As if the whole audience have been waiting for him to take the stage. You could see the excitement and hope in the faces of everyone in the auditorium as Fela Durotoye took the mic.
First of all, he celebrated every worker in the house. He used the words “the true heroes of the economy” to describe them.
Fela, a man of vision, encouraged the audience to look forward to a Nigeria where everyone will be gainfully and joyfully employed, not unemployed or painfully employed.
He said that as ‘co-Nation builders’, there are certain characteristics we have to imbibe if we are going to enjoy the dividends of the good governance we all crave for. He used the acronym A.B.C.D
- ‘A’ stands for “ACCEPT”. Accept responsibility for the well-being of the nation.
- ‘B’, BLAME. Don’t blame.
- ‘C’ means “COMMIT”. Commit your scarce resource to networking and ensuring active participation
- ‘D’ stands for “DELIVER”. Deliver the kind of future you desire. Don’t walk into a future you wish. The future of the nation is in us, we should deliver it.
He went ahead to share the political history of the nation, and how the wrong people in leadership have dashed the hopes of many Nigerians.
“Over the years, due to bad leadership and inactivity of followership in the political process, we have lost businesses, our currency has lost worth, our education has lost value, and even families have lost values. Worst of it all, we have lost value in ourselves. It is as if we are guilty of the collective failure as a nation who knows what is right but decided to do what is wrong!”, said Mr. Fela Durotoye. “History has shown that if we don’t learn from our past in order to alter the course of the present, we should never be surprised at the bleakness of the future we are walking into. It is what you permit that persists.”
He continued by saying that our parents will not be responsible for what the future of our children will be like. That responsibility solely falls on us. Our children may ask how we got to this point. However, the major question will not be how we got here, but what we are doing to get involved and change the course of governance for good.
He explained that the human race is a relay race and you have to be ready to pass the baton to the next generation. We must, however, be mindful of what we are passing on to the next generation.
He made this shocking statement: “A great generation is one that solves problems and teaches problem solving techniques, and passes the same on to another generation.”
While explaining the principle of accepting responsibility, he said that the kind of future we want for our nation and our children can only happen, if we do the following;
- Desire and decide the kind of nation we want to give to the next generation.
- Deal with the challenges we have.
- Secure our people. People don’t just need accolades, they need assurances.
- Advocate for the need for infrastructure.
- Understand that governance is not complicated. It’s people that complicate it.
He added that going forward as a nation, we must keep these ten things in mind which will go a long way to helping us as a nation to realize our full potential;
- Get your PVC. Hypothetically, PVC doesn’t stand for Permanent Voter’s Card alone; it also means Power to Vote your Choice.
- Join a political party, get voting rights, and become a delegate so you can be part of the selection process of candidates who are presented to the electorate to be voted for.
- Volunteer.
- Run for office.
- Connect with those who have a need.
- Try to see how you can hold those in power accountable
- Encourage those who are doing good
- Don’t be a discourager.
- Enlighten those around you.
- Be a good and new Nigerian to have a good Nigeria. Be a role model.
After Fela was done speaking, the whole auditorium was ‘cloth’ with hope. A new dream had been communicated, and the audience were ready to #GetInvolved.
You can listen to the full speech of Mr. Fela Durotoye by clicking the link The Platform, Get Involved 06 Fela Durotoye