----As UniJos holds 133rd Inaugural lecture series 

A Professor of African economic and social history, Sati Umaru Fwatshak has stated that the story of Africa is prediction and failured.

Professor Fwatshak argued that the promised of post African independent has consistently failed as destiny of the continent remains unfulfilled occasion by greed and leadership pattern overtime.

Fwatshak who held from the 
Department of history and International studies University of Jos, made the assertion while delivering the 133rd inaugural lecture series titled:"The drift of certainty and the lineages of hope: contemporary Africa in the throes of greed and the making of resilient citizens".
He revealed that for more than 20 years, while other regions were recording growth rates of six per cent, three per cent and so on. Africa, on the other hand, recorded negative growth.

"In terms of global rankings, if you look at the Human Development Index rankings of countries today, only two African countries are in the very high human development category. Only eight countries have a high human development index. Twenty are in the medium category, while 23 are in the low category.

"Then, in the 1980s, international institutions came and said that Africa was going to grow and develop because it was adopting macroeconomic reforms through Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs).

"We all know that, at the end of the Structural Adjustment Programme, the story of Africa changed. More people became poor. We experienced massive job losses and high inflation, while unemployment and poverty rates increased", Fwatshak noted.
He further explained that the problems of Africa are both external and internal. "You cannot divorce one from the other. They are interconnected. Which according to him, " greed has been at the centre of the challenges.

"Between 1960 and 1999, about $140 billion was allegedly stolen by African leaders and deposited in Western countries. One person had about $180 million, while another had $112 million. Others had hundreds of millions of dollars and three houses in foreign countries. What are they doing with all this money?

"In Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, African countries are not doing well at all", he mentioned.

He advocates the need for building a sustainable economic development for the present and future generations through doggedness and resilience. 
The Vice Chancellor University of Jos, Professor Tanko Ishaya, said as a continent, Africa is richly endowed with natural resources. 

"The African continent holds about 30 per cent of the world's critical mineral resources. That is over 30 per cent of the entire mineral resources we have in the world. When you look at specific minerals, Africa holds more than 40 per cent of the world's gold reserved.

"However, when you look at the situation, we still have one of the poorest continents in the world. I believe this is the kind of issue of resilience and related challenges that our brother, Professor Sati, is going to discuss with us.

"Perhaps, one of the things we need to examine is what is happening across our continent. I am sure that in different parts of Nigeria, you will find communities whose people are being driven away from their lands and are unable to engage in farming and other agricultural activities because of the search for mineral resources.

"If we are not careful as a continent, one day we may wake up and discover that the Africa we know has become something entirely different", the VC warned.