Remarks by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed at his investiture as Chancellor of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State and award of D. SC (Honoris Causa) in Management Sciences, Nigeria. 11th Special Convocation Ceremony. April 15, 2014

 

PROTOCOL

 

With great humility I accept this Investiture as the new Chancellor of this progressive institution, LadokeAkintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State.

 

I thank all of you here, the people of Osun and Oyo States, in fact the people of Nigeria for the constant support extended to me in my public and private life. Your kind decency compels me to rededicate myself to the progress and reform needed to reshape Nigeria into the country we desire.

 

Today, this nation stands at the threshold between greatness and failure. It loiters in the hallway between progress and collapse, darkness and light. As if blindfolded, we seem unable to decide the way to go. We must summon the courage to see what is before us that we may take the right direction.

 

2.We look to Institutions such as this  to provide workable solutions to our problems and to nurture individuals with the vision and character to improve our national life.

 

My late mother was very fond of LAUTECH because of its storied excellence. For many years, this institution was one of the top, if not the number one, institution of its type. As a dutiful son, I carry the fondness of my mother  for this fine school.

 

Today, we vow to return LAUTECH to its best self. We can make it better  because we have a great team committed to this goal. We shall write a new chapter by elevating this school to where its name is mentioned anytime technological education is discussed.

 

3. Naysayers will scoff that this pledge is made of the fluff one talks when invested as Chancellor. But, I have not come this far by speaking empty words. I have no intention of assuming that habit at this stage in my life.

 

Governor of the State of OsunOgbeniRaufAregbesola and Governor of Oyo Senator AbiolaAjimobi who support this school are more than partners. They are brothers who govern their states in excellent ways. The progress they have applied to other areas, shall become manifest on this campus.

 

4. Vice Chancellor, Professor AdeniyiGbadegesin is an unsung hero whose name I sing today. Your academic staff is an accomplished group of scholars. The administrative staff is hardworking and COULD work harder.

 

5. Most importantly, this student body is populated by many of the brightest young people one can find. I shout out to them, “Great LAUTECH STUDENTS”. “ALUTA”. The best of you must be meritoriously rewarded and be immediately employable as you are armed with the capacity to excel.

 

6.  As Chancellor, I shall do my best for this school. I dare not do less because I follow in the footsteps of men who never saw failure as an option.  This school has benefited from the exalted service of the three Chancellors  before me. These men were some of  Nigeria’s best.

 

The Chancellor who preceded me was the illustrious MKO Abiola. I need say no more than this man was the president Nigeria elected in the fairest election ever held.  Had he been allowed to govern, the nation would be a better place.  We march to fulfill his incomplete dream that the people may stand to lift their collective voice in calling forth a government of freedom, prosperity, dignity and justice. Yet, like MKO, we must be mindful of the strong forces that benefit from the way things are.

 

7. This conservative elite still dominate the political landscape.  While we strive for a progressive era of development, democracy and human respect, this conservative network seeks to relegate you to the status of modern serfs living ramshackle lives, so desperate for a hand-out that you actually thank them when they deign to give you back a small fraction of what they have stolen from you.

 

8. They soak their feet in milk and champagne while the people struggle to find clean water to soak garri. Even brave Robin Hood would run from Nigeria because it operates on principles reverse to those endearing the mythic hero to our imagination.  Our system steals from the poor to give to the rich. What is vice and condemned elsewhere is virtue and commended here. This is Nigeria today. But it can’t stand as the Nigeria of tomorrow. Change must come, we are ready and strongly determined to break the shackles of poverty and ignorance.

 

 

9. Those now in government take false solace in believing Nigeria is a land of carefree people who can eke out a living no matter how badly governed we might be. Yet, whatever happiness we have is not born of our reality but of a faith that the better day will come.

Even strong faith begins to wilt under the tide of awful misfortune brought by misrule. A hungry man can dine on faith but for so long. At some point, harsh reality will make him choke on it.

 

 

The people are asked to suffer while those in Abuja revel as if mimicking Rome at the collapse of that ancient empire.  While Abuja fiddles, the people are saddened with despair. Their despair is greatest in two vital areas: national security and economic security.

 

THE GRAVEST THREAT

 

10. In Boko Haram, we face our gravest internal security challenge since the Civil War nearly tore the nation asunder. Too much of the North and, indeed, Nigeria live in fear. Too many have already died in fear. This group has depressed the regional economy and spawned other lawlessness affecting the wellbeing of the people. Boko Haram has also intensified religious and regional tensions better left dormant. It has made the government look incapable of holding its brief.

The deadly attack earlier this month in Nyanyan and the abduction of female students in Borno demonstrate our assailants have grown more brazen. Their mayhem has not abated. The tempo and consistency of attacks suggest that this government’s approach is not only tepid but wrong-minded.

 

11. We have reached a point where uncertain policy and half measures do not suffice. These terrorists have declared war not only against government but against the whole of us.

The Jonathan administration must develop a grand strategy to bind this menace.

As the most populous nation in West Africa, Nigeria has the standing to call a regional summit whereby Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger will deliberate on joint intelligence sharing, joint police and military action and also socio-economic reform to eliminate this threat.

Nigeria must also move the AU Summit to jointly and decisively eliminate all sources of insurgency and eradicate all terrorist made havens and sanctuaries within the African union.

Even more than the tragedy in Nyanyan, the wholesale abduction of the female students  reveals that our intelligence agencies need to spurred forward.  Such a vast operation should not have been able to occur without our intelligence services getting even a hint that a massive kidnapping was underway.  We need to do much better at this aspect.

 

12. Perhaps more importantly, government must do better to win the hearts and minds of the people in these areas. Once the people are convinced that government is on their side, they will turn their backs on Boko Haram. The opposition of the people will be what defeats Boko Haram in the end. Government must put in place, immediate and meaningful relief for all persons whose property and livelihood has been affected by this menace. This relief is required to assist citizens to restart their lives while the government makes effort to ensure that the menace is permanently removed. Here, government must ply the road of economic reform and development assistance to these areas. The youth must be given a chance to live and not be left with the desperate belief that they live merely by chance.  Give youth decent jobs and Boko Haram shall find itself unemployed.  Without young men to serve as their foot soldiers, the group’s masterminds will have no one to perform their dirty work. They will be exposed for what they are – purveyors of hatred who prey on the ignorance and desperation of the poor, hungry and hopeless.

 

13. In due season, they shall be made to pay for what they have done.  As for me and my party, we abhor them and their violent ways. We have no part with them and they have no part with us. Although we are in intense political competition with the ruling party, our competition stays within the confines of electoral competition. We seek your vote, not your lives. Boko Haram is our enemy for the Nigeria we seek has no place for their wicked recreation.

On this issue, so vital to our national existence, we wish the government complete success as we believe patriotism stands above partisanship.  We offer cooperation to the government. Whatever we can do that is meaningful and productive in ending this scourge we are ready to enlist our services to strike peace in Nigeria and among her sons and daughters. Patriotism is about country not about self or religious bigotry. On this issue all Nigerians must stand bi-partisan, united and in complete solidarity against the threat to our nation.

 

ECONOMY AND UNEMPLOYMENT

 

14. The government recently rebased its GDP figures so that Nigeria has magically leaped over South Africa to become the largest economy in Africa. Too bad the magical statistics do not translate into a magical improvement in the people’s economic condition. While the nation’s GDP grew, the people’s wellbeing tumbles. Our national economy manufactures more hardship than it does jobs. Poverty and unemployment are daily companions for millions. Government says everything is sweet perfume and roses.  If this is sweet, I would rather the sour.

 

 

The recent rebasing putting Nigeria ahead of South Africa has raised more doubts about the objectives of those in charge of economy. From a modest $305 billion, Nigeria’s GDP ballooned to  $488billion. Yet, the people feel no happy effect of this expansion. There is no extra food on the table, no light in the house, and no power for our industries,  and no pensions for the elderly. Things remain tight and getting tighter.

The official unemployment rate nears 25 per cent. The true rate, when joined with underemployment, may be twice that amount. Most graduates from our tertiary institutions will not be greeted by job offers once they leave campus, but by an indefinite period of joblessness. National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), revealed that 54 per cent of Nigerian youths were unemployed in 2012 and still growing.

Unemployment is a symptom of a greater disease – the architects of our economy have not cared enough to develop an economy where labor is valued and situated as the primary cog of the economy. Nigeria needs fundamental restructuring economically, not the small-minded patchwork tinkering resorted to.

 

15. The GDP Mathematics is an offensive sideshow, given the real hardships Nigerians face. This is another variant of the Vision 2020 gimmick and to make the government look good prior to the world economic forum meeting in Abuja next month. It is propaganda not progress. Since the nation was not going to attain that goal by true economic growth, government decided to reach the mark with the stroke of a pen. As they play funny math with elections, they now do with our economic condition. In both cases, the people are cheated.

 

16. No populous nation ever reached prosperity without a vibrant manufacturing sector.  This sector is the mainstay of urban employment. Thus, the more we move toward urbanisation, the more vital manufacturing becomes. However, our manufacturing sector shrinks under the policies of the current government.

 

 

17. Billions have been spent on power, and we are still spending, but the Power Holding Company of Nigeria and its successors remain powerless and unable to light the night and energize the industries. The people grope in darkness.

 

Our infrastructure remains outmoded. It was established for a small nation not a large, productive one. If not for progressive state governors, road construction in Nigeria would be minimal. Too many federal roads remain avenues of nightmares, fear and death. Driving these roads is tantamount and as dangerous as going to war. Regarding social services, the best health care in Nigeria is still a plane ticket abroad.  For the rest of the people, government does not care.

 

18. The most troubling aspect of the current state of the union is that we lack inspirational national leadership.  The people have lost faith that this government is capable of solving the problems affecting them.

The ruling party caused this.  Most of its politicians are not interested in progress; they live to maintain power. This is not as it should be.  To turn the nation from its sad present to a happier future, the people must turn to a truly progressive approach to governance and restructuring our political economy.

A progressive government will have as one of its top priorities the lifting of 20 per cent of Nigerians out of poverty within the first four years of our administration. To happen, the federal government must be a catalyst for job creation and economic development that touches all the people. We shall do this by implementing a national industrial policy that includes as its primary sub-components a national infrastructural plan and a national employment strategy.

 

 

Conclusion

19.Here, I must say a few words about corruption. The current government is engaged in a curious war against corruption. It seeks to defeat corruption by allowing it. It seeks to end corruption by wedding it. And you know what they say about marriage – two have become one. Well, this administration and corruption are betrothed one and the same.

 

This present government is nose-deep in official sleaze. The figures do not add up either from NNPC or from the Customs or the Finance Ministry.  The national treasury is a hemorrhaging sieve despite shrill explanations and protestations of financial rectitude. Our financial predicament will worsen until we demand answers to the mind boggling, unprecedented official corruption in the oil sector in particular. Can this government step forward and tell Nigerians why $20 billion in oil revenue remains unaccounted? What have become of the Kerosene Subsidy scandal and the nearly one trillion Naira that disappeared?  Sure-P was surely spent but was it spent well? For instance, the N253.5 billion allegedly used on projects by the Federal government  has hardly generated appreciable employment.

 

20. Because of their love of power, I fear this government will not allow free and fair elections in 2015. If the balloting during last year’s vote on the chairmanship of the Nigerian Governor’s Forum is indicative, then coming elections will be ones where numbers and maths are immaterial. Already the pattern of abuse and malpractice has been set in Anambra. Without reform, elections may likely be ones where those the people reject will be proclaimed the people’s choice.  Such malpractice will place the nation in dangerous straits.

To avoid this calamity, we need sweeping electoral reform. Foremost, we need a fully bio-metric voters verification and validation of registration system. Our current system encourages multiple voting and not verifiable one man one vote. As such, it is a veritable invitation card to massive fraud and malpractice. This can be fixed by Biometric Voter verification. To adopt it invites fair elections and guarantees democracy. Not to introduce it, invites rigging and loss of democratic legitimacy.

 

21. Finally, we live in a land that is ours but ruled by a government that does not belong to us, ruled by a government that loves itself but dislikes its people. This house called Nigeria is inviting and well-stocked with resources and potential riches. However, our current situation is like living in a fine mansion; the trained, tame guard  that should be our  protector has been replaced by a ravening wolf seeking to maul and mangle us. This situation can’t give rise to the national greatness. It can only produce hardship, wound, injustice and misery.

 

22. We need to do one important thing, which is to get rid of the wolf that has taken our home. It is only after we get rid of the wolf that we can promote an environment that establishes new refineries, increases our industrial capacity, reduces our reliance on importation, properly incentivizes agriculture and Agro allied businesses. We shall concentrate on the influences employment of our citizens, ensure we increase the disposable income of the average Nigerian as thereby increase our capacity to consume goods and services whilst ensuring those goods and services are Made In Nigeria. We need not change homes because this home is a good one. We need to get rid of the wolf. Let’s dedicate ourselves to kicking the wolf from our doorstep that we may live in democratic governance, economic development, broad prosperity, justice, equality, moral purpose and human dignity.

 

At that point, the state of the nation can be a state in which we are all proud and in which we all live as free and equal people. The fate of this country will be destroyed by the lies and emotions of religious bigots. Only the courage, capacity and intelligent governance of thinkers and doers can decide and improve our chances to succeed as a ration. This chance is now in our hands, let’s do it by slowing the worries out. Enough of this government, lets embrace good governance.

 

 

 

Thank you for listening.

 

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu