By Femi Mimiko
The lead paper at any academic conference sets the tone of discussion for all participants. This it does by broaching the main theme around which all other presentations are woven. This was precisely what we did as the lead paper presenter at the first international conference of the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, of the University of Ilesa, Ilesa, Osun State, May 14, 2025.
The focus of the conference was on “Navigating the intersection of business, governance, and society for sustainable development: The role of Nigeria’s diversity and Artificial Intelligence (AI).”
We undertook a careful interrogation of the nature of the independent variables highlighted in the theme – business, governance, society, diversity, and AI – and explored how they collectively and severally impacted the development agenda in Nigeria. As backdrop, we noted that development was a multi-dimensional concept, and a multi-sectoral project, relating strictly to improvements in the human condition. It is indeed, all-encompassing and all involving – bringing together state (governance) and society (governed) in the classical social contract format, popularized by the 17th century philosopher, John Locke.
While the concept of state epitomizes the most complex abstraction of organization, society is more fluid, but both come with their own fair share of diversity, which may or may not help the cause of social stability, depending on its pattern of mobilization. In the course of managing all of the contours and negotiating the complexities associated with advancing the quality of human life, attempts are made – in all history – to deploy tools and technologies. One of the more contemporary ones is Artificial Intelligence (AI) – “the simulation of human intelligence in machines.” It is basically anchored by business (private sector), but in many climes, in partnership with the state.
These variables cannot function in silos, but rather, must exist in a constant state of interaction to shape the nature, depth and breadth of social development. The two fundamental questions pertaining to all of these, therefore, are, first, what level of agency does each of these variables exercise on the development agenda, in the context of Nigeria? Secondly, what does it mean for the development agenda if the variables, individually or collectively, fail to discharge their mandate?
A whole lot of the presentations, expectedly, spoke to these prompts. Our own take, which isn’t exactly novel, is that in the context of a newer economy like Nigeria’s, operating in an increasingly complex, dynamic and protectionist global system, it is inevitable that the country evolves into a developmental state, which will generally lead the development drive – defining its parametres and formulating the modalities for its operation. The developmental state is predicated upon the valid assumption that no country can afford to leave its economic development agenda solely to the forces of the market, which have proven to not be infallible. To be effective and creditably discharge this mandate, however, the recommended state must be strong and imbued with a good measure of hegemony, autonomy and capacity, requisite for dominating society. This is what the the East Asian turbo-charged economies demonstrated.
The jury is still out on whether the post-colonial Nigerian state has demonstrated these same capabilities; and possesses the clarity of vision vis a vis a single-minded pursuit of development objectives, as was the case in these other economies.
*Professor Femi Mimiko, mni, former Vice Chancellor, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State teaches Political Science at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife
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