 I'm most honoured to have been invited to these six convocation ceremonies of this unique citadel of learning and research, the Bayes University. And I'm deeply grateful to the chair of the Board of Trustees and my immediate predecessor in office, architect Namati Sambal, for the honour of his personal visit to me along with members of the Board of Trustees to invite me to this event. The story of the phenomenal growth of this university in just about a decade is worth repeating, beginning with 14 programmes in three faculties to 40 programmes in six faculties, including basic medical sciences and a teaching hospital, which is now in view, from structures covering a modest 3,000 square metres and now occupying 49,000 square metres from a staff of 60 members to about, we are told, 620 today, and from 17 students to 1,500 today. Bayes University has indeed recorded remarkable progress, while the physical and numerical growth has been in leaps and bounds, so has academic achievement, prolific research and the students of Bayes University have excelled in the marketplace and in scholarship all over the world. But the story of the Bayes University is also the story of the tenacity and the innovativeness and commitment to education of its founder and visioner. Pro-Chancellor of the university, Senator Yusuf Dati Baba Ahmed, who in 2011, at the tender age of 41 years, established this university. His hard work and innovation continues to push this place of inquiry and learning to greater heights. I am of course partial to this university because your Vice Chancellor is a lawyer. As we all know, lawyers make the best administrators. I see that my colleagues in the Faculty of Law are chairing louder than everybody else. Apollon is of course to architect Namadi Sambu and all other very well educated but unlearned professionals who are here present. But it is to the distinguished scholars and teachers in the faculties of the university to which this growing academic reputation of the university is owed. And we cannot take that lightly. It is to you that the awesome responsibility of mediating the thoughts and ideas of this and common generations belong. And we must applaud your immense successes on the journey so far. We celebrate also and perhaps most importantly the reason why we are here today the graduating class of 2019. Congratulations. Your tassels are now turned to the left like those of us who graduated before you. And if your tassels are not turned to the left then they should be turned to the left. You now belong to a tiny minority, less than one percent of the Nigerian population who have a university degree. Congratulations indeed. Also many congratulations to the parents, the families and guardians, sponsors and loved ones of the graduates. This is a very special day indeed and I congratulate you specially. So the graduates from here on you will be engaging the realities of life. The business of living by making a living. There are some timeless principles that have worked and continue to work through the years. Permit me to share one with you. And that is the principle of trustworthiness or integrity. In my relatively modest experience in professional practice and some in business and lately in politics I've come to realize that trust or trustworthiness is fundamental to the success of practically everything that you will do in life. In other words if you can build your reputation in such a manner that you can win the trust of others, your bosses, your coworkers, your clients, your business partners, you will be tremendously successful. If you cannot be trusted or people cannot make up their minds whether to trust you or not, you're already on the back foot and you're unlikely to succeed. Trust is the currency of successful business and social interaction. It is more valuable than money because it actually attracts money. The world's economic systems were actually built on trust. So giving credit or loans was built on trust. In giving a loan most bankers will tell you that the first and most important consideration is not the collateral that you offer. It is your integrity or trustworthiness. And this is why credit boroughs are developed to continue to track and to determine the track record of the repayment of any potential borrower. I have featured this story on several occasions but I will say it again today. Many years ago as a young student in the United Kingdom, I was doing a postgraduate in the United Kingdom at the time. I had a delay in the payment of my school fees. In those days you had to process your school fees if you were in school abroad through the central bank and it usually would take quite a while. I spoke to my counselor in the university about the problem and she advised me to go to the bank to a bank for a loan. I thought how crazy. How does someone who has no money get a loan from a bank? But I went to the bank where I had my savings and explained myself to a lady across the counter. And to my pleasant surprise I was given a 600 pound loan. All I had to do was sign on a piece of paper that when my check came it would be paid to the bank. That was in 1981. They believed my story and trusted me to pay back. When my check came I paid back. Trust. I'll be able to take in the future in that same bank personal loans and several other loans. But a few years after this it had become impossible for anyone carrying a Nigerian passport to open a bank account in a UK bank. Why? Because many Nigerians, many young Nigerians at the time, had taken advantage of the trust and abused the trust, taking loans but not repay. Some thought how foolish these Unibo people are. So they used their credit cards to buy cars, furniture and electronics. I ran back to Nigeria without honoring the trust. In the past few years many foreign banks have closed the accounts of some Nigerians because of the numerous attempts to defraud on those accounts. So no matter how much you may have in your account they just say we don't want your business because it's just too much trouble to do business especially when people cannot be trusted. So because of the untrustworthiness of a few people, a whole nation is painted black. Developing trust also means that you must repay when you borrow. Whether it's from a friend, a relation or a bank credit is the lifeblood of business. You are dead if your credit sources dry up and they will if you prove that you will not respect your obligations. A most economy's sale of goods is by credit. Years ago many foreign businesses offered credit to businesses, to local businesses here. I remember a particular businessman and I dare not mention his name, who was importing and selling cars many years ago as a representative of a major car manufacturer. The cars were to be supplied to him on credit and the agreement was that he was expected to pay back in 120 days each time. He paid back a few times then he stopped paying. He kept the money and lived large. I as a young lawyer at the time had the onerous duty of running after him to recover some of what he refused to pay back. But not too long after the credit stopped and the business collapsed. But around the same time a businessman running a company which was then called Elizadeh or Elizadeh as some would say was doing the same business, buying cars on credit. He kept paying back. The foreign partners found him reliable and trustworthy and 40 years after he's still in that business. Even now he has an assembly plant. He's the chairman of the Nigerians subsidiary of the Japanese company that was initially just a distributor for. Trustworthiness built a business from nothing to a multi-billion Naira business. Many businesses today experience problems with dishonest staff. I was speaking here in Abuja to some owners of small businesses about their biggest problems. Many of them said dishonest staff was a major problem. A lady who owned a car store where she made high quality invitation cards. One day was told by one of her customers that her cards were being sold cheaper at a store somewhere else in time. She discovered that two of her staff, two ladies, were stealing inventory from the store where they were kept and had opened their own store selling the stolen cards. Another lady who owned a cake shop complained that her staff would deliberately miscount the number of cakes that were brought in from the bakeries and then sell the excess they created and pocket the rest of the money. She said because she had to be physically present at her store all the time she couldn't open new branches so she couldn't create new jobs. An entrepreneur who owned a small bar and left it in the hands of a manager said that he discovered that the drinks that he sold were not being sold despite the fact that several people were actually patronizing the bar. He later discovered that the manager and the bar man were doing something fun. They brought their own drinks to the bar and sold their own drinks instead of his own. So when he checked his inventory his drinks were intact but his manager and bar man were actually selling their own drinks to his customers. So he owned the bar, he paid the rent but he didn't make the money. But there is an opportunity here because so many Nigerians and foreigners and everyone must do business here in this country. The world is in search of men and women of integrity to do business good. The world is in search of trustworthy people. Everyone wants faithful partners or employees. Even thieves are in search of trustworthy people to keep their money with them. Anyone who can show that he or she can be trusted cannot lack opportunities or profit. There are good stories too. The story of a young Nigerian like you who turned anger to prosperity in Nassau State. Reston Tadheke was once a militant in the Niger Delta, impatient with everything in the country. Reston became convinced to renounce militancy and then he migrated from his Delta State, from his home state of Delta to Nassau State to start a farm. But like most new entrepreneurs, funding was a big challenge. But a FinTech, a company set up by young Nigerians, gave the companies called Care Care and another called Farm Allied advanced him loans sufficient to start a small farm. From an initial capital of 1.5 million in 2017, Reston last week proudly conducted the governor of Nassau State and I around what is now a vast 3,000 hectare farm worth close to a billion now and employing 300 Nigerians. When we visited him, I spoke to the companies that gave him the loans. They all said that they gave the loans without any collateral because they could see that he was trustworthy and that he had proved time and time again that he could be trusted. He built a successful farm on credit without collateral, proving the point that integrity is the most valuable collateral. So let me again say that if you take nothing away from here, take this and that is that your most valuable possession will be that you can be trusted by other people. Let me again congratulate the graduating class of 2019. You have received excellent education and instruction. Your certificate reads that the Senate has found you worthy in learning and character. You are graduating at the most advanced moment in technology and innovation in the history of mankind. You are bound to succeed. But remember that to whom much is given, much is expected. The way up requires more than talent and degrees. Hard work, innovation and integrity are crucial but above all the grace of the Almighty God. So I pray for you that you will succeed beyond your best dreams and that the honors that you receive today will be your least achievement in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. Thank you very much.