Okey Maduforo 
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Auditorium of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State was electrified when Dr Joyce Hilda Benda walked claimed the podium in measured steps.
Benda, who was the first female President of Malawi and the first female guest lecturer in the series, held the audience spellbound, with her captivating and insightful discuss as the guest lecturer at the 12th Zik Annual Lecture Series.
Benda was in her element when she spoke on the theme; Reclaiming Zik’s World; Climate Justice and African Sustainable Development.
African leaders
She took a swipe on African leaders who have chosen to sell their countries cheap by selling the rich natural resources of their countries to please the imperialists, who long after the liberation of African countries from their stronghold, have continued to plunder the richness of the continent.
Benda further contended that there is no better leadership that would benefit the African community than ensuring self-reliance and maximizing the economic resources of the continent for the growth and development of its economy.
Legacies live on
At the end of the lecture, the attendees had several takeaways on the political life and times of the first President of Nigeria, the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, fondly called Zik the Great.
He was also the Owelle of Onitsha and one of the greatest African nationalists. His impact on the socio-economic and political development of Nigeria and Africa in general remain un-dwarfed. In the past 12 years that the series has held, it has been revealing as it has created positive imagery of an African society that must be forward looking, with the capacity for self-emancipation and reliance.
Ibn Chamba
This year’s 13th Zik’s Annual Lecture Series slated for November 15, 2024, would be headlined by Dr Mohamed Ibn Chamba, as guest lecturer. Chamba needs no introduction as he is a noted speaker and fiery and convincing as well.
He is the former Special Representative of United Nations Secretary General and President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The theme for discuss is; Zik’s Legacies and the Rising Regional Integration in Africa.
Birth of lecture
While Africans wait in anticipation of his delivery, it is instructive to note that the Zik’s Annual Lecture Series has become a yearly tradition, which was conceived by Senator Ben Ndi Obi, who represented Anambra Central District in the Upper Chambers in 2002. Obi instituted an endowment in perpetuity to immortalize Azikiwe through the lecture series.
This was further given great impetus as it were when Obi chose to partner with the then Head of Department of Sociology and Anthropology and then Sub-Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Prof AU Nonyelu ,under the tenure of the then Vice Chancellor, Prof Ilochi Okafor (SAN). Since the institution of the lecture series, several African leaders had visited Awka’s citadel of learning to join their voices in extending the frontiers of the conversation on the socio-economic and political development of the continent.
Past speakers
The roll call include the late Jerry Rawlings, former President of Ghana, who spoke on Corruption and African Leadership. It was rated as one of the most outstanding lectures in the series.
Rawlings lecture was incisive, engaging and presented a vivid picture of the evil effects the monster known as corruption has on the development of the continent.
Also on the is; Benjamin Mkapa, former President of Tanzania; Dr Bai Koroma, former President of Sierra Leone; Ralia Odinga, former Prime Minister of Kenya; and Ethan Mussolini of Uganda; the former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku;
Prof. Wole Soyinka; late Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife; Prof Okwudiba Nnoli; Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President of Nigeria and Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Asisi Asobie; and Dike Chukwumerije Roadmap These world leaders posited that the bane of African development lies in the leadership style of successive leaders that have held sway across the continent.
The lecturers disclosed that African leaders should be inward looking and exploit the rich potentials inherent in the continent by leveraging on them to fast track the process of self-reliance and sustainable development. Ahead of this year’s lecture series, Prof. AU Nonyelu noted that the lecture would be an exposure on the need for African integration at all facets of growth and development.
The coming lecture seeks to enlighten Africans on the need to exploit the rising social movement in Africa through regional integration. The aim is to understudy the legacies of late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe as an African leader and foremost nationalist who believed in the principles of the United States of Africa through bilateral relationship among African countries.
This year’s gathering would be chaired by the Governor of Enugu State, Dr Peter Mbah while Anambra State Governor, Professor Charles Soludo, would head the host of that dignitaries that would include the former Governor of Anambra State and Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi.
Others are; Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe Agbogidi and the Monarch of Awka ancient kingdom, Obi Gibson Nwosu Eze Uzu II Of Awka while the Chief Host is the Acting Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Prof. Carol Imobi.
