“The Ruins Are Not Our Final Chapter”: Ene Obi Calls for Rebuilding Nigeria and Africa

The Executive Director Ene Obi Centre for Development (ECD), a non-governmental, non-profit and non-partisan organisation
has urged Nigeria and the rest of Africa to move from diagnosing their problems to building lasting institutions, productive economies and continental unity.

She spoke as a guest speaker at the monthly Samaritans Seminar, held virtually with participants joining from across the diaspora, organised by Linkway Outreach Africa in collaboration with Linkway Diplomats Inc., USA. The theme was “Rebuilding the Ruins of Continental Africa,” with a focus on Nigeria.

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Obi argued that Africa’s “ruins” are not the continent’s identity but the product of systems: inherited extraction, fragmented markets, weak institutions and infrastructure gaps. She said Africa is not a ruined continent but one whose promise has been repeatedly constrained. She traced the damage to slavery and colonial extraction, but insisted that history explains only part of it. Present-day choices, she said, decide whether it continues. Political independence, she noted, did not automatically bring economic sovereignty, accountable institutions or equal opportunity.

On Nigeria, she described a giant at a crossroads. Citing World Bank figures, she noted a population of 237.5 million, 4.0 percent GDP growth in 2025, electricity access of 62.5 percent, internet use of 41 percent and life expectancy of 55 years. She cautioned that headline growth does not necessarily mean households are better off, since inflation and population growth shape daily life.

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Her blueprint rested on human capability first: health, foundational learning, skills, women’s participation and dignified work. She also called for reliable power, transport corridors, broadband and digital infrastructure, and for a shift from exporting raw commodities to building value chains in agro-processing, manufacturing and creative industries. Cocoa and cassava were her examples. Governance, she said, is infrastructure too, because “credible institutions lower the cost of being a citizen.”

Obi stressed Pan-African cooperation, noting that only 14.6 percent of Africa’s exports in 2024 went to other African countries. She urged Nigeria to support AfCFTA implementation, deepen ECOWAS ties and invest in regional production. On security, she said human rights are part of legitimate and sustainable security, and that military operations must be paired with justice, services and community trust.

She closed with three “rebuilding compacts” on capability, production and integration, backed by a five-year implementation sequence and measurable targets. Government must serve with integrity, business must create jobs and value, and citizens must hold power accountable. She cited Kwame Nkrumah’s call that “Africa must be free,” and said the work now is freedom from dependency, fragmentation and preventable institutional failure.

Participants used the occasion to pray for the success of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections.

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