 I'm greatly honored to have been invited to deliver the first convocation lecture of the University. I also note with great satisfaction the fact that the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor of the University and my humble self are lawyers. At last, at last we are accepting the fact that lawyers make the best administrators. I will hold your apologies to my distinguished Chief Mrs. Niki Akwande, who of course has a very distinguished accountant. When a few months ago I received the request from the Chancellor of this University, Chief Coladise, to give this convocation lecture, it was clear to me that it was an order and not a request. Where I come from, where I come from, when your father makes a request, that is an order. Chief Coladise is a man for whom I and many others in my generation have always had tremendous respect and admiration and in many ways the Coladise University is a unique place of learning and inquiry because of its foundations. The founder and vision of this University, Chief Coladise, represents in Nigeria and around the world a unique Nigerian brand, a man whose professional career as a lawyer, pioneer, executive of several chambers of commerce and co-founder of the British Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and later a businessman tells a story of how the pursuit of success must not just be for self and family, but for the good of others and society. Every step of the way, especially through the Coladise Foundation, he has designed ways of putting his resources to the use of his community and those who need help. This University is a culmination of that life of sacrifice, an institution that would offer world-class university education, not as a commercial venture, but as a service. Sir, it is a high form of enlightenment to recognize in one's lifetime that what endures after we are gone is how much of ourselves, our ideas and resources benefit the coming generations when we are gone. And congratulations, sir, on your performance to the very distinguished position of Chancellor of the University. I must also commend the academic and administrative staff of the University for keeping faith with the vision and mission of this University. Indeed, you have the enormous duty of nurturing the men and women who will shape the destiny of the largest number of black people gathered anywhere in the world and Africa's largest economy well done so far. And to the parents, friends and family of the graduands, what a joyful and proud moment. Congratulations. And of course, to the reason why we are gathered today, the pioneers, the freshest graduates of Coladise University. Many congratulations. I hope you will host me today to lunch at the Ella Fries restaurant, or Femme's Cafe, as it's called, when we live here. As you sit here today, glad that at last you have a degree, I'm proud of your achievements. You are probably anxious about the future. After youth service, you will wonder whether you will find a job, whether even if you find a job, you will be paid enough to rent a decent accommodation, perhaps get married and bring up children, or travel on holidays, or perhaps take a postgraduate degree. Your parents also may worry about how long they may need to support you while you are searching for a job. In short, what does the future hold and how should you approach it? I'll mention a few important facts because this lecture, of course, is dedicated to you. I'll mention a few important facts that I would like you to remember, merely as a guide in the coming years. The first is that you must believe that you have all that it takes to succeed, and indeed you will succeed. Do not accept or believe the story that you will not succeed, or that the years gone by are better than yours. In fact, always be suspicious of those who are always talking about the good old days. They probably have a bad memory. Every generation has its bright spots and its troubles. The second is that you are graduating at the most advanced moment in human history. The smartphones that you have in your hand today has a hundred times more computing power than the computer in the Apollo spacecraft that took men to the moon in July of 1969. I have in this device, which I'm holding here, my iPad, and the device on your smartphones if you have them here, a thousand times the space and memory for a thousand times more books and material than all the law books that were in the Elias Library at the University of Lagos, where I obtained my first degree, a thousand times more contained in a smartphone or perhaps in this device. The third point is that success means continuous learning and self-development. The fourth is that collaboration and partnerships are important for businesses today, especially technology-related businesses, and I'll come to that in a moment. The fourth is that the greatest mistake that you can make is to think that character does not matter. He does, integrity and self-discipline in particular. Now, let me assure you that there is plenty of hope and that there are many opportunities. The world you are living in is changing every day. In my days, it was believed that you needed to be either a lawyer, a doctor, an accountant, or some such professional to be successful. Today, there are many different options. There are more avenues for success now than ever before. There is a whole new world of opportunities that have opened up, especially with the internet and digital technology. I'll share some of the stories of young men and women like you, who in various endeavours have done two things. One, they have taken advantage of the many opportunities that are available and they have demonstrated that the rules for success have not changed. In the past few years, we have seen Nigerian start-ups owned by young men and women grow from scratch to billion-dollar businesses. As of 2021, more than six of such companies have been named unicorns. A unicorn is a company that is worth over a billion dollars. These are companies that have grown faster than any other company in the history of our nation and they did so in the last ten years. I'll give examples of two companies, Paystack and Flutterway. Paystack was co-founded in 2016 by Shola Akinladi and Ezra Olubi, both graduates of Babcock University in their 20s. They were just about 23, 24 at that time. Paystack is a payment processing company, is now estimated to be worth a billion dollars. Flutterway is also a payment processing company co-founded by Gwenda Aguola and Inya Boyage. Also in 2016, Inya was 24 years old when they founded Flutterway in Lagos. Flutterway is now worth over three billion US dollars. Both companies of course employ hundreds of young men and women. There's also Piggy Vest, I'm sure you might have heard of Piggy Vest, co-founded also in 2016 by Odwoyo Ewenii. She was then 21 years old. Piggy Vest is a wealth management platform. At the end of 2019, it had helped one million users save about 80 million dollars. Her co-founders are John Chibwazi and Somto Ifezwe. They were all classmates at the Covenant University. In agriculture, you have digital agriculture businesses, and I'll give two examples, and all of these examples are examples of those that I have actually met and who have had an occasion at least to interact with, except perhaps one or two. Two examples of agricultural technology companies, Thrive by Greek and Farm Crowding. Thrive by Greek and Farm Crowding. Farm Crowdy, for example, uses technology to connect farmers to investors and provide a platform for trading raw agro-products, inputs, and commodities. They have a farmer network of over 400,000 farmers. The founders are Uyeka Akuma, Akindele Philips, Tomitokwe Omolani, Christopher Biodu, and Ifian Yanazudo, all in their 20s when they started. Uyeka Akuma, a serial entrepreneur, also started the highly successful Travel Beta, an online travel agency that has raised over $2 million so far in funding. I'm sure you may all know about Naira Land. The popular Internet Forum is now listed by Forbes as the biggest African Internet Forum. It was started by Shewa Ushawa at the age of 23, while it was still at the OAU, at the Obafemiahua University. Also right here in Oya State, there are four award-winning small businesses, and I will mention two of them, Super Kitchen, owned by Ifeonua Olatayo, a female entrepreneur. Her company won the National Best Medium and Small Businesses Award for 2019, that's a national best. She studied English at the University of Ibadan here, but she founded a unique line of business, making cooking easy. She puts together vegetables such as tomatoes, pepper, and spices, processes them into packs and preserves them so that all you need to do is add your vegetables and parmol, and your stew is ready. Her company is here, Mokola by Mokola Army Baraturo, another company right here in Ibadan. Planet 3R, owned by another woman, another lady, Adejo Kela Sisi. Her company won the Best MSME Award for 2020. They are in the business of recycling and waste management. They convert pure water, cellophane bags after thorough sterilization into clothes, into bags and shoes, using locally made wooden equipment. They're also at Ife Road. There's Silas Adejo Kela, a young man too, under 30, the robotics engineer who invented Mekamon, the world's first intelligent gaming robot. As Max Chinna, who at 26, invented the Genesis Cooker. The Genesis Cooker is a smokeless stove that addresses the problem of smoke pollution which is said to kill millions every year all across the world. Ejikeme Patrick Mwosi, an organic chemist also under 25, who has invented a fire-retarded paint that could drastically mitigate the risk of fire breaks. In other words, all you need to do is to use the paint on the walls of a house and to retard fire. There's some using technology for humanitarian work, and they've been recognized locally and internationally. Sadat Aliou, who runs a tech hub in Canada, has developed an app for reporting cases of sexual assault. Just last week, the Canon Young Champion of the Year award, which celebrates achievements of young people around the world, who are driving social and environmental change, gave the award to Samuel Angelo-Lua Alabi, who is under 21, for his inspiring project again is an Ibadon boy, students of Ibadon, which shines light on the struggle's face by understaffed students in the city of Ibadon. And I have here with me two exceptional young Nigerians, my personal photographer, whose mom is here, by the way, Mrs. Heldry, Trolane Ali, another Ibadon girl, by the way. She started off thinking that she wanted to be a doctor, but later realized that her real passion is in photography. I found her here in Ibadon, of course, at the time she was a photographer, to the late senator, Abiola Jimobi, a pleasant memory. And I took her on as my own personal photographer. She is a multiple award-winning photographer, and she's been featured, she's been featured for her work in many foreign magazines. Just yesterday, Netflix invited her to Los Angeles to represent Africa in a docu-series on filmmakers, photographers and creatives from five different continents. Timmy Davis is my videographer. He's also an award-winning cinematographer. He has traveled the world, invited to shoot films. He shot the debut of the Christian Dior in Africa. I'm sure some of us, some of the young people here will know Johnny Drill, the musician. Timmy shot all the videos for his music. I caught him and invited him to spend some time in public service. So he's working with me at the moment. Just yesterday, I met with some members of the Association of Skit Comedians. These are online comedians, Thao Ma, for example, who has over two million followers on Instagram. She studied tourism at the Quarrel State University. There was also Woli Agba, Adje Woli Ayobami, who graduated in economics from the Leeds City University here in Nevada, just too funny. Who graduated from the Federal School of Science and Tech, Yaba, in computercraft. Mr. Hyena, who graduated from the Olabisi University, Olabisi and Avangio University in computer engineering. These are all online comedians who make three or more skits weekly online. They work very hard. Millions of people watch them. So they, too, make considerable amounts of money from their channels by advertisements. How about teachers? A teacher in a primary school, Henry Anumuni, developed an effective learning process for school children in poor areas. He's well celebrated locally and internationally for his pioneering innovation. On teacher's day at my office, I hosted Oluwabumi Anani, the 2020 winner of the Multina Teacher of the Year Award, recognized for her revolutionary teaching methods in English and English literature for senior secondary school students in Yola, Adama, our state. There are many more examples of young men and women trading online, selling their skills from clothes, handmade shoes to beauty products, some trading stocks, shares, cryptocurrencies and even FX. This is the new age. This is a new workplace. We are not in the same generation as many of us who are seated here. Young men and women have a different line of opportunities. But what are some of the key lessons? The first is that most of these successful young people did not just stop at a university degree. They learned something extra. For some, it was programming. Some took extra courses online in management and entrepreneurship. Some followed their passion into fashion, beauty and others who are not entrepreneurs, but are interested in being effective managers or policy people. They simply took courses. In my office, I have as many as 40 extremely bright young men and women who advise on policy issues ranging from power to finance and economy to rule of law issues and the broad range, most of them under the age of 35. The key is that they kept improving themselves. They kept improving themselves. Today, you don't need to go to Harvard Business School to do one of the best postgraduate courses in entrepreneurship. You can do it online on EDX. I'm sure many are familiar with EDX. EDX is an online educational website co-founded by Harvard University and MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They have a wide range of excellent courses, many for free, except if you want to certificate in which case you might need to pay as much as 50,000 Naira. The other website for continuous learning, Udemy, and I'm sure some will be familiar with Udemy, which offers a wide range of programs, including web development, game development, digital marketing, and business analytics and design. All of these are available at the touch of the bottom. The second point is that all of these businesses that are, that we just looked at a moment ago, started small. Don't be afraid of starting small and growing slowly. That's exactly how great businesses are formed. Don't be distracted by the yahoo, yahoo boys. Udemy showed up one day with a fancy car. Trust me, their days are always numbered. They'll go to jail one day. The point of the matter of course, the point of the matter of course, is that what is the point of making money when you can't sleep well at night? The third point is that all of the examples I've given, not one of them had wealthy parents. All of them did most, if not all, their education here in Nigeria. Find out about, and so it's important for us to bear in mind that a Nigerian education is an important, is an important credential because you understand the territory and you understand the lay of the land. But you must find out about the support that is available, either from the private sector or from the public sector. For example, the federal government has established a 75 billion national youth investment fund. This provides financial support for small businesses in any field. The Central Bank of Nigeria has also established a creative sector fund. This is for young people in technology or entertainment. There is also the new program called Investing in Digital and Creative Enterprises. I diced with over $600 million to support young technology and creative sector entrepreneurs and other entrepreneurs through the provision of finance, skills development and infrastructure. Earlier this year, the federal government partnered with the UNDP and the private sector to start a program called the Jubilee Fellows program, the Jubilee Fellows Intensive Program. For the next five years, every year, 20,000 students after youth service will be given internship opportunities in private sector companies and in public agencies. The idea will be for the participants to gain relevant career and life skills that will enable them transition seamlessly into professional business or public sector careers while also earning a good pay during the internship. These opportunities exist, make the effort to access them. Well, let me go out briefly before I close on a point I made earlier. I said, don't be fooled, character is a key to success. It's not an old fashioned thing or merely a religious thing. It is a business and success decision that you must make. Be known for your integrity and your reliability and also be diligent and be prepared. Character is self-discipline. There are many talented people who do not succeed simply because they lack self-discipline. It is self-discipline that enables you to take opportunities when they come. Opportunity as they say knocks, but I think these days it probably more truly whispers. Besides, as Radhil said, the opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of that opportunity. The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of that opportunity when it is available. You must be prepared. Most people have great hopes and dreams, but they are hardly ready for the opportunity when it comes. Let me tell you a very quick story. A lady that I worked with many years ago, she was, she served in a department which I headed. One of her great ambitions was to do a master's degree in law in the US, in the United States. She prayed hard about it and everyone in the department knew that this was the desire of her heart. One day, right out of the blues, we got two of us from a US foundation through the US Embassy to nominate a candidate, preferably a female, to do a master's and a fellowship in a US university. Wow. We all rejoiced. We were all so excited. We knew that this was the opportunity this lady had been praying for. We had only two days to the deadline. We had to submit her passport that same afternoon. Then the bombshell. She didn't have a passport. We tried desperately the next day to obtain a passport, but it didn't work. She got a long story short. She lost the opportunity. She had everything, but she missed her moment. So there are some here who will say, I want to work in an international organization. That's my life ambition, maybe the United Nations, and you know that to stand a good chance to work in an international organization, it will help if you have one other foreign language apart from English. So if you haven't started now, now is the time to learn French, Spanish, or even Chinese. So you won't be like the young man who was asked if he spoke a second language and he said yes, English and Shakiri. The second part of that is integrity, basic honesty, trustworthiness. You must be trustworthy. Trust not money is the real currency of interaction, whether it is commercial or social. If you can be trusted, if people find you trustworthy, the class of degree you have will not matter. Everybody is looking for a trustworthy person to partner with or to employ. And somebody said the other day that even thieves are in search of trustworthy people to keep their money with. The third aspect of trust is respect for obligations. When you borrow, make sure you repay, whether it's from a friend, a relation, or a bank. Credit is the lifeblood of business. If you can be trusted to pay back, you will always have enough credit. You are dead in business if your credit dries up. So there will be many parts out there, many parts out there, as you step out into the world. Never be afraid to try. Never be afraid of failure. Every great success usually has some stories of many failures. Don't let the past tie you down. Your past is history, it's not your destiny. You will always be better tomorrow than you were today. I pray for you that the days and years ahead will be filled with joy and fulfillment and prosperity and that you will be a source of pride and joy to your families, to this university and to our nation in Jesus' name. Thank you.