Gbenro Adesina
Prof. Attahiru Jegajega
Former Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega has advocated a radical transformation that will reposition the nation’s resources for the benefit of everybody, especially the common people.
Jega further stated that for things to change for better, everyone should be involved, stressing that leaving the struggle in the hands of the few will not bring the much needed results.
Jega stated this today at the Conference Centre, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, while delivering a lecture titled, “The Complexity of Freedom: Biodun Jeyifo at 70”, to mark Jeyifo at 70.
Putting his speech in perspective, the comrade scholar noted, “Freedom, as a universal right, as in freedom of thought, of expression (i.e. academic freedom) and religion is not only desirable but it is also worthy of struggles to protect, defend and expand. For intellectuals and academics, academic freedom is much cherished and strenuously struggled for. Second, the pursuit of, or struggles for, freedom need to be predicated on the recognition of the complexity of the contemporary world, as well as the complexity of freedom. As Taylor has observed, ‘we are living in a moment of unprecedented complexity, when things are changing faster than our ability to comprehend them’. As such, ‘the task we now face is not to reject or turn away from complexity, but to learn to live with it’ (2001). I might add: to strive to understand it, and to design methodologies and strategies to effectively operate within it.”
The scholar stated, “With regards to freedom, as Hickerson has observed, social complexities and interdependencies in the contemporary world have made the conventional, ‘individualistic’ or so-called ‘liberal’ view of freedom unhelpful “as a guide to intellectual action” (1984b: 435). He criticizes the classical liberal view as “unduly restrictive… atomistic, negativistic, and historically perverse” in the context of …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
