The second seminar at St.Mary’s University College was different from the previous evening because it was done without any fear by the authority. The Academic Vice President-Tedla Halle hosted Adedayo in his office and they had extensive discussions on issues bordering Africa especially why we remain poor. At 4.pm, they moved into the school hall with students and staffs in attendance.
The Head of Marketing Management, Mr.Mekedele handled the coordination and gave Adedayo the microphone to commence with the lecture. He introduced ATLAS, AGI, IPN, IMANI and the Smith Family Foundation as the forces behind the success of the outreach.
His lecture started with the history of African Market, the traditional sector, informal and the formal sector. Later, The Ideas for a free society CD was introduced and participants taken through the content and usage. The seminar ended at about 8.25pm with the distribution of books and CD.
Adedayo Thomas’ assessment of the country, based on interaction with the people and experience, was that they leave in fear and largely un-free. Government hands are on every sector of the economy increasing costs throughout.
“The live radio interview originally scheduled for me was cancelled after my view was made known on some issues such as liberalization and privatization of some sector of the economy prior to the interview date.
Historically, Ethiopia has a good heritage legacy and could be a very important place for tourist generating high revenues but a closed economy hinders most of these opportunities.”