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On 30 November 2002, critical constituencies across the
governmental and civil society sectors in Nigeria, West Africa and from beyond
the continent stood up to testify to applaud and celebrate the great mileage
which CDD has traversed since its inception five years ago. The chairperson of
CDD’s International Governing Council, Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem noted,
"it’s difficult to imagine that it is only five years, and a lot has
happened… and we have reason to be thankful and rejoice, but challenges also
lie ahead of us."
The culmination of a week-long series of events, which
flagged-off the launching of a five-year $10million endowment campaign, the
occasion was a fund-raising drive with the purpose of strengthening the capacity
of the Centre and to increase its ability to better fulfil its role as a leading
policy support, research, and intellectual resource in West Africa.
Two keynote addresses were delivered to mark both CDD’s
Fifth Anniversary and Endowment Launch. While the first entitled "State,
Governance and Insecurity in Africa" by Professor Richard Joseph took a
critical look at the challenges of democratic development in Africa, more so
within the framework of a distortive new world order. He tendered new approaches
to reviewing the diverse crises afflicting the continent, and tagged
"catastrophic governance" as a core factor, describing it as the
"endemic practices (of ‘entrenched political corruption’) that steadily
undermines a country’s capacity to increase the supply of public goods …
(which) has been mainly responsible for Africa’s failure to realise its
immense development potential."
In Professor Abdoulaye Bathily’s presentation on
"Democracy and the Crisis of Governance in Africa: Learning Lessons From
Cote d’Ivoire," the resurgence of strife and conflict in the West African
country was understood as the pernicious effects of warped incitements towards
nationalism, and as a result of unresolved native-settler equations and
questions of citizenship, hindering development everywhere on the continent.
Nobel Laureate and Internationally renown democracy activist
Professor Wole Soyinka was the Chairperson at the anniversary celebration and
launch of endowment campaign, which held at the Banquet Hall of the Eko L’Meridien
Hotel in Lagos. Other dignitaries in attendance included the Chairman of Habib
Bank – Alhaji Akin Kekere-Ekun, Chairperson of the Mano River Union –
Professor Abdoulaye Diallo, Representative of the Vice President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria – Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, and the representative of the
Lagos State Governor – Mr. Yemi Cardoso (the Commissioner of Finance), guest
lecturers Professors Richard Joseph and Abdoulaye Bathily, and Dr. Beko Kuti.
Other notable people at the event included the Nigeria Programme Officer of the
Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) – Dr. Nana Tanko, and Senator
Tokunbo Afikuyomi. The board of CDD was represented by Ms. Katy Diop, Dr. Oby
Ezekwesili, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, Dr. Funmi Olonisakin, and Dr. Kole Shettima.
The variety and eminence of people at the event made Dr. Abdul-Raheem observe
that "it is a sign of the journey we have taken so far, and your faith and
confidence in us that you are all here."
As evidence of how far CDD has come, the event, which was
inundated with much media fanfare in Nigeria, had present several national
newspapers such as The Guardian, This Day, Daily Independent,
The Punch, The Comet, Vanguard, Business Day, Post
Express and Daily Times, drawing attention to and profiling
the various facets of the work of the organisation. The Centre’s numerous
efforts, straddling its programmes in Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mali were
pointed to as testimony of its commitment to the concept and process of
democratic development in the West African sub-region. Moreover, the crucial
work of the Centre; its projects on electoral reforms; on the making of a
popular constitution, and the entrenchment of a culture of constitutionalism in
Nigeria; on a people-centred approach to development in the Niger-Delta; and the
need for a women’s budget, amongst other initiatives, were noted as part of
the ground-cutting initiatives of CDD.
Lending further credence to the general perception of the
Centre within the public sphere, the Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed
Tinubu remarked that CDD’s work has been "influential… in the areas of
the constitutional re-engineering of the Nigerian state in the field of human
rights protection, through its support of the Oputa Commission, and its work
with communities and constituencies at the state and local levels."
Situating the evolution of CDD within the need to consolidate
democracy on the African continent and the resistance movement spawned during
Nigeria’s past military rule, Professor Soyinka traced the genealogy of the
organisation to the struggle against authoritarian rule, and the efforts of the
Africa Democratic League (ADL) – comprising such firebrand constituents as the
United Democratic Front of Nigeria (UDFN), the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO)
etc – in the determination to install representative governance in the
country. Therefore, for him, "CDD is a continuation of the kind of work,
(and) the kind of vision we had in establishing the African Democratic
League." And, "the establishment of a structured organisation like
this will, at least, remove the burden from individuals…, (and) Heads of
States, politicians, national leaders will stop thinking, "Oh, its merely
that rebel and anarchist (speaking), when collective voices are piped through a
structure of storage and analysis, not merely for democracy, but (also) for
development."
CDD Director, Dr. Kayode
Fayemi, took the opportunity of the
Launch to clarify some of the misconceptions pertaining to the tasks engaged in
by CDD, as against what some people might construe as "the scurrilous acts
of civil society". He said that "we at CDD have always stated very
clearly that the work we do in civil society is not to create an alternative
government, we don’t see ourselves as an alternative government, but as a
bridge between the people and those who govern them. We see ourselves as
articulating the visions and the hopes and dreams of the ordinary people of our
continent." And he added the following call: "Invest in us and invest
in the future of democracy and development in our region."
In terms of enabling CDD to strengthen its capacity and
intensify on the creditable commitments that it has been occupied with on the
continent, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who kept advocating for an alliance
between the civil society and the government, added that "the challenge of
sustaining institutions like CDD is critical and local philanthropists, as well
as governmental institutions, must support its laudable activities. In my
view, that is in duty and not a favour, and the earlier we realise this, the
closer we are to our goal of democratic development." Further on, he stated
that "there is no doubt in my mind that the returns would be more than
the contributions, no matter how generous."
While Professor Abdoulaye Bathily noted the "Achilles
heel of most African organisations … (as being) that they rely so much on
external donors, and when this stops, the organisation collapses," he
wondered, "why should we go only to funders outside Africa and not trap
resources from within?" To him, it was high time that the civil society in
Africa also started to strive at drawing the means for their work from within
the continent. And, in commending CDD’s launch and programme initiatives
again, he remarked that, "as a member of the National Assembly of Senegal
and a member of the ECOWAS parliament, we already are working with you and we
look forward to continue to develop our work together for the benefit of the
African people."
On his part, Mallam El-Rufai representing Vice-President
Abubakar, stated that "the Vice President has asked me to announce that he
is going to persuade the Federal Government of Nigeria to contribute to the
building of the institution in anyway possible."
Finally, Ms. Kathy Diop, as a member of the Governing Council
of the Centre, expressed appreciation on behalf of the organisation to the
special guests and dignitaries who graced the occasion. She also thanked the
departing members of the council of the organisation – Dr. Kole Shettima, Dr.
Okay Ibeanu, Dr. Sef Ashiagbor and Professor Bayo Olukoshi – for their
dedication and service to the institute.
See also: "Report of the
Launch and Pre-Launch Activities of CDD’s Endowment Fund Campaign",
by Bisi Olonisakin, describing Endowment Campaign activities from September to
December 2002.
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