Funmi Ogundare
The Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University, Osogbo, Prof. Odunayo Adebooye, yesterday, criticised the application of uniform global development solutions to diverse local realities, urging stakeholders to champion Africa-led approaches to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He made this known at the opening ceremony of the 2026 International Sustainable Development Dialogue (ISDD), hosted by the university’s Global Affairs and Sustainable Development Institute (GASDI) in partnership with Rosa-Luxembourg Stiftung, Germany, themed, ‘ The Problem with Solutions: SDGS, and Global South Development Challenges’.
Adebooye explained that global development frameworks often suffer from a top-down approach in which solutions designed in developed countries are exported to developing nations without adequate consideration for local contexts.
The VC, who was represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic, Research, Innovation and Partnership (ARIP), Prof. Adetunji Lawrence Kehinde, noted that while the SDGs provide a noble and necessary roadmap for human progress, their implementation frequently overlooks the historical, cultural and institutional realities of communities in the Global South.
According to him, “the problem with solutions to the SDGs and global sustainable development challenges” lies in the tendency to mistake uniform solutions for universal realities.
He argued that societies do not exist within a neutral development framework, but rather in complex environments where externally designed interventions can unintentionally disrupt local economies, institutions and indigenous knowledge systems.
“Our task is to interrogate these ready-made frameworks and challenge the shift from merely importing solutions to creating alternatives that respect our specific material realities,” he said.
Adebooye stressed that African universities must not become passive consumers of external development models but should serve as intellectual centres where global ideas are rigorously examined against local realities.
Describing the university as an intellectual crucible’, he said institutions of higher learning have a responsibility to generate context-specific solutions to development challenges rather than simply complying with externally imposed agendas.
He noted that the establishment of the GASDI eight years ago was aimed at providing multidisciplinary training and education in sustainable development practices across sub-Saharan Africa, adding that the institute has continued to make significant contributions to development discourse on the continent.
The VC commended the Director of GASDI, Professor John Agbonifo, and his team for sustaining the annual dialogue and expanding its relevance over the years.
Adebooye further emphasised that the Global South should not be viewed merely as a testing ground for development interventions but as a source of innovative, systemic and community-driven solutions.
He challenged participants, including scholars, policymakers, researchers and development practitioners, to move beyond conventional notions of best practices and embrace approaches rooted in social justice, historical awareness and local agency.
“True sustainability cannot be achieved through objective compliance alone, but through rigorous, context-building innovation,” he stated.
In his remarks, the Director of GASDI, Prof. Agbonifo, called on stakeholders to move beyond debates over policy failures and focus on interrogating the deeper political structures that continually generate the country’s recurring challenges.
He argued that much of contemporary political discourse is preoccupied with managing the symptoms of societal problems rather than addressing their root causes.
Using an analogy of prisoners struggling with food shortages, he explained that political debates often revolve around competing solutions to immediate problems while ignoring the fundamental structures that create those problems in the first place.
According to him, in the fictional prison scenario, inmates repeatedly elect leaders from different ideological backgrounds to address food scarcity. While debates focus on food distribution, leadership and policy choices, no one questions the existence of the prison itself.
“The entire political debate becomes centered on food,” he said, noting that even if the food crisis were resolved, the prisoners would still remain confined within the prison system.
Agbonifo stressed that genuine politics begins when citizens challenge assumptions that society has come to accept as normal.
He described this as the difference between seeking reforms within an existing system and pursuing fundamental transformation of that system.
Applying the analogy to Nigeria, the director observed that public discussions frequently centre on issues such as electricity tariffs, fuel subsidies, insecurity, unemployment and inflation.
While acknowledging the importance of these concerns, he argued that Nigerians must also ask deeper questions about why such problems continue to recur.
He questioned why the Nigerian state has repeatedly struggled to provide equal protection and opportunities for all citizens, why some regions appear to receive greater attention than others, and why certain forms of violence attract stronger state responses while others are overlooked.
“The country’s challenges may not simply require better policies or more effective leadership, but a critical examination of the political and institutional arrangements that produce those challenges.
“A society becomes trapped when it spends all its energy debating problems produced by a system without ever questioning the system itself,” Agbonifo stressed.
He maintained that while demands for improved governance and better service delivery are important, transformative politics emerges when citizens begin to question the structures and assumptions that underpin existing political arrangements.
Also speaking, the state Commissioner for Education, Hon. Dipo Eluwole, who was represented by the Special Adviser to the Governor of Osun State on Technical and Vocational Education, Dapo Ademola Adesina, noted that education remains the foundation that equips citizens with knowledge.
He stressed the need for stakeholders to continue to strengthen partnerships to ensure a more sustainable future and solve real problems.
