BEING A SPEECH BY THE REV DAVID UGOLOR ON THE OCASSION OF HIS INAUGURAL LECTURE SERIES AT THE CONSTANTIAL HOTEL, BENIN CITY EDO STATE NIGERIA, 5TH FEBRUARY, 2018
Protocol
[dropcap]Y[/dropcap]our Excellency, the Deputy Governor of Edo State, Rt. Hon. (Comrade) Philip Shaibu,The Secretary to the Edo State Government, Barr. Osarodion Ogie
The Chief of Staff to the Edo State Governor,
Honourable Commissioners here present,
Honourable members of the Edo State House of Assembly,
Our Royal Fathers, the Ovie of Oghara and Enogie here present
Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Our respected Chairman of today’s public Lecture and Former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Dr. Osagie Obayuwana
Members of the Academia,
Leaders and members of Civil Society Organisations here present,
Our Media Friends
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
First, I’d like to welcome you to our inaugural lecture series which is an offshoot of a series of activities marking my 48-year birthday.
Prior to this occasion, we have had the honour and privilege of hosting colleagues and friends to a get-together over the weekend which culminated in a thanksgiving service yesterday to express gratitude to God for his grace and mercies, and for the gift of life all through these years.
There have been bitter and sweet moments but it has been by the grace of God that we have surmounted the bitter moments and managed to translate them into opportunities for breakthroughs and uplift.
There are three questions I suspect must be running through your minds. One is: why the choice of a 48th year celebration instead of waiting till I clock the big 50 and celebrate?
The other question would be why choose a topic as using innovation as a panacea to address the shrinking public space in Nigeria? What is the idea of using a public lecture to discuss these issues?
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, the issues which confront us as a nation today are numerous, complex and inter-woven. Viewed in some sense, they represent an amalgam of several centrifugal and centripetal forces.
These forces are already playing out at all levels of our national life as a nation and as a people and we need to seek solutions to addressing them.
In Nigeria today, certain things which should move from the centre of our collective existence and which should be put at the disposal of all Nigerians are not moving the way they should.
We need to change the way we do things. As Nigerians, in government and out of government, we need to put on our thinking caps and come up with new ways of providing solutions to our well known problems.
We need to innovate to take Nigeria to the next level of development. That is where the idea of this annual public lecture comes from. I believe that numerical considerations such as age and turning 50 should not be a factor in trying to tackle head on the seriousness of the issues bedeviling us today as a nation.
In the next two years before I turn 50, events leading to a determination of the political leadership of this country are already taking place. So why should anyone wait to be of a certain age to engage and interrogate the system?
I submit therefore distinguished ladies and gentlemen that the time is indeed ripe for us all – young and old, rich and poor, Christian, Muslim and other adherents to come together and hold governance to account, speak truth to power and actively participate in discussions which would introduce far-reaching changes in our lives.
And talking about far-reaching changes Nigeria, I believe as well Ladies and gentlemen that the needed changes cannot be made usually. When the Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo visited Edo State in his capacity as Acting President last year in a town hall meeting, I told him that posterity will be kind to our generation only if we do things differently.
By differently, I mean that we must be ready to think out of the box. We must be ready to disrupt the system and set in motion a new kind of thinking and evolve newer ways of doing things.
For example, my German friend here Edert Valborg of Bread for the World would confirm a saying in Germany which says that ‘Africans generally have the time but the rest of the world has the clock.’
That statement lets us come to terms that innovation is the new frontier. In a world already moving in the direction of renewable energy resources, Nigeria no longer needs to rely on oil as the mainstay of her economy.
In this new world already running on ideas, data has become king, there is a tilt towards artificial intelligence, AI, and Nigeria has no reason to remain behind in a constricted space.
I urge us all to use this occasion to reflect on the challenges and prospects which Nigeria is currently facing.
Once again, I welcome you all to this inaugural Public Lecture and Thank you for listening.
Rev. David Ugolor is the Executive Director of Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ).
