Biography of Obadiah Mailafia
Majjidadin Ninzam Garkuwan Randa Dr. Obadiah
Mailafia (born 24 December 1956) is a Nigerian development economist,
international civil servant, central banker and statesman with over three
decades of professional experience in academia, finance and international
development. He is a former official of the African Development Bank Group and one-time
Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)[1].
He was also the Chief of Staff of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of
States (ACP)[2],
the 79-nation multilateral development institution based in Brussels, Belgium.
Obadiah Mailafia is a polymath with interests in macroeconomics, development
policy, military science, cosmology, political theory and the philosophy of mind;
a public intellectual widely regarded as one of the thought-leaders of the New
Africa.
Early Life and Education
Obadiah Mailafia
was born among the Aninzo (Ninzam)[3]
people at precisely 12.00 noon on 24 December 1956, in the hilly missionary
village of Randa in Sanga[4]
Local Government Area of Kaduna State. His father Baba Mailafia Gambo Galadima was
an evangelist with the Evangelical Reformed Church of Central Nigeria (ERCC)[5],
formerly known as the Sudan United Mission (S.U.M.). The S.U.M. was founded at
the beginning of the last century by the German protestant missionary and
pastor Dr. Karl Kumm[6],
in collaboration with the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa[7].
A sickly child,
his father was adopted and trained by the Dutch South African missionaries who
came to Randa as early as 1916. Obadiah Mailafia was raised as a missionary
child in a multiracial environment. His parents later transferred to Murya,
Lafia, in Nasarawa State, where he grew up. His paternal grandfather Mallam
Gambo Galadima was a British colonial police officer. His maternal grandfather
Mallam Anche Ogah Mukama was a self-taught influential community leader. Obadiah
Mailafia hails from a long line of chiefs on his paternal side.
Education
He had his
elementary education at Musha Sudan United Mission School from 1964-1969. He
skipped the last year of school and was admitted into Mada Hills Secondary
School[8], Akwanga,
a private missionary boarding institution, from 1970 to 1974. He was a keen
sportsman, debater and scholar; winning the Commissioner of Education’s Award
as the most outstanding pupil of the graduating class of 1974. For his A
‘Levels, he attended the School of Basic Studies (SBS) at Ahmadu Bello
University[9],
Zaria, (1974-1975), an institution created to prepare the most gifted pupils of
Northern Nigeria for university studies.
Mailafia
graduated top of his class at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 1978 with a
B.Sc. Honours Social Sciences degree (Politics, Economics and Sociology). He
also has a M.Sc. from the same institution. He subsequently won a French
Government Scholarship to France, where he earned a Certificate in French
Language and Civilisation from the University of Clermont-Ferrand in 1985.[10]
In 1986 he also earned the Diplôme (equivalent to
MPhil) in International Economics from the Institut
International d’Administration Public (IIAP)[11],
the international wing and sister institution of the prestigious École National d’Administration (ENA)[12] of France. The
two institutions have since been merged and re-located from Paris to
Strasbourg. The ENA has been the pre-eminent institution for the training of
France’s post-war leaders in government, industry and international affairs[13]. Mailafia
was thus influenced by the rigorous French tradition of public administration
as well as its critical philosophical mindset.
Obadiah Mailafia
later proceeded to the United Kingdom as a Foreign and Commonwealth Office
(FCO) Scholar at Oriel College, earning a DPhil from the University of Oxford
in 1995. At Oxford he came under the influence of economists Sir James Mirrlees[14], Amartya
Sen[15],
Robert Harvey Cassen[16],
Frances Stewart[17]
and Paul Collier[18].
He was also influenced by thinkers such as Sir Isaiah Berlin[19],
Leszek Kolakowski[20],
Lord Dahrendorf[21],
Sir Adam Roberts[22],
Gerald Alan Cohen[23]
and Gavin P. Williams[24].
Obadiah Mailafia -- What I Believe
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Career
Obadiah Mailafia began his career teaching Government and Economics at Akoko Anglican Grammar School, Arigidi-Ikare in Ondo State, Nigeria, during 1978-1979. It was part of his primary assignment during his obligatory national service year. He also provided extension services to rural farmers and helped in construction of a local community town hall. After national service he returned to his old alma mater, Ahmadu Bello University, as a Graduate Assistant in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences from 1980 to 1982. During this period he lectured undergraduates and was also Research Assistant to Professor Ibrahim Gambari, who later became Foreign Minister and subsequently United Nations Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs. He also worked on a survey of Technical Manpower Needs in Northern Nigeria, a project funded by the Federal Government of Nigeria and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
During the years
1982-1989 Obadiah Mailafia was a Fellow and sometime Acting Research Director
of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS)[25]. The
National Institute was at the time the most influential policy think tank in the
country; an institution committed to leadership and executive development and
for high-level reflections on public policy. Obadiah Mailafia led several
projects on behalf of government at both federal and state levels. In his early
twenties he initiated and received substantial funding for a project to develop
entrepreneurship among young unemployed projects. The success of the project
brought him national acclaim.
In addition, he coordinated an evaluation survey of the World Bank financed Agricultural Development Programmes and advised Plateau State Government on privatisation of government-owned agricultural enterprises. He was on the team that prepared a special report on Local Government Reforms during 1982-1983. He also co-authored a report on the Maitatsine[26] Religious Riots that formed the bedrock of the government’s response to the crisis (1984). In collaboration with Professors Adedotun Phillips and Eghosa Osagie, he prepared several technical papers advising the Nigerian government on economic policy and macroeconomic reforms. He served on a committee that advised the Federal Military Government on a peaceful approach to the Nigeria-Cameroon Bakassi Peninsula Dispute[27]. It helped in avoiding a catastrophic war between the two neighbouring countries. At the National Institute he came under the mentorship of illustrious Nigerians who have spurred his interests in public service: Chief Simeon Adebo[28], Pius Okigbo[29], Eme Awa, Olikoye Ransome-Kuti[30], Gidado Idris[31], Akinola Aguda[32], Moshood Kashimawo Abiola[33] and Claude Ake[34].
In addition, he coordinated an evaluation survey of the World Bank financed Agricultural Development Programmes and advised Plateau State Government on privatisation of government-owned agricultural enterprises. He was on the team that prepared a special report on Local Government Reforms during 1982-1983. He also co-authored a report on the Maitatsine[26] Religious Riots that formed the bedrock of the government’s response to the crisis (1984). In collaboration with Professors Adedotun Phillips and Eghosa Osagie, he prepared several technical papers advising the Nigerian government on economic policy and macroeconomic reforms. He served on a committee that advised the Federal Military Government on a peaceful approach to the Nigeria-Cameroon Bakassi Peninsula Dispute[27]. It helped in avoiding a catastrophic war between the two neighbouring countries. At the National Institute he came under the mentorship of illustrious Nigerians who have spurred his interests in public service: Chief Simeon Adebo[28], Pius Okigbo[29], Eme Awa, Olikoye Ransome-Kuti[30], Gidado Idris[31], Akinola Aguda[32], Moshood Kashimawo Abiola[33] and Claude Ake[34].
During 1990-1995 Obadiah
Mailafia was Resident Tutor and Lecturer in the Economics and Politics of
Developing Areas at Plater College[35], at
the time an associate college of the University of Oxford.
During 1995-1996 he was an Assistant Professor at New England College, Arundel[36], the foreign academic programme of New England College, Henniker, New Hampshire[37], USA. He was subsequently a Lecturer in International Finance at Richmond Business School, the American International University in London[38] (1997-1998). He was then headhunted as the pioneer Head of the International Business Department of Regents Business School London[39] (1998-2000).
During 1995-1996 he was an Assistant Professor at New England College, Arundel[36], the foreign academic programme of New England College, Henniker, New Hampshire[37], USA. He was subsequently a Lecturer in International Finance at Richmond Business School, the American International University in London[38] (1997-1998). He was then headhunted as the pioneer Head of the International Business Department of Regents Business School London[39] (1998-2000).
From 2001 to 2005 he Chief Economist in the Strategic
Planning and Budgeting Department of the African Development Bank Group[40]. He
served both in Abidjan and in Tunis when the bank was temporarily relocated to
Tunisia. In this capacity he was on several missions throughout
Africa to supervise projects in power and infrastructures, agriculture industry. He was also the task manager for coordinating grants to
research institutions throughout Africa, including such institutions as the
Council for Social Science Research (CODESRIA)[41],
African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)[42]
and the African Capacity Development Foundation (ACBF)[43].
Obadiah Mailafia drafted the Concept Note that was later adopted by the Board
of the AfDB, leading to the establishment of New Partnership for Africa’s
Development (NEPAD)[44].
He was also a Member of the AfDB and the United Nations Economic Commission of Africa (UNECA) Joint Committee that
provided technical support to the Steering Committee of the Heads of State and Government on the establishment of NEPAD and its Secretariat.
In addition to the above, Mailafia was Secretary to the Senior
Management Committee and Special
Negotiating Team for the Ninth Replenishment of the African Development Fund. He was also a member of the Task Force for the joint management of the HIPC
Trust Fund, in coordination with the World Bank and the IMF. Obadiah Mailafia was the principal draftsman of the 2003--2007
Strategic Plan, the first strategic plan ever prepared to guide the
activities and operations of the African Development Bank Group. He and his
term were the recipients of the President Mamoun Beheiry Award for Excellence,
in recognition of contributions to the strategic repositioning of the African
Development Bank. During those years he was also Managing Editor of the African Development Review – arguably the best-known academic journal on
development economics in Africa.
In addition, he was responsible for coordinating the Annual African
Development Reports, and, with the late Sudanese economist, Mohammed Hussein,
pioneered African Economic Outlook,[45]
which has become one of the flagship publications of the Bank Group, in
collaboration with the Paris-based OECD. That publication has become the premier macroeconomic forecasting
platform for the African continent.
During 2005 – 2007, Obadiah Mailafia was recalled
home from the African Development Bank to serve as Deputy Governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)[46].
In this capacity he served a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank and
was principally responsible for managing monetary policy, economic policy,
research and statistics and liaison with regional and international bodies,
including the IMF and the World Bank. He was a principal actor in the banking
consolidation exercise of 2005-2006 that led to the reform of the Nigerian
banking sector. He oversaw the reduction of the number of commercial banks, through mergers and acquisitions,
from 89 to 25 consolidated banks; an exercise
that was widely regarded as one of the most successful such efforts anywhere in the developing world in recent
times. He was also an active participant in the
negotiations that led to Nigeria negotiating its way out of the Paris Club
group of indebted nations.
In this capacity he was also a member of the Economic Management
Team, in which capacity he liaised with the Federal Ministry of Finance in coordinating monetary and fiscal policies of the
government. He was a member of the CBN Investment Committee responsible for managing external
reserves; prevailing on Government to engage in more prudent spending, thereby
building the reserves to an unprecedented US$ 60 billion. He also
spearheaded creation
of the new Monetary Policy Department and restructured the framework of
monetary policy that led to the stabilisation of the Naira stabilise while
significantly bringing down interest rates. He personally
chaired the newly established Monetary Policy
Implementation Committee that used to meet on a daily basis.
Obadiah Mailafia is widely respected as a reformer
who exercised effective leadership in driving the institutional reengineering of the CBN. His
strategic reforms in personnel, financial management control systems and IT
within the institution resulted in substantial cost savings and efficiency gains,
repositioning the Bank as a knowledge-based monetary authority. He was also Chair of the Committee that gave
birth to the New National Microfinance Policy and overseeing the implementation of the new policy and streamlining the regulatory and institutional
environment to enhance effectiveness of microfinance as vehicle for poverty
reduction. He also steered the new CBN Communications Committee that developed
a new communications framework for the Bank, enhancing the quality of public
communications and improving external media relations to ensure better
understanding by the public and various stakeholders of CBN’s activities and
operations. He was also briefly the Chair of the Committee
that prepared the framework for the establishment of the African Finance
Corporation (AFC)[47], a multilateral
investment vehicle to promote infrastructure development in Africa. For these
achievements the Princeton University programme on Innovations for Successful
Societies identified him as one of the great leaders of the emerging Africa.[48]
During 2010-2015, Obadiah Mailafia was the Chief of
Staff (Chef de Cabinet) to the 79-member nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States based in Brussels,
Belgium. In this capacity he was the most senior adviser to the Secretary-general,
overseeing the strategic management function; liaising with external partners
such as the EU Commission and Parliament, European Investment Bank (EIB)[49], UN
agencies and the IMF and World Bank. He was involved in managing a portfolio of €22
billion of EU funding for ACP countries under the 10th European
Development Fund (EDF)[50] and
€31.5 billion for the 11th EDF covering the years 2015-2020. His work took him all over Africa, the Caribbean and the far-flung
islands of the Pacific, where he canvassed for South-South cooperation,
preaching the ideals of multilateralism, peace and international cooperation as
the best hope for mankind.
Obadiah Mailafia was also the principal Liaison with the European Investment Bank (EIB) on the management of €5 billion Intra-ACP Resources Fund being managed by the EIB, comprising the
Africa Infrastructure Fund and the ACP-EIB Investment Facility. He was also the Chair of the ACP Strategic Management Group and the
draftsman for the Secretariat’s Strategic Plan, Renewal
and Transformation 2011—2014.
Education
1995 – DPhil Politics and Economics of
International Development, University of Oxford, UK
2014 – Certificate in Microfinance Banking, ILO
Institute, Turin, Italy
1986 – Diplôme in International Economics,
IIAP-École National d’Administration, France
1984 – Certificate in French Language & Civilisation,
University of Clermont-Ferrand, France
1983 – M.Sc. Political Science, Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria, Nigeria
1978 – B.Sc. Social Sciences, Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria, Nigeria
Honours and Special Assignments
- Member, Advisory Board of Economists,
Office of the Vice-President, Abuja
- Associate Fellow, UN University
Regional Studies Centre, Bruges, Belgium
- Visiting Professor, The Free University
of Brussels
- Board Member, National Council on
Competitiveness (NCCN), Lagos
- Non-Executive Director, NBL Plc, Lagos
- Board Member, International Energy-
IEI Anchor Pensions Capital Ltd
- Chairman, Juvicle Energy Resources
Ltd, Lagos
- Member, Oxford Rhodes Trust Selection
Committee for West Africa
- Nordic
Institute Visiting Fellowship to the Nordic African Institute, with
multiple accreditation to Norway, Finland and Denmark), 1990
- President
Mamoun Beheiry Award for Professional Excellence, African Development
Bank, Tunis, 2003
- CBN Staff
Award for Excellence in Leadership, 2005
- Expert to the Netherlands
Commission for International Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The
Hague, Netherlands, 2013
- MacArthur
Foundation Research Award 2008
- Foreign
& Commonwealth Office Scholar, Oriel College, University of Oxford
- Webb Medley
Research Grant, Faculty of Social Studies, University of Oxford
- Distinguished
Lecturer, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) Annual Distinguished
Lecture Series, 2016
- Special Speaker, National
Merit Annual Conference, National Merit Commission, Abuja, November 2016
- Special
Award for Excellence, West African Students’ Parliament, 2016
- Award for
Distinguished Service, National Economics Students Association (NESA),
University of Port Harcourt, 2017
- Grand Patron
(Garkuwan Matasan Arewa), Northern Youths Consultative Assembly, February
2017
- National
Patron, Nigerian Youths Parliament, Abuja, 2017
- Patron of the Boys Brigade,
Nasarawa State, Nigeria
Membership of Professional Bodies
- Royal Economic Society (UK)
- Nigerian Economic Society (Nigeria)
- American Economic Society (USA
- The Oxford Society, England (UK)
- Chartered Institute of Development
Administration (Nigeria)
- Global Association of Risk
Professionals (USA)
- Strategic Planning Society (UK)
- International Studies Association
(USA)
- Development Studies Association (UK)
- The Aristotelian Society (UK)
- Forum d’Échanges et des Rencontres
Administratifs Mondiaux (FERAM), Paris, France
Private Interests and Hobbies
Obadiah Mailafia has interests as wide apart as the
spirituality of the Apostolic Church Fathers[51];
classical European and Islamic political thought; philosophy of science;
investments and probability theory; Hindu religious philosophy; civilisation of
ancient Egypt; and medieval Chinese, Korean and Japanese cosmologies. He has
worked in charities as a student volunteer for Oxfam and as Founder/Chairman, Ninzam Educational and
Development Trust, providing scholarships to indigent university students. He has been a versatile newspaper columnist and media commentator on the
economy, finance, banking, public policy and international affairs. He was also the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Award[52].
He has been a columnist with leading newspapers such as Tribune, BusinessDay and The
Vanguard.
A voracious reader, Obadiah Mailafia is reputed to
own one of the largest private book collections in Nigeria. In his spare time
he enjoys classical music, African wild life conservation and taking long walks
in the primeval savannah of his birth. He speaks fluent French and has basic
knowledge of German, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic, in addition to his native
Ninzam (also spelt as Ninzo) and over a dozen African languages.
Political Career
Obadiah Mailafia is currently running for the
presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the 2019 presidential elections
under the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC)[53],
the third most popular political party in Nigeria. Mailafia was persuaded to
join politics after the famous historic “handshake” by the coalition of the
Middle Belt Forum (MBF)[54]
and the South (Afenifere[55]
of Yoruba land, Ohanaeze Ndigbo[56]
and PANDEF[57] of Niger Delta). During a
rigorous screening of a dozen prominent potential presidential hopefuls, he
emerged as the candidate with the best national leadership potential. He is
recognised as a renowned economic expert and technocrat who can be depended
upon to drive the next generation of economic reforms that will reposition
Nigeria as a prosperous democracy and a progressive country in the twenty-first
century. Obadiah Mailafia defines himself ideologically as a “social democrat”.
And he is a humanist-internationalist by instinct, a pan-Africanist by
persuasion and a heterodox pragmatist with regards to economic policy management.
He is a corresponding member of Socialist International.
Ideas and Philosophical Influences
Ideas and Philosophical Influences
In terms of economic philosophy, he is a heterodox
pragmatist. He believes that markets must form the foundation of economic
prosperity and that they also provide the guarantee of economic freedom. But he
is persuaded that institutions matter, in addition to property rights, respect
for the social contract, and economic fairness. Among the great economists, his
greatest influences have been the British economist John Maynard Keynes[58],
the social market economist Ludwig Erhard[59],
the Swedish Nobel laureate Gunnar Myrdal[60],
West Indian Nobel laureate William Arthur Lewis[61]
and the American laureates Joseph Stiglitz[62]
and Paul Krugman[63]. His ideas of social
justice have very much been influenced by the Harvard philosopher John Rawls[64]
and Barrack Obama’s[65]
former Harvard Law professor, Brazilian philosopher and jurist Roberto
Mangabeira Unger[66].
Obadiah Mailafia has also come under the influence
of the philosophical movement known as personalism
associated with thinkers such as catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain[67]
and the French philosopher Emmanuel Mounier[68].
He shares with former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair a fascination with the thought of the British philosopher
John Macmurray[69] who was an apostle of the
dignity of the human person. Mailafia believes that development in Africa must
accord a central role for the human person and that people and community must be placed
at the very heart of the development process and that expanding the possibility
frontiers of liberty and collective welfare is the prime duty of the statesman
and woman in twenty-first century Africa. Other influences include the Russian
émigré sociologist Pitrim Alexandrovich Sorokin[70],
American sociologist Amitai Etzioni[71]
and Israeli policy scientist Yehezkel Dror[72].
Above all, he considers the four most important
African influences in his political thought to be: Kwame Nkrumah[73]
of Ghana; Obafemi Awolowo[74],
the renowned Nigerian statesman, economist and lawyer; Nelson Mandela[75];
and Julius Nyerere[76]
of Tanzania. Much as he would not subscribe to some of his domestic policies
and least of all the heresy of his divinity, Obadiah Mailafia reveres the memory
of Negus Tsion Girmawi Janhoy Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia [77]
as a champion of African unity and a crusader for the honour and dignity of
Africans throughout the world.
Obadiah Mailafia was nicknamed “the Philosopher”
during his secondary school days. This was because his mates noted that he was always
reading one philosophical book or the other as a schoolboy. His teenage idol
was not Michael Jackson or John Lennon but the old British philosopher and
mathematician Bertrand Russell[78].
He wrestled with Russell’s and Whitehead’s Principia
Mathematica whilst an A’ Level student in Zaria. He even fancied himself an
atheist at some stage, but was soon cured of the disease. He dabbled
temporarily with Marxism but gave it up after reading the novels of Russian
émigré Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn[79].
At university in Zaria, he was drawn increasingly
towards pan-Africanism after studying the life and thought of Marcus Garvey[80]
and the Senegalese polymath Cheikh Anta Diop[81].
During a long summer from college, he buried himself in the American consulate
library in Kaduna where he read nearly all that was available on Martin Luther
King Jr[82],
Malcolm X[83], W. E. B. Du Bois[84],
the Soledad Brothers and George Jackson[85],
and the entire civil rights movement in America. He is an active believer in nonviolent social
change, thanks to being steeped in the thought of Mahatma Gandhi[86]
and Martin Luther King Jr.
Obadiah Mailafia has keen interests in Islamic metaphysics and
classical Islamic political philosophy (Ibn Khaldun[87], Ibn
Sina (Avicenna)[88],
Al-Farabi[89],
Jallaludin Rumi[90]
and Al-Ghazali). He has been deeply influenced by modern Islamic philosophers
such as Mohammed Iqbal[91] and Ali
Shariati[92]. As a
child, his grandfather sent him to Quranic school where he learned the basics
of Islamic prayers and memorised large chunks of the Holy Qur’an which he still
remembers by heart to this day.
He has also drunk
deep from the springs of Jewish spirituality, among them Elie Wiesel[93], Rabbi
Adin Steinsaltz[94],
the Baal Shem Tov Israel ben Eliezer[95], Moses Maimonides[96],
Gerschon Scholem[97]
and Emmanuel Levinas[98].
Mailafia believes that there is a spiritual kinship between Africans and Jews
that few have really bothered to delve into. He subscribes to the Jewish ideal
of Vivek Olam – the ideal that
Humanity must partner with Creator to perfect this world. He
is venerates Jewish teachers such as Martin Buber[99],
Lubavichter Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson[100] and
the Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri[101]. He
envisions a world in which Jews will bring their saviour-faire and chutzpah to
bear on African development while partnering together for mutual
prosperity and progress.
Obadiah Mailafia is
a strong believer in the dialogue of civilisations. He believes that Jews, Muslims
and Christians are all children of Abraham and can work together in building a
new global Enlightenment. Even though he is a
committed evangelical Christian, Obadiah Mailafia has actively supported Muslim
causes. He once delivered a lecture on Islamic Banking to an all-Muslim
audience in the Central Mosque of Nigeria’s federal capital of Abuja. While a
lecturer in International Finance at Richmond Business School London, he
developed a programme on Islamic Banking and supervised the first ever thesis
on non-interest bearing finance. Whilst an official of the African Development
Bank he also served as liaison officer between the AfDB and the Islamic
Development Bank based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Some of his ideas and concepts
were deployed in the creation of the pioneer Jaiz Bank[102],
which is one of the leading non-interest banking institutions in Africa today.
In recent years, Mailafia has been active in the
Middle Belt Forum (MBF), a cultural organisation that aims to promote unity
among the multifarious ethnic communities in the Old Northern Nigeria. He has
written in newspapers and spoken in radio and TV condemning the killings of
innocent women and children in the Middle Belt and the tacit connivance of
government agents in what is increasingly looking like an organised genocide
against and unarmed and defenceless people.
Obadiah Mailafia is a Bible-believing Christian who
has been deeply influenced by the late American evangelist Billy Graham[103],
the philosopher Francis Schaeffer[104],
Emmanuel Mounier[105]
and German theologian and Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer[106].
He has also come under the influence of one of Richard Swinburne, who was Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of
Religion at his alma mater Oriel College[107] Oxford. Mailafia believes in ecumenism – in the unity of the body of Christ – in
interreligious dialogue as a vehicle for promoting international understanding.
Although born into the evangelical tradition, he has been deeply influenced by the
early Pentecostalism associated with the African-American holy man William
Seymour[108] and the Azusa Street
Revival[109] that spread like a
wildfire from the American West Coast to the whole world.
He is also increasingly drawn towards Eastern
Orthodoxy and its ideals of theosis; St.
Seraphim of Sarov[110],
Elder Paisios[111] and the contemporary monks
of Mt. Athos[112]. Obadiah Mailafia
believes that marriage is one of the holy sacraments of the Church of Jesus
Christ; a sacred and indissoluble union between a man and a woman joined
together in holy matrimony.
Private Life
Obadiah Mailafia is married to Margaret Vou
Mailafia (née Fom), a systems analyst, entrepreneur and evangelist. They are
blessed with adult sons.
Selected Publications
1) Mailafia, O. Europe and Economic Reform in
Africa: Structural Adjustment and Economic Diplomacy (400-page textbook), New
York and London: Routledge, 1997;
2) U. I. Ukwu & Obadiah Mailafia, Local
Government and Local Development in Nigeria, National Institute Press, 1983.
3) Mailafia, O. ”The Social Character of
Nigerian Diplomats,” in Sunny G. Tyoden (ed.), Essays on Nigerian Foreign
Policy, National Institute Press, 2007.
4) Mailafia, O. (ed.) Challenges and
Opportunities in the Nigerian Economy (edited), NIPSS Press, 1989.
5) Mailafia, O. & Timothy Gyuse, Conflict
and Religious Co-Existence in Nigeria, National Institute Press, 1984.
6) Mailafia, O. “Human Rights and Global
Distributive Justice”, Anikpo & G. Shepherd (ed.) Emerging Human Rights:
African Political Economy Context, New York: Greenwood 1990.
7) Mailafia, Obadiah (Coordinator and Main
Editor), The Challenge of Globalization and Africa’s Development: African
Development Report 2004, Oxford University Press/African Development Bank,
2004.
8) Mailafia, Obadiah (Coordinator and Main Editor),
Africa in the Global Trading System: African Development Report 2004, Oxford
University Press/African Development Bank, 2004.
9) Mailafia, Obadiah (Coordinator), African
Development Report, Good Governance and Public Sector Management in Africa,
Oxford University Press/African Development Bank, 2005.
10)
Mailafia, O., Capital
Markets Liberalisation in Developing Economies: Theories and Evidence, Text of
paper delivered at the CBN Senior Executive Seminar held in Calabar, February
2007.
11)
Mailafia, O., “Economic Reform in Nigeria: Lessons
from the Asia Pacific,” in Paul Collier and C. Soludo (eds.), Economic Reform
and Policy Choice in Nigeria, Oxford University Press (forthcoming).
12)
Mailafia, Obadiah, “Monetary Policy and Financial
Sector Reforms: The Experience of the Central Bank of Nigeria’, forthcoming
paper prepared for presentation at a seminar at King’s College, University of
Cambridge, Cambridge, England (September 2007).
13)
Mailafia, O. “Explaining the Global Financial
Crisis: Some Considerations Relating to Africa”; Text of a paper presented at
the high-level consultation meeting, African Capacity Building Foundation,
Laico Hotel, Libreville, Gabon, December 2008.
14)
Mailafia, O., The G20 London Summit: A View From Nigeria; Being Text of a Memorandum
prepared under the auspices of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) International
Relations Project, to be published in Germany’s leading national newspaper, Die Zeit, April 2009.
15)
Mailafia, O.
“Industrial Policy in Nigeria: Report Submitted to the International Group on
Industrial Policy in Middle and Low-Income Countries, Sponsored by the German
Ministry for Development Cooperation, Bonn, Germany, German Institute for
Development, December 2009.
16)
Mailafia, O. “Ethics, Governance and Public
Administration,” Being Text of a Lecture at the Regional Conference of the
Commonwealth Association for Public Administration, Abuja, May 2010.
17)
Mailafia, O. “The Prospects for Democracy in
Central and West Africa, “Paper Prepared for the Commonwealth Foundation,
London, June, 2010.
18)
Mailafia,
O., Europe Seen from Africa, book chapter contribution in Stefan Schepers &
Andrew Kakabadze (eds.), Rethinking the Future of Europe: A Challenge of
Governance, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
19)
Mailafia, O., Fighting Corruption and Growing a
Sustainable Nigerian Economy, Being Text of Federal Corporation of Nigeria
(FRCN) Annual October Lecture, Abuja, Thursday 27 October 2016.
Endnotes
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninzo_language.
See also https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/13406/NI.
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelical_Reformed_Church_of_Christ.
On the history of the Sudan United Mission (S. U. M.) see https://www.pioneers-uk.org/discover/our-history/.
[6] http://www.bu.edu/missiology/missionary-biography/i-k/kumm-hermann-karl-wilhelm-1874-1930-and-lucy-evangeline-guinness-1865-1906/.
[10] The University of Clermont-Ferrand was
eventually split into two institutions after a 1987 Decree as Plaise Pascale
University and University of Auvergene. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal_University,
and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Auvergne.
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_nationale_d%27administration. See also https://www.ena.fr/.
[13] ENA alumni
include: Valéry Giscard
d’Estaing, Jacques Chirac, François
Hollande, Emmanuel Macron, Édouard
Balladur, Michel Rocard, Lionel Jospin, Laurent Fabius, Alain Juppé, Édouard Philippe, Jacques Attali,
Pascal Lamy, Jacques de la Rossière and Michel Camdessus.
[26] https://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/faq/maitatsine-riots.
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitatsine.
[50] https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/funding/funding-instruments-programming/funding-instruments/european-development-fund_en.
[59] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Erhard.
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