 Very honored to join you at this evening's special dinner to celebrate three distinguished Nigerians who earlier today were conferred the prestigious National Order of Merit Award by His Excellency the President, President Mohammed Buhari. But here this evening we are honored also by the company of some of the past National Merit Award laureates and if they are here I think about three or four of them I hear they should just wave so that we can also give them a round of applause. Professor Augustine M.O.S. Sebre, here is the 2006 award recipient in engineering and technology. Professor Oye Gurejie M.M.O.M. is the 2008 recipient of the award in medicine and Professor Samuel Ohagboulam who is the 2012 M.M.M. award recipient in medicine and is currently one of the board members of our governing board of the NNMA. I'm delighted to observe that since this award was instituted in 1979 we now have 79 distinguished Nigerians who are laureates of the Nigerian National Order of Merit. For this evening we celebrate the three latest laureates Dr. Olayinka Oolutwe or Professor Olayinka Oolutwe who is honored for his unique contributions in the field of fetal surgery and Professor Godwin Samuel Ekaguri for pioneering new approaches in the branch of mathematical physics known as axiomatic quantum field theory and Professor Charles G.K. Chidume for his outstanding contributions in mathematics, physics and engineering. Professor Chidume's award as we know is posthumous as he sadly passed on before the conferment may his memory always be blessed. The contributions of our new laureates have had a real world impact in their respective fields. Professor Chidume's work has generated practical applications in understanding how system thinking is used in project management, logistics and modeling. It also addresses a wide range of problems in economics, in finance, in image reconstruction, in ecology, in transportation, in network elasticity and optimization. Professor Olutwe is a fetal and pediatric surgeon who led a team of surgeons who in 2016 in a feat that has been held as the first of its kind performed a surgical procedure on a fetus with a tumor that develops before birth and grows from a baby's tailbone. The procedure involved bringing the fetus out of the mother's womb, removing the tumor during a five-hour operation and placing the fetus back in the mother's womb and the mother then carried the baby to full term. His work on fetal anatomy including the healing of wounds in fetuses is broadening understanding of how we can address wounds even in adults. Professor Ehagura's work has deepened understanding of the fundamental architecture of the universe and the fabric of reality itself. In addition to this he has provided strong leadership for efforts to build research capacity in mathematical sciences in Nigeria. For these are probably just cursory simplifications of the significance of our awardees achievements. What is indisputable is that each of them has broadened the horizons of knowledge in their respective fields of endeavor. But two things will stand out in these particular awards and especially when we refer to these high achieving Nigerians. The first is one is that this is one of those occasions where we gather not to celebrate people on account of their power, status or wealth but on account of their real achievements, their achievements that make a difference in the lives of so many not just here but all around the world. And at the heart of the rationale for these awards is the idea that a nation perpetuates the sort of behavior that it rewards. Promoting the growth of innovation of diligence and productivity and related values requires that the practitioners and exemplars of such values are adequately rewarded and celebrated. This is what the merit awards are all about. They are all about celebrating what we want to attract to this nation, celebrating what we want to enthrone in this nation which is excellence, innovation and hard work. Second is that in reflecting upon the glittering cast of Nigerians that have received this award over the years have been struck by at least one thing and that is the variety of the achievement but also the diversity of the origins of those who have earned these awards. The award selection process is entirely indifferent to whatever confessional persuasions, ethnic origins or partisan allegiances of the recipients. It is sensitive only to the quality of their accomplishments and often in our national discourse we tend to juxtapose the idea of merit without of representation as though they are mutually exclusive. And it is suggested that there is an inherently natural disparity in geographical distribution of talent but that's not so. What this distinguished array of lorex from all over the country that have assembled over the years shows us is that the Nigerian genius for achievement can be found in every corner of our country in literally every nook and cranny of our country. Two imperatives immediately spring forth from such a realization. The first is that we must ensure that we provide opportunities on a mass scale to enable all our citizens actualize their highest potential and in this effort we must pay more attention in particular to the education of girls because this is the half of our population that has been neglected especially with respect to education. In doing so we will renew our pantheon of world-beating achievers in every generation and continually rediscover the human capital for perpetual national growth. Secondly I'm reminded of one of the past Order of Merit Loretz Professor Chinua Chebe who admonished us to always pick our first 11 for national tasks our best 11. In his words whenever merit is set aside by prejudice of whatever origin individual citizens as well as the nation itself are victimized. If the pantheon of the Order of Merit reflects a representative meritocracy is it not possible to apply the same standards in selecting those that we choose for leadership at all levels? Democracy grants us not just the right to freely choose our leaders but the opportunity also to choose the best of us irrespective of sectional or sectarian considerations. So today's awardees and their predecessors represent the zenith of accomplishment the exploits tell us that we are truly capable as a people of the greatest heights the greatest achievements of in the fields of science in their arts and every other aspect of human endeavor and that we could wonder would swear as saw as high as we wish so long as we do not subject ourselves to the gravitational pull of parochialism and prejudice. If we are truly to make these standards that we've seen today the accomplishments that we've seen today mainstream in our in our society and in the way that we define our national traits then we must apply the same principles that informed their selection in recruiting those who will represent this nation in every endeavor whether it is in sports or in public service. Let me once again congratulate all the laureates of the NNMA and their families and the chairman and members of the board of the NNMA and indeed all their associates and to also say that just as the chairman of the board has warned that we are not supposed to make long speeches today we are we have dinner so we have to get to the meat of the matter if you'll pardon the pond as quickly as possible but congratulations to all our laureates congratulations to all members of the family and we should save travels when you return home thank you