The pioneer Director of the Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies (IPSS), University of Ibadan and Professor of African History, Peace and Conflict Studies, Professor Isaac Olawale Albert will on the 26th of March, 2019 receive the West Africa Peace Building Award in Accra, Ghana.
Professor Olawale Albert whose belief is that “a continent like Africa whose modernisation has been such a painful process for the majority of the populace, the continuous re-examination of each and every proposition is at the heart of Afrocentric consciousness.
Reduced to whether Africans are the origin of their own disconnect from modernity or some extra-African forces, the Africans share the blame to a greater extent. European imperialism cannot solely be blamed for underdeveloped Africa. Such position suffers from Marxist mono-causality. After all, Asia and Latin America equally experienced Euro-American imperialism but over which many Asian and Latin American countries have transcended. The political rascality, the hereditary democracy and permanent presidency that define the African leadership landscape must be uniquely African problems for which we can't blame outsiders.
Nonetheless, 'African solutions to African problems' is not an innocent phrase but a contextually loaded one.”
Professor Olawale Albert is not just an ordinary scholar who contributed to the teaching of African History, Peace and Strategic Studies in Africa but also a mentor to Africans across all the divides of culture and faith. His influence on Peace and Strategic studies in Nigeria is widely acclaimed and his mentorship in the lives of people is worthy of emulation. Albert will be among eminent Africans that will be honored this year by WANEP.
The West Africa Peace Building Fellows is usually given in recognition of the recipient’s contribution to peace practice. The recipient of the award must have acquired 20 years’ experience and their work must transcend their country of birth to at least 5 West Africa states plus other stringent measures.
Following the stipulated requirements, the erudite scholar has been found worthy to bag the 2019 award as he has immensely contributed in sustainable peace for humanity both within his country and Africa as a continent.
CEOAfrica gathered that the inauguration for this year’s award will take place on March 26 in Accra, Ghana with the President of ECOWAS Commission and President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo presiding over the ceremony.
Professor Olawale Albert after the completion of his PhD in 1994 at the University of Ibadan, had been working on conflict resolution and peace building. He founded and was the Pioneer Director of the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin in 2008. He was also the UNDP (Accra, Ghana) Consultant for the establishment of the MA Peace and Development Studies course of the University of Cape Coast, Ghana in 2006.
Below is the letter obtained by CEOAfrica