Good evening all. Below is the convocation lecture delivered by Babatunde Raji Fashola: the honourable minister of Power, Works and Housing to the convocants at the University of Benin on the 25th day of November 2016.
I find it very interesting as it is mind stimulating and soul searching. Please take out time to read it.
FREEDOM FROM FEAR, CHOICES BEFORE THE NEW GENERATION – BEING THE CONVOCATION SPEEECH DELIVERED BY BABATUNDE RAJI FASHOLA, SAN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BENIN ON THE 25TH DAY OF NOVEMBER 2016
Great UNIBEN.
This is the greeting amongst students on the campus of the University, and it has endured after graduation and stayed with the alumni; decades after graduation.
May this greeting endure also for all of you who graduate today, and may you fulfil your destiny of greatness as products of a great institution and citadel of learning.
That this university is great is beyond argument now.
The evidence of this abounds in the human capital supply she has produced for Nigeria in fulfilment of the objectives of founding fathers.
It is a rich store of personnel, not only in quantity, but defining in quality.
In all spheres of Nigeria’s developmental endeavour, there is a representative of great UNIBEN, not only in a participatory role, but also in a leadership role that is setting worthy and commendable examples.
The boys and girls of yesterday have become the men and women who define the developmental character of our nation and they are waiting for you all to join them to play your role.
Therefore, I intend to start my interaction with you today by telling a story.
Many years ago, sometime in 1983, in a Philosophy classroom, a lecturer was telling his students about the theory of evolution, based on the Big Bang and atomic perspective of our evolution.
He charged them not to believe things that were not demonstrable by evidence.
He taught them about cause and effect relationships of man’s existence and that everything was ultimately traceable to Matter – something that can be seen.
The students it appeared seemed to enjoy this explanation of life and their own existence; the problem was that it debunked their understanding of faith, religion and God.
They had grown up believing, as Christians and Muslims, that there is God. But they could not see him. How were they going to resolve this matter of ‘Matter’ and science on one hand, God on the other hand.
This lecturer professed no faith, and did not believe in God, or so the students thought, until one fateful morning when one of the students sighted the lecturer walking out of church after a Sunday morning service.
Bewildered, confused feeling misled or deceived by a teacher who told him not to believe where they did not see or could not prove, (and this in the student’s mind extended to God) and to see the purveyor of that view walking out of church, with Bible in hand, was the biggest betrayal that was not going to pass unchallenged.
The student walked up to his teacher, quickly conveyed his courtesies of “Good morning sir” and the following conversation ensued:
“What are you doing there sir? You came to church?”
“Yes,” answered the teacher. “I worship here every Sunday.”
“You believe in God?”
“Yes I do.”
“Why have you been deceiving us?”
“How have I been deceiving you?”
“You taught us to believe that God does not exist since we cannot prove it,” the student said.
“No. I did not. I believe in God,” the teacher replied.
“My faith is different from my job. Your school is training you to become lawyers.
“They have employed me to develop your minds to question and challenge things. To seek knowledge, never to be easily satisfied.
“To think, and to challenge the existing order, to drive change and never to settle for the path well-travelled.
“To dare and to dream, to seek new ways of doing the same thing, because as lawyers, people’s fates will be defined by choices you make.
“Their lives will sometimes depend on your abilities, as will their businesses or their marriages. That is my job.
“Whether you believe in God or not is not my business. That is your personal choice.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, that is as best as I can recall this event.
The school where this event happened is where we gather today. The great University of Benin.
The faculty that offered the course in Philosophy is the Faculty of Law.
The lecturer was either Greek or Cypriot. His name was Theodoropolous. I was the student in question.
That encounter shaped my life in many ways; and even if I say so, I am the better for it having gone through it.
If I had to choose a university again, it would be University of Benin.
It is that experience I had that I feel bound to share with you today as you leave the University.
If I successfully connect with only one of you, I believe the effort will have been worthwhile.
That is why I have titled my intervention: “FREEDOM FROM FEAR, CHOICES BEFORE THE NEW GENERATION”, in the hope that I will challenge you to take control of what happens to you and what happens around you.
I say this because there seems to be an increasing manifestation of our collective surrender of our individual choices and free will to divine intervention and the possibility of endless miracles.
We are now in the realm and reality of constant expectations of miracles and divine intervention.
Superstitions have taken over reason and logic.
When we pass examinations, win football matches, conduct successful elections, or achieve any feat, we seem all too frightened and unsure of ourselves to take credit for even the most modest of successes attributable to our efforts.
The first thing you hear is God did it.
For the avoidance of doubt, I believe in God, and only He can question my faith.
But I also believe He gave us a lot of free will.
Regrettably, we have surrendered our capacities and abilities in a frightful way to FEAR, that we have become victims of some confidence tricksters who deceive, disentitle and prey on our fears and frailties in ‘gods’ name.
Every man and woman of substance now has a Pastor, Imam, Spiritualist or even a witchdoctor or Dibia who is responsible for telling them what to do, when to do it, in a way that diminishes his abilities and surrenders his talents and free will to divine intervention or spiritual consultation.
Many people are disappearing and are being murdered in a crazed quest for human parts because some who have been entrapped in fear and superstition, believe that you can make money through ritual sacrifice.
Nothing can be further from the truth.
Human parts are tissues, bones, muscles and all that, and they have no place in the materials used to manufacture money.
There is nothing Divine in money making. It is entrepreneurship, production and hard work.
The teaching of science as espoused by Theodoropolous tells me that money is a product of man and not a product of God.
It is manufactured in a place called a Mint, by a process of printing, using special paper, ink, engravement and embossment, to make it difficult to fake or counterfeit.
When we play a football match and get to half-time, which is a few precious minutes to quickly refresh, renew and re-plan in the dressing room, we instead gather to pray, on the field, in a huddle that the whole world is still trying to fathom.
We waste the precious time that is allotted for tactical review, and return to the second half, singing and praying, “He is a miracle working God” in search of divine intervention.
The truth is that we have done well when we prepare and done badly when we do not.
Sometimes of course, working hard does not always bring the expected results but it is better than not working hard.
Yes, God is a miracle worker. I believe, but he is not an unjust God who rewards those who make no effort at the expense of those who do.
I once listened to a sermon broadcast on Television, asking people who are indebted to step forward for prayers that will make their debts disappear.
It frightens me. It does not make sense to me.
Debts are accounting, matters of credits and deficits. They do not vanish.
It is people who live in FEAR who fall prey to such teachings and become victims of misery from poor choices.
I urge you to free your minds from such fears.
There are many teachings about freedoms.
Freedom from want, Freedom of Associations, Freedom of speech, freedom of choice (including the choice of leadership by voting at elections) and many others.
But the least expressed freedom, is the freedom from FEAR, which in my view is the most important.
A mind taken over by fear cannot express free will and will therefore not fully optimize or benefit from the other freedoms.
For example, we have seen that elections are conducted in other parts on the basis of polls, campaigns, analysis of human behaviour rather than any occultic or sacrificial offering.
Candidates who wish to win elections must persuade people to agree to their messages and promises, and seek to change the minds of those who are unpersuaded, by understanding what they want and taking steps to address them.
Those who may not be initial converts can change their minds, as we have seen in our own President who finally won after 3 (THREE) unsuccessful attempts.
For those who do not know, let me share with you some of the things that President Buhari did to win the last election.
A poll was conducted across Nigeria and administered to 20,000 Nigerians as a sample, with each person answering 60 (sixty) questions administered face to face.
That meant that the poll had to analyse 1,200,000 (ONE MILLION, TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND) responses on what Nigerians wanted in the 2015 election.
The top 3 (THREE) were security, corruption and economy, which was to form the core of candidate Buhari’s campaign message that produced President Buhari. This is how to win elections.
Polls are of course not fool proof. They can be manipulated or misinterpreted by those who analyse data. They can also be misunderstood . – Hillary leading but had over 60% Trust deficit.
Let me tell you another story related to me. This is the story of the ram.
A friend related to me how his mother had a bad dream concerning his well-being.
The dream was related to the mother’s Imam.
His response was that there had to be a sacrifice.
I interrupted by asking if the sacrifice involved buying a ram and he said yes.
Seeking to know how I knew. My response was that Ileya (the Muslim festival of Eid-El-Kabir) of Ram sacrifice was 3 (THREE) weeks away and (at the time) any trickster who could not afford one would find foul or fair means to get a ram even though Islam does not make it a matter of compulsion.
Whilst I am not passing any judgement on the Imam and any other man of God, because I cannot question their faith, the coincidence was just too uncanny. Yet I agree I may be wrong.
However, I do not see how sacrifices are solutions to dreams.
Dreams are scientific events occurring as a result of the Rapid Eye Movement during sleep at a stage when our brains are most active.
Let me reiterate again that I have no quarrel with faith. What I seek to advocate is the lack of FEAR, and the resort to faith out of conviction rather than as a result of FEAR.
Fear takes choices away, and choices can and must be the product of conviction.
If we pursue our choices with as much conviction as we pursue our faith, we will certainly be a more prosperous society.
Let us remember, that at least the two dominant faiths are not original to us. They are inherited. The propagators of the faith have made them personal affairs and not public ones.
I have attended meetings in the West and in the Middle East and not on one occasion have these meetings been started or ended with prayers.
Meetings represent public undertakings and places of work and productive undertakings to deliver prosperity.
When those people have worked hard for the week, they go on Fridays and Sundays to their places of worship and their homes to offer prayers, for God to bless and prosper the work of their hands.
Sadly, back home, the head of Governments, heads of ministries, and businesses, devote early mornings at work to prayers with their staff while productive man hours tick away, they do the same at home and on weekends, we socialise.
In effect we spend a lot of time praying and socializing.
How can this lead us to prosperity? If this is not faith influenced by fear, I do not know what it is.
If you visit many construction sites where the Chinese are employed as contractors, you will find that they work on Sundays, but we who have unemployment challenges, do not often work on Sunday.
We have invested a worrisome amount of money in building places of worship compared to what we have in building factories, businesses and schools.
This is worrisome compared to the investments I see in businesses and schools that outstrip investment in places of worship in the West and Middle East.
Recently, while driving along a road of not more than 5 (FIVE) kilometres in a Nigerian city, a colleague and I took an unplanned census of building types and this is what we counted:
a) 1 laundry outfit for washing and dry cleaning clothes (Job place)
b) 3 clinics for healthcare (Job place)
c) 2 petrol filling stations (Job place)
d) 1 bank branch (Job place)
e) 4 shopping outlets (Job place)
f) 1 eatery (Job place)
g) 10 religious houses (Worship place)
As you go around your states and neighbourhoods, I urge you to do a similar count and tell your neighbour what you see.
Again I reiterate, I do not criticise worship, but I am challenging you to think through the choices you will make.
We will not pray our way out of recession, we will plan, and produce our way back to prosperity and out of recession and you are the freshest, youngest and most energetic workforce we will have to work with.
You are the new batteries to power the engine of growth of our country.
Your choices must be clear, free from fear, not reckless but driven by analytical thought, questioning and probing and ultimately determined by convictions.
In order to test the consequences of choices based on faith influenced by fear, I advise you to look at the world map and 2 (TWO) Island nations who are situated on the Northern Hemisphere.
I will not tell you their names. You find that out. But I will tell you they are close to each other. One believes in God and works hard. The other one is the home of voodoo and spends all time practising this.
If you follow their history, the first one is prosperous and the second one seems to have made a permanent contract with poverty.
This can be changed if and when they make the right choices.
While still on this matter, let me speak about traditional medicine as distinct from divination.
Traditional medicine, from herbs, roots, and other endowments
of nature have their place of pre-eminence in the assurance of our wellbeing and good health.
I cannot say the same thing about divination and sacrifices.
We must choose to work our iron ore to produce steel and build skyscrapers, machines and tools like others do instead of worshipping the god of Iron.
We must use engineering to manage and control flooding and erosion.
We must probe the treasures of our forests and depths of our oceans as bastions of possibilities that we must manage and dominate instead of worshipping the god of the sea.
If we continue to fear the sea, oceans and waters we will perpetuate the practice of sacrifice, instead of undertaking the enterprise of understanding; and dominating them for energy and transport.
We must approach our rock formations as treasure troves of building materials like marble, tiles and granite rather than treat them as totems of salvation that require animal sacrifice.
We should stop deifying the moon and stratosphere beyond the visibility of our eyes out of fear.
Instead we should develop the courage and resolve to send men and women to land a space craft there.
I fully understand that some of you who have been raised in an environment dominated by your fear, may have been adversely affected by it.
But let me assure you that freedom from fear is not the same as courage. Instead while fear is an emotion, freedom from it is the ability to overcome it by refusing to surrender to it.
It comes from developing an ability to question things, to challenge the existing order and create a new order.
It has been done before. It requires us to know our choices and beliefs and dispense with culture that is not dynamic.
That is why twins survive today. We stopped killing them and turned our backs against a Philistinic practice that was masquerading as a culture.
If you surrender to fear, people less educated, less intelligent and less qualified than you will take over your minds, your homes and your decision making powers.
Many of such people are confidence tricksters who will prosper at your expense by preying on your fear.
Therefore, let me say to you that while your education may not be perfect, while there may be challenges, there is room to improve on it, because your education does not end here.
Indeed, your education has just started.
What you have learnt in the controlled environment of university classrooms will be subject to the test of real life situations.
How you improve and educate yourself depends on how you use your minds.
For example, do you simply repeat and reaffirm what you hear people to say simply because they are highly placed and supposedly intelligent?
Do you verify it yourself before repeating it to others ?
Do you ever ask yourself if those people could be wrong? Yes, they can be. We are all flawed.
Do you ask yourself whether those you quote without question even read as much as you do?
Do you think in terms of these words:- “Impossible”, “Improbable,” “Unlikely” ?
If you do, please stop it. They are symbols and signposts of fear.
Almost everything that was once thought impossible, improbable, unlikely has happened.
Men and women now fly thousands of Kilometres in the sky. They eat, sleep, even now shower on the Airbus A380, an engineering feat delivered by engineers of Airbus and Boeing who started out life like you, as young graduates like you.
There are now driverless cars, and men have landed on the moon and have communicated back to Earth on missions driven by freedom from fear, sheer dedication, hard work and an indomitable spirit that refused to surrender to divination, but persevered against the odds of failure before success was achieved.
But these men and women who have freed their minds from fear are not done. They are pushing to send men to Mars - The Red Planet, they are looking for cures for cancer, alzheimer’s and other diseases.
This will be the work of science, research and engineering driven by freedom from fear, not by prayer, or sacrifice of fetish to some inanimate deity.
How do you free your mind from impossibility, improbability, and unlikelihoods?
The answer is simple. Remember always, that those words are negatives. Replace them with positive thoughts and actions.
This is what frees your mind from fear and helps you to choose, to see solutions and to look for opportunities, instead of dwelling on and surrendering to problems.
If you see unmanaged refuse as a problem, you may not think of recycling and re-use and the economic opportunities that have multiple benefits, including the ultimate removal of the refuse.
If you dwell on traffic gridlock as a problem, you are unlikely to focus on developing intelligent traffic management solutions like traffic lights or a radio station to manage it and create opportunities for yourself and others.
If you focus on crime and its burden, you may lose the opportunity to focus on crime management strategies like more policemen, crime detection methods, employment and training of judges.
Indeed, as they say, if you see every problem as a nail, the only solution you might evolve is a hammer.
So, please look for the positive angle of a difficult situation, because there will be one, if you look hard enough.
I urge you to free your mind from fear, reach for the skies, choose by conviction and not by fear; trust in your abilities and God given talent, take responsibility, work hard and pray if you believe.
Yes, Sango is the god of lightning and thunder, but all the sacrifices made to Sango has not generated 1 (ONE) kilowatt of electric power.
Electricity is produced by using nature’s gifts , such as gas, water, solar and wind, harnessing their capacity through turbines made from steel to serve our energy needs, not by making animal sacrifices.
I will conclude by urging you to look for the book titled “Start Up Nation” by Dan Senor and Saul Singer , it would provoke your thinking as it did mine.
I am done.
Congratulations on your graduation. May the wind be behind your sails as you set forth in the journey of life.
May you fulfil your true promise, and may you be free from fear so that you can make good choices in your contribution to our national development.
Thank you for listening.
Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Honourable Minister of Power, Works and Housi[truncated by WhatsApp]
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
What I Have Been Up To.
Mo's Baptism
Mo is growing so fast, one in a bit. She is a handful, an awesome one. She is already doing magic I must say, heck of a blessing she is to my wife and I.
Business travels
Cairo and Geneva are awesome places, history and beauty are abundant. I appreciate the privilege of enjoying 'work'.
Biking - Lagos to Abidjan
Life has been good, God always faithful. I am looking forward to the rest of the year, you should be too.
#faithinlove
Monday, May 12, 2014
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
A Concerned Muslim on Boko Haram
Evening peeps, sallam aleikum to the muslims, apology for the long BC, its borne out of necessity.
I've been extremely bothered about the silence of Muslims over the havoc Boko Haram is wrecking on our land. I watched Shekau's video & my heart bled - for all the innocent lives lost, for our girls & most importantly for Islam. Don't we realize that this isn't just an attack on Nigeria, but an attack on Islam. This retard kept saying 'By Allah', saying Allah commanded him to do all he's doing, slandering and uttering blasphemous remarks all to perpetuate his evil intents. Very sad indeed.
The participation of Muslims in newspaper/online articles & comments aren't encouraging. Turn on the TV & you would hardly find a Muslim saying anything about this. Is it shame, fear or ignorance? Where are our Muslim leaders in all these? How many of us have joined any protest or been active in anyway in the #bringbackourgirls campaign? We just sit @ the corner of our homes & condemn? We should be the one leading the war against this murderers called boko whatever. Bunch of hypocrites they are. Shaytan must be having a big laugh wherever he is! He is succeeding in rubbishing Islam in the face of the world&it seems we are letting him. I want to implore us all to please lend a voice, not just as individual, but as Muslims. Let us use all peaceful platforms available to us to condemn this evil&uphold the religion of Allah as a peaceful 1. The people who say this is a religious war say so because they do not understand Islam & we do nothing to make them understand. Islam does not condone violence & the only way we can communicate this is to speak up. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) said: "If one of you sees something wrong, let him change it with his hand; if he cannot, then with his tongue; if he cannot, then with his heart and this is the weakest faith." Enough is enough! Please join this train & let's get it moving. May Allah help us all. Please re bc to all Muslims.
Written by Olajide Adebayo, May 2014. (Original wordings)
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Thanks Mum
| '...The most precious treasure a man can find.' Proverbs 31:10 |
| Erma Bombeck wrote: 'When God was creating mothers, on His sixth day of overtime the angel said, "You're fiddling around a lot on this one." God replied, "Have you seen the specs on this order? She's to have 18,000 replaceable moving parts, run on black coffee and leftovers, have a kiss that cures anything from broken legs to disappointed love affairs...and six pairs of hands!" "Six pairs of hands? No way!" the angel said. God said, "And the challenging bit is the three pairs of eyes mothers need. One pair that sees through doors, another in back of her head that sees what she shouldn't be able to see, another in front for looking at a child who's goofed and saying, 'I understand, and I love you', without speaking." The angel said, "Lord, take a break. Tomorrow..." "I can't," God said. "I'm close to creating something so like Myself. Already she can heal herself when she's sick, feed a family on a pound of minced beef, and get a nine year-old to stand under a shower!" Touching her, the angel said, "She's too soft!" "But so tough!" God replied. "You can't imagine what this mother can endure." "Can it think?" asked the angel. "Not only think, it reasons and compromises," God said. Running his finger across the mother's cheek, the angel said, "There's a leak!" "It's not a leak," God said. "It's a tear." "What's it for?" asked the angel. "It's for joy, sadness, pain, disappointment, loneliness and pride." The angel declared, "Lord, You're a Genius!".' Just a columnist's fictional story, but well worth pondering. Thanks, Mum! |
Friday, March 21, 2014
This touched me - UCB Word for Today
| I am sharing the belle, I get messages daily from UCB, life changing I must say. We can all get there, we need to make the choice to today! #Godhelpus Thinking and Acting Like Jesus (1) |
| 'Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.' Philippians 2:5 |
| Max Lucado writes: 'What would your life be like, even for one day, if you were to think and act like Jesus? If His priorities governed your actions, His passions drove your decisions and His love directed your behaviour? What would you be like? Would people notice the change in you? Would your family see something new? Would your co-workers sense a difference? What about the less fortunate; would you treat them like you normally do? How about your friends; would they detect more joy? How about your enemies; would they receive more grace and mercy? And how would it affect you personally? Your mood swings? Your temper? Would you sleep better? Would you view death differently? Would you pay your taxes differently? Any chance you'd need fewer aspirins or sedatives? How about your reaction to traffic delays? Or when the deal falls through, or people don't do what you want them to? Would you still dread what you are dreading? Better yet, would you still do what you are doing? Pause and think about your schedule, obligations, engagements, outings and appointments. With Jesus fully in control, would these all change? Keep working on this for a moment. Adjust the lens of your imagination until you have a clear picture of Jesus leading your life, then snap the shutter and frame the image. What you see is what God wants! "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." If you committed to living this way for a lifetime, or a year, or even a month, you would be a transformed person. So just try it for one day: today!' |
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
God is always GOOD.
Liked this and decided to share - Enjoy!
A King had a male servant who, in all circumstances always said to him; My king, do not be discouraged because everything God does is perfect, no mistakes.
One day, they went hunting and a wild animal attacked the king. The servant managed to kill the animal but couldn't prevent his majesty from losing a finger.
Furious and without showing gratitude, the King said; if God was good, I would not have been attacked and lost one finger. The servant replied, 'despite all these things, I can only tell you that God is good and everything He does is perfect, He is never wrong'.
Outraged by the response, the king ordered the arrest of his servant. While being taken to prison, he told the king again, God is Good & Perfect.
Another day, the king left alone for another hunt and was captured by savages who use human beings for sacrifice. On the altar, the savages found out that the king didn't have one finger in place, he was released because he was considered not "complete" to be offered to the gods.
On his return to the palace, he ordered the release of his servant and said; My friend, God was really good to me. I was almost killed but for lack of a single finger, I was let go. But I have a question; If God is so good, why did He allow me to put you in prison? His servant replied; My king, if I had not been put in prison, I would have gone with you, and would have been sacrificed, because I have no missing finger.
Everything God does is perfect, He is never wrong. Often we complain about life, and the negative things that happen to us, forgetting that everything happens for a purpose.
God knows why you are reading this message today, please bless someone with it by sharing it. God is good and perfect!!
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