Africa in The Post-Idea World
By Kashim Shettima
The world has never suffered from a scarcity of ideas. Nations and civilisations have risen on the strength of visionaries, and they have also crumbled under the weight of ideas left in the dusty cupboard of time. But today, the world as we know it is bowing to a reality in which we cannot afford to be freeloading bystanders. This gathering is an acknowledgment of this dilemma, and I am honoured to join my brother and friend, a scholar-statesman of the finest breed, Dr J. Kayode Fayemi, in his mission to be an intellectual prototype for the continent.
2. The post-idea world is not a world without ideas—it is a world where the excuse of not knowing has expired. Emerging technologies like the Large Language Models of artificial intelligence and machine learning have shattered traditional barriers to knowledge. The answers to our most complex problems are no longer elusive; they exist at our fingertips, generated in mere seconds. The real question is no longer What should we do?—that has been answered a billion times over. The real question is Who will act? Who will rise above inertia and ensure that our ideas do not remain ink on paper, buried in symposiums and policy documents?
3. For centuries, Africa was plundered for its resources. For these centuries, we were mostly prophets of lamentation and despair. Today, we face an even worse risk, the risk of being plundered for our potential. This is so because the algorithms shaping global power, the AI rewriting economies, the policies dictating climate futures are being coded in distant capitals while we linger in debates over yesterdays. The post-idea world forgives no such hesitation. It rewards only those quick to translate their ideas into actions or compete with the best ideologues and scientists from other parts of the world.
4. Dr. Kayode and Mrs. Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi understood this, and that’s why we are here. Amandla Institute for Policy & Leadership Advancement would have been just another think-tank for empty theories and fancy talk shows if it were not the brainchild of minds that have had the privilege of fusing intellectual rigour with actionable courage. Dr. Fayemi’s legacy, from pro-democracy activism to public administration, teaches us that leadership in this era demands more than ideation. It requires the stamina to execute, the grit to dismantle barriers, and the wisdom to see the inventions of the current wave of the Industrial Revolution not as a threat, but as a tool to reclaim Africa’s agency.
5. It was unsurprising that when the world converged on Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, last month, for the 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, the focus was on how we could collaborate for the intelligent age. Their 2025 Global Risks Report is a call to each policymaker to pay attention to the gathering storm about to disrupt the fragility of the world, particularly our security, climate, and economic stability. It was not alarmism to point out that Africa has the gloomiest profile. This is because, while terrorism and insurgency destabilise fragile states, global geopolitical tensions are diverting international attention and resources away from our security needs.
6. The reflection of Africa in the mirror is not one of hopelessness. There are a million and one ideas for every problem we see. We know what to do as climate change threatens our continent, and when extreme weather events like droughts and floods disrupt agriculture and livelihoods. We know the policy choices to prioritise to mitigate our economic instability, driven by inflation and debt crises, and we also know the historical greed and grievances that have brought us to where we are. We also know the devastation of the rise of misinformation and cyber threats, and what would happen if we don’t build public trust and the institutions to convert our hysteria about the digital age into fuel for innovative thinking.
7. Whatever our differences across the continent, one fact that can’t be eroded by our infighting is that we are in the age of machines, and we can’t fight our development dilemma with spears and arrows while the rest of the world is fighting the same battle with missiles and tanks. The world is not waiting for Africa to catch up. While we parse political rivalries, others parse datasets. While we litigate history, others engineer futures. The train of progress accelerates, yet too many of our leaders cling to old carriages. These are our client-state mentalities, our dependency on foreign blueprints, and our governance by hashtag activism. This is the tragedy of our time.
8. The founding of Amandla Institute emerges as an antidote to this paralysis. We are here not only to generate more ideas but to create executors. We need leaders who wield policy as a scalpel, not a slogan. We need visionaries who see AI as a collaborator, not a competitor. We need a generation of Africans who recognise that Pan-Africanism, renewed for this age, must be rooted in actionable sovereignty.
9. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the renaissance of this continent will not be gifted. It must be built. For too long, we’ve outsourced our thinking. For too long, we have relied on institutions and ideologies that treat us as consumers, not creators. But the post-idea world dissolves excuses. With the democratisation of knowledge, we must empower our youth to innovate in tech hubs across the continent, from Cairo, down through Nairobi, to Lagos, building unicorns without the permission of any gatekeepers. What they lack is not ideas but ecosystems—systems where policy, funding, and political will converge to scale their genius.
10. This is where leadership matters. Leaders must evolve from custodians of power to architects of platforms. Our imagination of Africa must be one where every government ministry houses AI strategists, where continental trade policies are drafted by homegrown think tanks like Amandla Institute, not foreign consultants, and where “Made in Africa” signifies not raw materials but algorithms, green tech, and cultural capital.
11. We are not here to be spectators in the post-idea world. The pace of change will not pause for Africa’s historical grievances or applaud our elegies for lost time. Regret, as the opening stanza warns, writes history in the ink of “what if.” The Amandla Institute must be a furnace where regret is melted into resolve; it must be a place that trains leaders to ask, “What will I break, build, or bet my legacy on today?” And I have no doubt that the founders are prepared for this revolution.
12. My candid advice for the African youth is that you are the first generation with tools to leapfrog colonial legacies. For those of us privileged to lead you through this interesting time, we must never forget that our legacy can only be sustained by the systems we institutionalise. Africa seeks collaboration, not patronage. This is the vision I expect Amandla to convey to the world. We are not a testing ground for experiments but equals in co-creating solutions.
13. As we honour the Fayemis, let us channel their restlessness. Let this symposium be remembered not for its eloquence but for its ignition. It’s time for Africa to stop debating ideas and start deploying them. The Amandla Institute must become a command centre for the continent, turning thinkers into doers, policies into progress, and Pan-African ideals into lived realities.
14. The post-idea world belongs to those who act. Africa must not see prosperity as a gift. It is a prize to be won. And to win, we must embrace the responsibility of leadership—not just in politics, but in policy, in business, in technology, in governance, and in shaping the narratives that define our place in the world.
*Vice President Kashim Shettima. GCON
Being the speech of His Excellency, Senator Kashim Shettima, GCON, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, at the Dr. Kayode Fayemi Commemorative Symposium and Launch of the Amandla Policy and Leadership Institute, with the theme “Renewing the Pan-African Ideal for the Changing Times: The Policy and Leadership Challenges and Opportunities,” at the Congress Hall, Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, Nigeria, on Thursday, February 6, 2025.
