Adebayo Adedeji was Nigeria's Federal Commissioner for Economic Development and Reconstruction from 1971 to 1975. In June 1975, he was appointed Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and remained in this position until July 1991. He founded the African Centre for Development and Strategic Studies (ACDESS), a non-governmental independent continental non-profit, think-tank dedicated to multi-disciplinary and strategic studies on and for Africa. Adedeji was elected a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences in 1991.

Colin Baker was Principal of the Institute of Public Administration, University of Malawi and an acknowledged authority on the government and administration of Malawi. He was Deputy Director of the Insitute of Administration, University of Ife, Nigeria.