Dynamism, in the context of this article is taken as the phenomenon of continuous change, activity, and progress. Several concepts have been proposed for the academic understanding of dynamism, and the lack of generalization has hindered research on the subject.
Soyinka believes the African world-view is not stagnant; that there is in it, a continuing evolution of tribal wisdom through an acceptance of the elastic nature of knowledge as its one reality guarantees the continuity of the species. This, according to the Nobel laureate, can be termed “the metaphysics of the irreducible: knowledge of birth and death as the human cycle. As put by Orzu Orluwenee of the Port Harcourt University, Development, first and foremost, is a phenomenon associated with changes in man’s humanity and creative energies, not in things. Orzu writes that development implies increasing skill and capacity to do things, greater freedom, and responsibility and material well-being. Development, he asserts, is seen as a social and dynamic process the goal of which is change. This development, whether in humans, or in things, occurs in the view of Teleology, because of the design or purpose they serve.
Although the tendency to change has been construed mark of inconsistency, more readily as hinting weakness in a man’s character, Samuel Ladoke Akintola, a politician who would within a decade change his own political affiliation had in 1952 said in the Western House of Assembly in defense of Akinloye who was accused of changing; “If changing of political party is, as alleged, then, all persuasive discussions are futile.” Awolowo believes a mature moral consideration must precede changeability, quoting a wise man, in a statement made in sequel to Akintola’s January 1 sitting that “inconsistency is the bugbear of small minds”.
