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Professor Ademola Adeleke of the Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, has identified the institutionalisation of the concept of Raison d’état in governance processes as the panacea for the tragedy of leadership and underdevelopment in Africa.
With his Inaugural Lecture titled, “The Richest Ever and The Cardinal, delivered on Wednesday, November 1, 2023 at the J.F. Ade-Ajayi Auditorium, the Professor of International Relations interrogated the role of leadership in the development or underdevelopment of African societies.
He identified the role of a society’s ruling elite as aggregators of the opinions, needs, desires and expectations of the populace, and as actualisers of these, using the inherent powers of the state.
Drawing upon his expertise as a Historian, Professor Adeleke used what he described as the Mansa Musa model of leadership to describe the continent-wide leadership culture that is predatory and promoting of elite aggrandisement at the expense of the people’s welfare.
“The consequence of that is the underdevelopment of African societies and the pauperisation of the citizenry. That leadership culture has created a dynamic that ensures inverse relationship between elite privilege and societal underdevelopment. The more the elite empower themselves in status, wealth and material comfort, the more the people became impoverished and disillusioned”, he said.
He illustrated that leadership model with the story of Mansa Kankan Musa, ruler of the ancient Mali Empire.
“He is recorded in history as the “richest person ever to have lived” because of the quantum of gold at his disposal, which he decided to splurge on a foreign trip rather than on the development of his people. If indeed Africa has produced the richest person ever, is it not ironic that the continent is still the least developed and its population among the poorest on earth?”, he queried.
Professor Adeleke contrasted the Mansa Musa model of leadership with that of Cardinal Richelieu, the seventeenth century Prime Minister of France.
“The Cardinal is known to history as the father of the modern state for promulgating the philosophy of state known as raison d’état. Four centuries later, that philosophy has remained the basis for the theory and praxis of statecraft. All contemporary societies that have surmounted the challenges of development and modernisation have employed the Cardinal’s philosophy of state.
He recommended the institutionalisation of the theory and praxis of statecraft outlined by Cardinal Richelieu as the panacea for the tragedy of leadership and underdevelopment in Africa.
“If African states are to actualise their full potential as effective actors in the contemporary international system, the model of leadership offered by the Richest Ever will need to be replaced by that of the Cardinal. African leaders would have to emulate the Cardinal and adopt the philosophical foundations of the modern state if they desire to lift their people from the morass of underdevelopment and operate effectively and competently in the comity of developed states”.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Management Services), Prof. Lucian Chukwu, represented the Vice-Chancellor as Chairman of the lecture. In attendance, also, were staff, students, friends, and well-wishers of the Inaugural Lecturer who graced the event with their presence.
Born on August 29, 1959 in Osogbo, Osun State, Professor Ademola Adeleke holds a Bachelor of Arts (Ed.) Degree in History and a Masters Degree in Diplomatic History which he earned, respectively, from the University of Lagos in 1982 and University of Maiduguri in 1986.
In 1991, he was awarded a Canadian government-sponsored Commonwealth Scholarship to study for his PhD in International Relations at the University of Toronto, which he completed in 1996. Professor Adeleke began his university teaching career as an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of History, Ondo State University (now University of Ado-Ekiti) in 1989.
He joined the services of the University of Lagos in 2002 as a Lecturer I in the Department of History and Strategic Studies. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2005, Associate Professor in 2010 and Professor in 2015. He has served the university in various capacities including Chairman, Faculty of Arts Publications Committee (2015 to Date) and Dean of Student Affairs (DSA), an assignment he discharged meritoriously from 2016 till 2021.
Professor Ademola Adeleke is married with three children and a grandchild.
Source: https://unilag.edu.ng
