 The greatest, of the greatest, of the greatest, of the greatest. Laugh. Yes, ladies and gentlemen. I am deeply honored to have been invited to join you on this auspicious occasion of the 23rd convocation of the Lagos State University. This is a homecoming for me. As you know, I am especially blessed to have received my first professor of chair here at the Lagos State University. My other chair was received at your brother's university, my alma mater, the University of Lagos. The great visionary is led by Alacrida T. John, who founded this great place of learning and inquiry, deserve our commendation and praise. It is on account of their farsightedness and resilience in the early, difficult days of the establishment of this university that we have today a university that has proved that it can produce the best people and the most innovative in ideas. We also owe a priceless debt of gratitude to the distinguished scholars and faculties of this great university, men and women of enormous talent, despite all the challenges of funding and infrastructure, produce excellent research daily, and year after year they turn out men and women who are equipped with the best resource in man or woman and ever, relevant knowledge in the 21st century. We must congratulate the university on being selected among so many universities in Western Central Africa for the location of a center of excellence as part of the World Bank's Centers of Excellence program, ACE. This is the recognition of the immense talent and hard work demonstrated by the faculty and students of our great university. Today I've been asked to speak on the subject African Centers of Excellence in African universities, a veritable catalyst for nation-building and development. According to the US-based National Research Foundation, NRF, centers of excellence are physical or virtual centers of research that concentrate existing research excellence, capacity and resources to enable researchers to collaborate across disciplines and institutions on long-term projects that are locally relevant and internationally competitive in order to enhance the pursuit of research excellence and capacity development. The five key performance areas of centers of excellence are usually the following. One, research knowledge production, education and training, information brokerage, networking and service rendering. In the academia, a center of excellence often refers to a team with a clear focus on a particular area of research. Such a center may bring together faculty members from different disciplines and provide shared facilities. A center of excellence must by definition be at the apex of the university system or the educational system and must also be selective in its area of specialization. It must of course also be able to concentrate the best staff in its designated field and attract the financial resources that confer with operational autonomy and for the conduct of stellar research. The concept is not now new in Africa. A center of excellence integrated mineral and energy resource analysis, CIMERA, was launched on the 24th of April, 2014, at the University of Johannesburg. A center of excellence in food security was also launched in South Africa, co-hosted by the University of Weston, Cape and the University of Pretoria. A center of excellence in mathematical and statistical sciences was launched at the University of Witwater's Grand on the 1st of April, 2014, focusing on the theme mathematics of the Earth and environment. The Africa Center of Excellence project sponsored by the World Bank is a notable initiative in this regard with emphasis being placed on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. STEM. The initiative also prioritizes agriculture and health, which are important sectors for African development. I'm told that 19 centers of excellence have been established in Nigeria to date under the ACE initiative, including just to name a few, at the University of Benin, the Amadoubello University Zaire, the University of Nigeria and Suka, Bayero University Kano, the University of Potacot, the University of Lagos, the Redeemer's University and of course the Lagos State University. The establishment of the center the center here will result in enhanced research capacity, quality and impact for the institution as well as increased opportunity for research collaborations. The clearly expressed objective of the ACE project is to, I quote, train experts in various research fields to find solutions to regional development challenges, end of quote. This is a succinct statement of the pivotal relevance of a center of excellence. Beyond the ACE project, this must also be the objective of African governments, civil society and the private sector. We must find and find solutions by research and innovation to our various developmental challenges. We as a government, and by that I mean the federal government of Nigeria, in collaboration with state governments have taken up that challenge. Recently, the Nigeria Climate Innovation Center, a collaboration between the federal government and the Lagos Business School concluded its climate launch path and some very innovative ideas were unveiled. One of the innovator companies, New Digits, generates power from water. The product uses water and conforms solar cells to generate energy for electricity and cooking. It works by collecting water automatically from any piping channel in the house. It breaks down the water into hydrogen, which is then used to cook and to power the entire house without a need for batteries. Power-stove energy, founded by three Nigerian, young Nigerians, OK, Abdulaziz and Gloria, produces a low-cost, clean, smokeless cook-store. Power-stove energy is the first clean cook-store to be fitted with self-powered IoT cloud systems to monitor in real time a single day of cooking, amount of carbon dioxide and bio-mass that is saved. Black carbon-prevented and total electricity that is generated. But even more remarkable is the innovation in healthcare, the work being done by the Federal Government-sponsored Innovation Hub in Yola, a Damara state. It is called the North-East Humanitarian Innovation Hub. The hub was established to find solutions to the humanitarian problems posed by the insurgency in the North-East. But about a month ago, a group of interns at the hub designed and assembled a 3D printed prosthesis limb, an artificial limb for an assistant superintendent of police, Mr. Tumber James, who lost his arm while on active duty. The interns, Bashir Yal, Suleiman Habiba Dam and Kabir Adhan and their colleagues were trained in Yola. They worked with a number of volunteers with amputated limbs. The equipment and materials required and used for all of the processes were found and taken from Yola. All the work was done in Yola. All of this, the creation by 3D printer. So today, at that innovation hub, it is possible to print a prosthesis an artificial limb using a 3D printer designed in Nigeria. We've also partnered with the Civic Hub in Abuja, an innovation technology hub constantly churning out revolutionary public ideas for public sector service delivery. They've also pioneered a student's innovation challenge and they're building a technology innovation hub at the University of Lagos, which is groundbreaking, both in its concept as well as design. Everywhere in our country today, young men and women are achieving the visions of centers of excellence as they tackle the problems of poverty, education, financial inclusion, healthcare in far-flung rural areas using technology to reach more people with knowledge and services. Let me give you a few examples. When we wanted to employ 500,000 graduates in our empire program, the challenge was how to process at least 3 million expected applications and pick the best in every local government in Nigeria. We didn't seek any foreign help or expertise. We hired a local company, a company called Softram. Softram is a company founded by Yomi Adedigi, a 2007 graduate of Covenant University. The company's chief solutions officer was a gentleman called Sende Olobayo, who graduated from the University of Illinois. They designed a portal and tools, robust enough to deal with over 4 million applications online. After we employed the over 500 of the applicants, the same company designed the payment platform to ensure that all beneficiaries are paid promptly every single month. We did not see any of the 500,000 graduates. All of this took place on this robust platform built by this company. But a greater challenge was when we started our trader money, market money, pharma money, micro-credit loans to reach 2 million petty traders across the country. Again, we didn't look beyond young Nigerian innovators. The first challenge was how to enumerate at least 2.5 million petty traders. We got two Nigerian technology companies, Mobile Forms and GDM. Mobile Forms was formed barely three years ago by two young Nigerian graduates. Damilala Ayuride and Uatomi Ayurim. The company has created a platform that enables business and governments to crowdsource data from across the African continent. GDM, also a Nigerian owned marketing services and research company formed by two young people. The companies not only enumerated all of our 2.5 million potential clients, but they took bow data, including photographs of this number of people and many of them, of course, became beneficiaries of the scheme. The person and a key implementer of the project from the Bank of Industry who managed the project was Ozoma and Waba, another young Nigerian barely 30 years old. To pay out the loans, collect repayments and give further loans to those who repay. We engage a Fintech platform created again by Nigerians under 35 years old, this platform which was created not only enumerates all of the petty traders, but it also ensures that there are no double payments made and it delivers the money to the mobile phones of the traders. These young Nigerian entrepreneurs deliver the largest social investment programme of its kind in Africa for all of us. So what do we need to do to convert our country to the great centre for innovation and creativity in the world? What is the role of the centres of excellence in doing this? Three things are important. One, education, two, education, three, education. The truth is that education is the most powerful force of economic change in the world. The UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Project says that with relevant education are the most important forces for change in so many different respects. The learning generation report which they generated provides important evidence on the impact of education on the individual's earnings and economic growth. They found, among other things, that one, education reduces poverty. 171 million people could be lifted out of extreme poverty if all children left school with basic reading skills. That is equivalent to about a 12% drop in the world total. Absolute poverty, they say, could be reduced by 30% from learning improvements outlined by the Education Commission. Two, they say that education increases individual earnings, the capacity of the individual to earn more money. Education increases earnings by roughly 10% per additional year of schooling. For each $1 invested in an additional year of schooling, earnings increase by $5 in low-income countries and 2.5 in lower-to-middle-income countries. Three, that education reduces economic inequalities. If workers from poor and rich backgrounds receive the same education, the disparity between the two in working poverty could actually decrease by 39% for that education promotes economic growth. Educational attainment explains about half of the difference in growth rates between East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, especially between the periods of 1965 and 2010. In 2050, GDP per capita in low-income countries will be almost 70% lower than it would if all children were actually learning. Increasing tertiary education attainment by one year on Africa would increase Sub-Saharan Africa's long-term GDP by 16%. An important issue is that of education of girls in particular. Some studies today already show that girls on the average are smarter than boys. Any nation that does not educate its girls does itself great harm. How do you solve your problems when you lock up your best minds? So we have a three-fold plan, and by that I mean the federal government has a three-fold plan to improve educational outcomes but more importantly to train this generation of students to create and function in a knowledge-driven economy. To start with, we will be more focused on achieving the educational outcomes specified in the Sustainable Development Goals such that we can meet the targets for school enrollment, quality of education, adult literacy and the quality of teaching by 2030. Secondly, we have with the collaboration of state governments undertaken an ambitious program to get the millions of out-of-school children back into school. It's a complex process requiring the full collaboration of state governments, religious authorities as well as resources to build more schools, equip them properly and train the required number of teachers. Our school-feeding program is already leading to improved enrollment and their program can be the source of the initial requirement for teachers. But more importantly, we are redesigning our educational curriculum as part of our educational roadmap which will title every child counts. It's quite clear that we have to change all the substance of education that our children receive as well as the methods by which they are educated. We are clear that the key to achieving all of these goals is to focus on what we have described as STEAM education as opposed to STEM. STEAM means Education, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths. And the need for a workforce of STEAM skills is to drive economic prosperity. It's particularly gratifying to note that the Lagos State University Center of Excellence program has been airmarked as a center of excellence and regional hub for innovation and transformative STEM education in Africa. This well fits with the federal government's policy direction in education and our vision for a prosperous Nigerian economy able to create the jobs and train the young men and women to take on those jobs in the next few years. The notable addition that our policy has made to STEM as I've said earlier is to add arts so ours becomes STEAM and we believe that training in humanities is fundamental to sound reasoning and judgment and must also take on the challenge of training men and women for opportunities in the arts and entertainment. But what is STEAM all about? Let me explain. It is clear to all from now and into the next several decades that technology and computing will rule the world. Every aspect of our lives, healthcare, commerce, business, education, entertainment will be driven or built on some technology platform or the other. Technology itself is driven by the interplay and convergence of science, technology, engineering and maths. Recognizing this, STEAM curricula in our case have been developed in several countries to enable the teaching of these subjects, not individually and separately as before, but together as a system of thoughts and ideas. The teaching also emphasizes how to use the combination of these subjects to design and to solve real-life problems. Most surveys on the job opportunities of the future agree that STEAM-related jobs, especially jobs in computing, will dominate the job market. The good news for us is that even in Europe and America there are huge gaps in finding competent personnel to take on most of the tech-related jobs already being created. The good news also is that most computing jobs may not even require major degrees. A new policy, therefore, is to introduce science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics curriculum in primary and secondary schools. We also recognize that schooling should support the development of skills in cross-disciplinary, critical and creative thinking, problem solving and digital technologies. These skills are essential in all 21st century occupations. The national curriculum being developed will not only include the teaching of coding, digital arts, design thinking, robotics, critical thinking and other skills, but also using these skills in interpreting traditional curriculum topics. The federal government's aim is to ensure that from early education, primary school onwards regardless of social background or geographical location, every young person should have a fundamental level of digital and STEM literacy that enables them to succeed locally or internationally. The curriculum is one of the crucial components of the program's success. It recognizes the importance of having a well-rounded curriculum that is global in orientation and local in its application. Quality teaching is the key to lifting the Nigerian students' skills quotient to attaining that national objective. Teachers need to be equipped with the skills and confidence to support digital literacy, functional skills training and STEM learning. Our efforts under the national strategy will focus on implementing the national retraining at primary and secondary levels, implementing national initial teacher education standards, sharing best practices and efforts to attract more STEM graduates to the teaching profession. The conducive learning environments are crucial to motivate students and to enhance learning. Classrooms and other learning centers must be remodeled. We will therefore be remodeling under the new scheme and re-equipping 10,000 schools every year for the next 10 years. There is no doubt we will be doing heavily for direction, for support and for ideas on the Lagos State University Center of Excellence Program. Especially since by Providence STEM Education Research will be your focus. The collaboration will be an important one. We expect that STEAM will fundamentally determine the future of the Nigerian socio-economic landscape where in a race against other economies and against time. Technology has changed the employment landscape permanently for the first time in human history. Men and women will be trained in their own countries. They may even work from their bedrooms and compete for jobs anywhere on the planet. Computing is the ultimate agnostic tool. You may never even have to see your employer, your employee or service provider. Our success or our failure will determine our economic future. This is the existential nature of the task before the last center of excellence and the Nigerian economy. God help us who will not fail. Permit me a word for the graduate students today. It was Professor Woodrow Wilson who said that a man who leaves a university or a woman who leaves a university must be a man or woman of his nation and a man or woman of his or her times. In other words, you must be concerned about building your nation and you must recognize that every generation is uniquely equipped to deal with its own challenges. Be very suspicious of those who speak of the good old days. They're probably suffering from memory loss. Your own days are the best days yet. It was Farid Zakaria who told a Harvard graduating class in 2012 that the smartphones which you have, and I say the same to you, that the smartphones which you have today with you have more computing power than the Apollo space capsule that went to the moon. And that is to demonstrate to you that you have more in your pockets today or more in your hands today much more technology that was available when the Apollo spacecraft was landed on the moon. So you are not by any means disadvantage. You are graduating at the most advanced moment in human history. The challenge for you and for which I am confident you are prepared is to make your own contribution to make your own times better now and in the future. I congratulate family and friends of the graduates on this day of joy. For the graduates today, I cannot resist saying my favorite prayer for you as your days social are your strength, social are your wisdom and social are your favor with God. This means that you have enough strength in your body, in your minds and in your finances to meet your daily challenges. There are a thousand and one excuses for failure. Ignore them all and you will succeed. Congratulations. Thank you all.