Funmi Ogundare
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and renowned historian, Toyin Falola, have hailed a new book written by Development Economist, Prof. Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, describing it as a practical blueprint for Africa’s long-awaited industrial renaissance.
Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, a former Senior Special Adviser on Industrialisation to the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), recently unveiled ‘The Quest for Industrialisation: Pioneering Technology Innovation and Industrial Development in Africa’, a compilation of his selected scholarly works spanning decades of research and policy engagement.
In his remarks on one of the author’s earlier works included in the volume, Obasanjo said Oyelaran-Oyeyinka lays bare a narrative spanning several decades of our developmental history that is well-researched and supported with forcefully argued facts and figures.
He stressed that Nigeria’s development challenge is rooted in poor diversification away from oil and mineral resources, noting that the book reinforces the link between industrial development, economic growth and improved living standards.
Falola, University Distinguished Professor and Jacob and Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin, described Reversal of Fortune, one of the major works featured in the collection, as a model for African countries.
According to him, “The work proposes realistic leadership and institutional capacity-building measures while confronting the hard questions behind Africa’s stalled industrial progress.”
In the book’s preface, Oyeyinka recounts his intellectual journey from Chemical Engineering to development economics.
Trained at the Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly University of Ife) and later at the University of Toronto, he said his academic focus shifted after exposure to a lecture on technology transfer to developing countries.
“My appetite for engineering was totally replaced by a curiosity to understand better the forces that drive economic growth and why there is so much inequality in society,” he stated.
The turning point led him to the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, where he completed his doctoral research on technological change and industrialisation.
Over the years, Oyeyinka has held several high-level academic and policy roles globally, including at the African Development Bank, where he helped shape strategies for Africa’s structural transformation.
He described sustainable industrialisation as a non-negotiable development imperative.
The book argues that Africa’s slow development largely stems from weak industrial and technological capabilities.
Oyeyinka noted that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the continent’s vulnerability, pointing out that vaccine shortages highlights the consequences of limited domestic technological capacity.
He cited the technological dominance of global pharmaceutical firms such as Pfizer during the pandemic as evidence that sustained investment in science and innovation determines national resilience.
According to the scholar, “Africa’s long-standing dependence on crude oil and mineral exports is unsustainable.”
He described resource dependence without a strong technological base as a race to the bottom of the wealth hierarchy, citing Nigeria’s dramatic decline in global oil palm production as a symbol of missed industrial opportunities.
Oyeyinka maintained that genuine development requires structural transformation, from low-technology agriculture and commodity exports to manufacturing and high-value production—adding that strong leadership and institutions are essential to break the cycle of underdevelopment.
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