the ace in the hole, the theatre of maximum conflict with vested interests.
To navigate the minefields of policy inertia, change agents must have a multidisciplinary mindset that enables cross-disciplinary frameworks and models to interact to produce solutions that rise above the one-story narrative, which is usually wrong. Most often in life, our situations are dictated by multiple factors that interact intricately to create situations that easily confuse the innocent or simple. To suggest that corruption or a lack of professionalism is the one single factor responsible for Nigeria’s purportedly poor public service quality would be wrong. From the 1960s to the mid-1980s, Nigeria had amongst the finest public services in the world. Its cerebral and feisty public servants attracted great global praise and admiration.
However, by the mid to late 1980s, something began to go terribly wrong. The public service lost its lustre and Nigeria’s finest minds saw the civil service as an intelligent person’s mental graveyard. Unwilling to be ‘buried’ in this scary environment Nigeria’s clever and brightest voted with their feet by going into the more virile, creative, and agile private sector where material rewards were better. The slow descent from the honeypot of the intelligent and disciplined to the dungheap of the discontented and amoral was decisive in reducing the quality of decision-making and the impact of policy implementation of the public service. The previous statement is a tad sweeping. Nigeria’s public service still retains the loyalty of fine people, with great brains and admirable character, but that population is fast receding, and without remedial measures being taken urgently, Nigeria’s public service will feast on the carcass of a bygone era.
Professor Olaopa’s book is a call to the working of imagination rather than memory. It is a call for the country to wake up and improve its public service personnel and governance oversight. Improving the standard operating procedures (SoPs) for government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) would provide the foundation for effective policy administration. Policy and planning excellence rests on laid-down templates and procedures that are taken as minimal standards of operations. In other words, excellence in the public sector would require workable systems and reliable workers. A linchpin of reliability is honour. A point the public sector academic makes in chapter nine of his memoirs. According to Professor Olaopa, ‘An honourable public official is the one who sees to the execution of a policy to the best of his ability even if he disagrees with the policy choice. This is an honourable act because it demonstrates that the bureaucrat’s sense of duty and service overrides his personal wilfulness. This is especially more so within the context of the bureaucratic corruption that exerts enormous pressure on the public servants and, even more so, the reformer, to compromise on her ideals and principles. Honour is also what insists that a reformer must be bound by the force of her conviction about the need to transform the public service. And it is precisely this that also demands that such 108 The Unending Quest for Reform The Making of a Public Servant-as-Reformer a reformer cannot prematurely seek honour and recognition’.
But beyond commitment to accepted standards and rules, Professor Olaopa expands on the concept of optimized communities or Opticom, a framework for rural development advanced by Professors Ojetunji Aboyade and Akin Mabogunje. The concept relies on the rural community and its interactive relationships as the hub of socioeconomic growth and development. Effective administration of rural economies would promote the sustained growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and allow for the dispersion of talent, skills, creativity, and knowledge across communities in a way that tackles the urgent challenges of poverty, lack of financial inclusion and the alienation of relatively low-income Nigerians from the broader economy and production value chains.
The top-to-bottom command structure of the Nigerian bureaucracy and economy has not served the country well. Olaopa like his mentors Aboyade and Mabogunje, argues that it is important to reverse the order of administrative relevance by making the rural communities centres of excellence and aggregating these centres into a national culture and structure of inclusive and sustainable growth and development. Olaopa’s commitment to the sustained progress of the public sector in the interest of the communities and country is reflective of a mind schooled in the philosophical thoughts of Plato and honed by the practical craft of governance gathered over years of being at the centre of federal public sector authority and might.
I recommend Professor Olaopa’s book to all those interested in engineering a better bureaucratic framework to support a fit-for-purpose public service aimed at the greatest interest of the largest number of citizens. In the general scheme of things, while good ideas are needed to direct society to achieve optimal benefits for citizens, the success of the ideas rests delicately on the quality of public bureaucracy expected to translate those ideas into reality.
Where bureaucracy is weak, unimaginative, and lethargic, the best of ideas and programmes buckle under the weight of public incompetence, mischief, and thievery. Ultimately great administrations are the products of the collaboration between intelligent politicians and outstanding administrators. Where political vision and administrative competence are misaligned, the consequence is nearly always socioeconomic pain.
AWOYEMI, mni, FCA, FCTI, FCIB, FIoD
Chairman Proshare
ceo@proshare.co and femiproshare@gmail.com
0803 628 8637
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22nd Africa Conference 2023 Holds At University of Texas
Published
3 days agoon
March 29, 2023
The 22nd Africa Conference 2023
University of Texas at Austin
March 30 – April 2, 2023
https://bit.ly/3G1C5v0
Come join us for the 22nd Austin Africa Conference, the premier gathering for Africanist scholars, activists, and enthusiasts! This year’s conference promises to be an engaging and thought-provoking event, featuring a dynamic lineup of speakers, panel discussions, and networking opportunities.
Whether you are a seasoned researcher, a passionate activist, or simply interested in learning more about the rich and diverse cultures of Africa, the Austin Africa Conference has something for everyone. With a wide range of topics and themes, including politics, culture, history, and development, there is sure to be a session that piques your interest and inspires lively conversation. You can join Day 1 and 2 Virtual Panels below.
VIRTUAL A (Thur, 3:30AM – 5:30AM Austin CST // 9:30AM – 11:30AM WAT)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89515251670?pwd=Z25YKzBLd29yWFdocWtQVVZjSFJEZz09
Meeting ID: 895 1525 1670
Passcode: 642798
VIRTUAL B (Thur, 5:45AM – 7:15AM Austin CST // 11:45AM – 1:15PM WAT)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81637860400?pwd=anZJUzZKZ3VnZnQ4NzFPVEh0YktkQT09
Meeting ID: 816 3786 0400
Passcode: 180438
VIRTUAL C (Thur, 7:30AM – 9:00AM Austin CST // 1:30PM – 3:00PM WAT)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85111958266?pwd=K2kwU3lZNEhzc3ViWVgwNzF0ME8wUT09
Meeting ID: 851 1195 8266
Passcode: 334322
VIRTUAL D (Thur, 9:15AM – 10:45AM Austin CST // 3:15PM – 4:45PM WAT)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82353989771?pwd=VEhrYW9KdnppSVBrdnl4VjYxSVp2UT09
Meeting ID: 823 5398 9771
Passcode: 714482
VIRTUAL E (Fri, 4:00AM – 5:30AM Austin CST // 10AM – 11:30AM WAT)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89509796469?pwd=Zm4vK2gxc0h1RG9iQVVOeGpxTnVJUT09
Meeting ID: 895 0979 6469
Passcode: 390399
VIRTUAL F (Fri, 5:45AM – 7:15AM CST // 11:45AM – 1:15PM WAT)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82490120462?pwd=SkNqdEhlS3MycnE3T2FJeUwzNVVoQT09
Meeting ID: 824 9012 0462
Passcode: 049090
For the in-person participants, the conference offers the chance to connect with like-minded individuals from around the world, building relationships and networks that can last a lifetime. With attendees coming from all corners of the globe, the Austin Africa Conference is truly a melting pot of ideas and perspectives. Here is why:
· Panel Session A1 – A2 (Fri, 9:45AM-11:15AM Austin CST)
· Panel Session B1 – B2 (Fri, 11:30AM – 1:00PM Austin CST)
· Panel Session C1 – C2 (Fri, 2:00PM – 3:30PM Austin CST)
· Keynote Lecture (Fri, 4:00PM – 5:30PM Austin CST)
· Dinner Reception (Fri, 5:30PM – 6:30PM Austin CST)
· Panel Session D1 – D3 (Sat, 9:00AM – 10:30AM Austin CST)
· Panel Session E1 – E4 (Sat, 10:45AM – 12:15PM Austin CST)
· Panel Session F1 – F2 (Sat, 1:15PM – 2:45PM Austin CST)
· Panel Session G1 – G3 (Sat, 3:00PM – 4:45PM Austin CST)
· Plenary Session & Closing Remarks (Sat, 4:45PM – 5:30PM Austin CST)
· Open Bar (Sat, 6:30PM – 7:00PM)
· Dinner Banquet (Sat, 7:00PM – 9:00PM)
Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to engage with some of the brightest minds in African studies and make lasting connections with fellow enthusiasts. Save the date now and prepare to be inspired!
Download the conference program https://bit.ly/3G1C5v0
CONFERENCE TEAM
Organizers:
Olayombo Raji-Oyelade, olayombo.raji@utexas.edu
Victor Angbah, vangbah@utexas.edu
Convener:
Toyin Falola, toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu
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Toyin Falola, Memories Of Africa: Home And Abroad In The United States
Published
2 weeks agoon
March 19, 2023
By Olusegun Olopade
Toyin Falola, Memories of Africa: Home and Abroad in the United States (Atlantic Migrations and the African Diaspora) | © March 2023
Book Details
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (March 24, 2023)
Language: English
Paperback: 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1496843487
ISBN-13: 978-1496843487
Memories of Africa: Home and Abroad in the United States suggests a new lens for viewing African Diaspora studies: the experiences of African memoirists who live in the United States. The book shows how African Diaspora memoirs beautifully and grippingly depict the experiences of African migrants over time through political, social, and cultural spheres. In reading African Diaspora memoirs from the transatlantic slave trade period to the present, a reader can understand the complexity of the African migrant legacy and evolution.
Author Toyin Falola argues that memoirs are significant not only in their interpretation of events conveyed by the memoirists but also in demonstrating how interpersonal and human the stories told can be. Memoirs are powerful because they are emotionally captivating and because important themes and events circulate around a particular person (in this case, the memoirist).
Undoubtedly, a memoir is significant because it can teach anyone about a part of the human experience, even if the “facts” are not described without bias. Through this sort of narrative, the reader cannot help but enter into the memoirist’s mind and, therefore, feel more empathy for them. In doing so, the reader can “feel” what the memoirist feels and “see” what the memoirist sees as clearly as is humanly possible. In this way, the historical events and life lessons become tangible and poignantly real to the reader.
Editorial Reviews
Memories of Africa makes a significant contribution to the study of the African Diaspora, African intellectual history, to our understanding of African autobiography, and more importantly to life studies. Falola provides fresh insights that will reinvigorate the field. — Olabode Ibironke, author of Remapping African Literature.
Memories of Africa opens a new dimension to the understanding of the experiences of home, space, and place, and their interactions in African and diaspora studies. — Adetayo Alabi, author of Oral Forms of Nigerian Autobiography and Life Stories.
Toyin Falola is Professor of History, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, and the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. He has received over thirty lifetime career awards and sixteen honorary doctorates. He has written extensively on the African Diaspora, including The African Diaspora: Slavery, Modernity, and Globalization.
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