It is appropriate that I step forward to receive this degree because that is exactly what Njala University and what Sierra Leone have done. You have stepped forward. From the ash and dust of war, you have stepped forward. A small nation engulfed by such a big war. You persevered, defying the odds and resurrecting and steering yourselves toward hope and peace. As a nation, you have stepped forward. You, as individuals, have stepped forward.
After seeing what you have done in facing down the steep odds and overcoming the harsh challenge of war, what more could I do but join you by stepping forward to accept this degree.
As such, our roles today should be reversed. You called me forth to honor me. I accepted your invitation but came here not for the purpose you think. I came here not to receive an honor but, in my own humble way, that I may honor what you have done and what you symbolize to the West African sub-region.
Sierra Leone, no nation, no people ought to have suffered as you have. You teetered on the brink of extinction. You came as close as any nation would dare to the gates of Hell. Yet with some help from your friends, you averted disaster when disaster seemed inevitable and permanent. You held fast to a thin ray
of hope until it grew to fill the sky above the nation. Where there was nothing but breakage and destruction now is learning and the building of new buildings, new lives and new dreams.
A new nation has risen from the old. Yes, scars and wounds from the battle are there but the spirit is a different one. It directs us toward a better future and away from the bleak past. The worst has passed. The best is yet to come. This is lesson you teach the rest of West Africa. Social tranquillity and peace are precious things not to be taken for granted. Take them for granted and they just may be taken from you by virtue of your own negligence.
We ignore these lessons at our peril. Leadership and those in government are the mind of a nation. Women
constitute the heart of the nation and men the backbone. But it is the youth who are the muscle, limbs and hands of a country. Leave the youth idle, leave the youth hopeless, leave them destitute, then you leave a nation at the mercy of a merciless fate. For its muscles, limbs and hands will atrophy or begin to work against it.
No nation can attain stability, let alone greatness, unless it provides productive work and opportunity to its young. If not, the young will be led astray and with them shall go not only the future but the present. This is why I am so committed to youth education and employment. As a leader, I would be guilty of gross dereliction of duty if I did not place a high priority on the learning and labor of our youth. To cast you to the winds of unguided fate is to cast a ticking bomb toward the rest of the nation. Njala University with her student population is an inspiration. Founded in 1964 and fifty years hence, it remains a fountain of knowledge.
Through its six established schools; School of Education, Community Health Services, Social Sciences, Agriculture, Environmental Sciences and School of Technology, Njala University continues to dispense knowledge and equip present and future leaders. And just like, the country Sierra Leone, it weathered the storms of war, absolved the carnage and deadly mortar of battle to hold forth the torch of education.
What I see here encourages me. What I see beginning to evolve in this great country under the competent leadership of Ernest Bai Koroma. His commitment to change and good governance excites me. Old ways
crumble. Old things pass away. Something new approaches. Oh yes, the best is yet to come.
In Nigeria, a unique political movement is afoot and gains traction. Joining other progressive leaders, I recently helped establish the All Progressives Congress (APC). This is more than a political party or organization. It is a mission, a calling forth of the nation to realize its better self.
We realized that if Nigeria continues as is, it would soon collide into the barrier of its internal contradictions. A land of vast wealth, yet vast penury. A people of great talent and energy but also of despair and unproductivity born of their jobless poverty. A land that exports the raw material that helps fuel, electrify and
lubricates the global economy but one that lives more in darkness than in light.
We formed the APC so Nigerians from all walks of life and social station might gather under one tent to develop the nation on the basis of equity and shared prosperity. What we seek is a fair social compact
sp that we may avoid social calamity.
A core element of our mission is to make all levels of education, from primary to university level, accessible to all people, regardless of economic circumstance. To survive in the modern economy, education is
a must. As such, responsible leadership must view education as a public right and no longer a luxury to be enjoyed only by those with the money to purchase it for themselves. Government must help financially those who can't help themselves in this essential regard.
For example, we advocate a liberal student aid and loan program so that able but poor students are not denied their dream of a university education. Under our program, young people will also receive technical
and vocational training for jobs and opportunities that actually exist in the economy instead of just receiving classroom instruction for things that only exist in the textbook.
Moreover, we seek a jobs program whereby government works in tandem with the private sector to provide meaningful work experience, mentoring as well as temporary and permanent employment for various
classes of youths. We aim not to train and educate young people into joblessness and despair but to help them realize their finest aspirations by becoming able, productive members of society who can fend for themselves and earn livelihoods allowing them to establish families and homes of their own.
We have this dream, we move toward this goal. I tell you the best is yet to come. Moreover, we seek this improvement not just for Nigeria but for the entire sub-region.
As the most populous nation and largest economy in the sub-region, Nigeria has the singular responsibility to generate economic activity that not only sparks growth internally but also catalyzes development in the sub-region.
West African economies still too closely adhere to colonial patterns of trade and commerce. Our economies interact with the outside world more so than they do with themselves. We must end this. An economy
with poor trade with its neighbor is a poor economy. Maintaining these patterns of trade means our economies stay mired in the lower rungs of the global division of labor. We export raw material on the cheap and import manufactured goods at dear costs.
The industrialization of the sub-region and vast number jobs such activity would unleash remain a dream deferred and prosperity delayed. It is high time we did for ourselves what other parts of the world have done to help themselves.
We are committed to promoting sub-regional industrialization and manufacturing that will bring new jobs to our increasingly urbanized populations. We espouse reform that enhances the quality and quantity of internal trade among West African states so that we may become our brothers'keeper, thus guaranteeing each other a better, more diverse economy.
Unless we do this, we would have turned our backs on our own prosperity and development. Unless we do this, we would continue to work more for the benefit of foreign interests than for ourselves. I have worked too hard and long for the progress of our people to countenance such a broken outcome. We must reform ourselves so that we can fully occupy the destiny our people deserve.
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