Lagos — All is set for the high-level memorial symposium that would be held Saturday, 7th July 2018 in honour of Professor Adebayo Adedeji, the former Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) who died on April 25.
The symposium will be held at the Radisson Blue Hotel Ikeja in Lagos under the theme; 'Africa's Development Agenda: Lessons from the Adebayo Adedeji Years and Policy Options for the 21st Century'.
Mr. Said Adejumobi, Director of the ECA's Southern Africa regional office and facilitator of the event, says it is befitting for the ECA to honour the late Prof. Adedeji who spent 16 years working tirelessly for Africa's development while at the helm of the organization.
"Prof. Adedeji's is a foremost pan-Africanist who committed his life to the service of the Continent. He served not only the ECA but the continent as a whole in various positions without fear or favour. He used his leadership to push for African solutions to African problems as the great thinker that he was," said Adejumobi.
"The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) that we are celebrating today is as a result of the hard work with the foundation laid by the likes of Adedeji, who committed and worked vigorously for regional economic integration in Africa. So as the ECA we are saying, thank you. The symposium is just one of several ways that the ECA seeks to honour this illustrious son of Africa", Adejumobi noted.
Mr. Adejumobi said the symposium will be attended by Heads of State, former and current, and other distinguished personalities, following his burial on Friday in the Ogun State of Nigeria.
Prof. Peter Anyang Nyong'o, Governor of Kisumu County in Kenya, also former Minister for Medical and Health Services, and a former Senator, will deliver the keynote address.
ECA Executive Secretary, Vera Songwe, will attend the symposium and deliver opening and closing remarks, in addition to the interactive discussions. Ms. Songwe will also speak on the way forward for Africa following the trailblazer Prof. Adedeji.
The symposium will reflect on his ideas and notions of development, their relevance in contemporary era, the trajectory and current context of Africa's development, and the challenges, opportunities and prospects for the structural transformation of African economies and the Continent.
It will be divided into three sessions with the first dealing with 'Reflections on Africa's Economic Development Agenda: Hopes, Failures, Opportunities, and Prospects. (From the Lagos Plan of Action to the AfCFTA)'.
The second session will focus on Adebayo Adedeji on the Trajectory of Public Administration and Development in Africa and the third one on 'Governance and the Challenges of Economic Transformation in Africa (The Governance Context to Economic Development in Africa).
Prof. Adedeji is acknowledged by many as one of the most towering intellectual figures and development practitioners in Africa in the late 20th Century.
Bio of Professor Adebayo Adedeji: https://www.uneca.org/pages/former-executive-secretaries
