LAST week Tuesday, 7th November, 2024, the Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Charles Soludo, delivered the 13th Convocation Lecture at the Veritas University, Abuja.

“May I, at this moment, congratulate all the 800 graduate students for having been found worthy in character and learning to deserve the degrees of this University,” said Soludo.

He then offered the following advices to the graduate students:

Making money cannot be an objective; adding value is what makes money.

▪︎Jobs are not there, and about 80 percent of you will not practise what you studied. It is scary and I am not sure how adequately the University has prepared you for survival in chaotic times. As I draw the parallels between my time of graduation and yours, I am not sure whether to say congratulations or commiserations.

But what you make of the current situation depends on whether you see it as a challenge or an opportunity.

▪︎ For me, Nigeria remains the Black man’s greatest opportunity. National Youth Service The next year–your one year of National Youth Service may be the year for re-setting.You will meet new people; you will stumble on new ideas—good and bad; and you

may even try some adventures. Community Service One day a week, you will have what we used to call a day for “community service.”

Make that day count! It might be your rehearsal for selfless public service. Start with Volunteerism: volunteer to serve at every opportunity.

Do something good for the benefit of society from which you do not expect to be paid. It is a pivotal year, your balcony moment, and you must make it count.

During my youth service at the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife), I attended all M.Sc classes in the Department of Economics—though I was not a registered student. Perhaps, part of the impetus for me to resign from Coopers and Lybrand after five months to go back for post-graduate studies may have come from my NYSC experience.

My tailor in Abuja, Mr. Adekunle from Osun State, is a graduate of Geology from the University of Maiduguri.

He sold used clothes during his NYSC in Akwa Ibom and, from there, learned tailoring during the same service.

Today, he has more than 150 tailors, 30 graduates in Management, and other staff—all totalling over 200, working for him. I can cite over 100 similar examples. Thus, what happens in this one year of your ‘national service’ might determine whether Nigeria ends up as a half-empty or half-full glass for you.

▪︎Still, on your personal survival, let me add a little digression. Many of you probably only studied/read seriously while preparing for examinations, and believe that henceforth, the torture is over. Bad News for You I have bad news for you. Your bachelor’s degree (B.A.) might mean “Begin Again.”

In today’s world, there is a connection between continuous learning and earning. If you stop learning, you start decaying, or you can sum it up in a slogan: learn more to earn more! I have heard several of the richest people in the world brag about how many non-fiction books they read in a year. I will not say more.

▪︎ As you venture into the uncertain world, you will need all the help you can get. You will need all the networks and partnerships you can get. Success in life is not just about what you know but even more so about whom you know.

▪︎ As the saying goes, if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together. So, you will need the help of others to get ahead. “Anything” Cannot Take You “Anywhere”

▪︎ Soon, you will start looking for jobs or other ‘help’ from people to jumpstart a new life. For some decades, I always had young people approach me to help them find a job, and when you ask, ‘What do you want to do,’ a common answer was, “Anything.” Of course, “anything” cannot take you “anywhere” because as the saying goes, “if you don’t have a destination in mind, any road will take you there.”

So, my only tip to you on this occasion is to always seek intentionally to add value.

Before you approach someone for help, there is a minimum investment/preparation you must make to be ready to be “helped.” 7.

When you approach people, start with what value you will bring to the table—how you intend to ‘help them.’

This might sound counterintuitive.   Paradoxically, that is also how you make money.

Making money cannot be an objective; adding value is what makes money.

The Richest People in The World Think of it for a moment.

The richest people in the world (through enterprise, and not through rent or criminality) are those who set out to solve specific problems for society and money followed as a reward—naturally!. Think of the inventors, the software developers who set out to connect people socially (Facebook, Twitter, etc), industrialists, consultants, tailors, traders, or anyone seeking to create value for customers, and how money followed them consequently.

So, the next time you approach someone for help, start by telling them what you can also do for them, and you will see that they are more likely to listen to you than if you approach them for charity. When You Are Applying for a Job

▪︎ When you are going to apply for a job, spend time researching how you can help to improve the fortune of the company. Instead of just “applying for a job,” write them a proposal on what you can offer, and you will see the difference. Try it! Sorry, I veered off into advisory which I promised not to get into.

▪︎Let me share some statistics that may jolt you to action. Without a doubt, the first need of man is survival and safety. Maslow prioritized human needs as physiological needs (air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, sleep, and health), safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Incomes Distribution

▪︎Again, the reality is that given Nigeria’s current income distribution, more than 60% of you may not go beyond satisfying the first need –physiological needs. When I was Governor of the Central Bank, we had a study that gave us a casual inference about the income distribution/inequality in Nigeria (beyond the Gini coefficient).

We discovered that 92% of the millions of depositors in Nigerian commercial banks had bank balances of N300,000 or less. But this 92% of depositors controlled about 7% of the total deposits, while the 8% that had over N300,000 controlled 93% of the total deposits.

I understand that a similar exercise was repeated several years later with a threshold of N500,000 and the distribution was largely unchanged.

Someone can crudely interpret this to mean that about 8% of the population controls 93% of the income, while 92% of the people control just 7% of income. Crude as the statistics may seem but it tells a thousand stories and highlights the context of a society in which our new graduates must thrive and excel. Unemployed or underemployed

▪︎I know many of you will already be casting and binding and praying that it is not your portion to end up among the 92% or among the many who may remain unemployed or underemployed for several years after your national service.

The point, however, is that if we all do not work to alter the meta-level architecture that produces such outcomes, much of our efforts at individual survival might be circumscribed.

My Core Message to YOU

This brings me to my core message to you: the current situation in Nigeria is not destiny. Everyone—I mean, everyone including you, the new graduates, can and must do something about it.

Nation-building is too serious a business to be left to the politicians or public servants alone.

To our young graduates, Veritas University has imbued you with knowledge, skills, and social thought to mobilize you for the public good.

The future you seek is in your palms, and only those who plan can control the future. As I look into your eyes, I can see hope.

Yes, Nigeria may not have offered you much, but in fulfilment of your divine purpose on earth, you will be expected to give more than you have received. I therefore urge you all to show up and participate in shaping the destiny of this nation.

We are Nigerians and this country belongs to all of us. We are all birds of passage but each of us must account to our Creator what we did while at our pilgrim post here on earth.

As I look around, I do not see many of the doyens of Nigeria’s first, second and even third republics.

Let no one tell you that you are the leaders of tomorrow. That tomorrow is here: take it and shape it so that Nigeria can realize its manifest destiny as the greatest Black power and the leader in the 22nd century.

May your road be rough, and let us get it done, together!