Professor Olufemi Bamiro, Pro-chancellor and Chairman of Council at Tai Solarian University of Education, Nigeria, says Africa need to be intellectually independent to be able to address its numerous challenges.

He said it is time African universities become proactive, well-researched and community services oriented while maintaining core African values to gain a more respectable position in the academic world.

Prof Bamiro said though education had its roots in Africa, Africans are always relying on the Western world to find solutions and answers to problems which are purely African.

“Almost all the big universities in the world now, the people behind them are all Africans or are of African origin, so why must we always run to the West to have our issues solved while our problems are African? It is time we become intellectually independent to be able to find African solutions to the African problems,” he said.

Prof Bamiro was speaking at the opening ceremony of the first interdisciplinary conference organized by the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration in collaboration with Ghana Association of Educational Planners and Administrators and Tai Solarian University of Education, Nigeria, at the University of Cape Coast (UCC).

The four-day conference which is on the theme: “Education as a tool for global development,” is aimed at having an in-depth discussion and of exchange ideas as the participants seek answers from the research perspective.

Prof Bamiro said there is the need to ensure that lecturers are adequately resourced with research logistics and scientific materials since staff quality is a major driver of the change.

He said the polytechnics and the technical universities must be strengthened to produce competent human resource to ensure the sustainability of African industries, adding that sustainable development of industries is a key indicator to modern development.

He said the brain-drain from Africa is major setbacks to development as majority of African graduates who are expected to use the knowledge acquire to help their countries, travel outside for greener pastures.

The Vice Chancellor of UCC, Prof Domwini Kuupole said the conference is as a result of the memorandum of understanding between UCC and the Tai Solarian University of Education in Nigeria to engage in activities that is mutually beneficial.

He said it is a clear demonstration of regional cooperation and expressed the hope that the scholarly discourse would inform the decisions of educational administrators in the sub region.