WELCOME ADDRESS

The May edition of this year’s platform began with the usual opening speech by the Visionary, Pastor Poju Oyemade.

He spoke for about ten minutes, first of all, emphasizing that this 11th edition will be the most impactful. He re-stated that this particular event is meant to get participant involved. By participant, he meant the citizens of our great country, Nigeria.

His speech centred on a term he called “Learned Helplessness”, and how this has affected the general population. He described this psychological condition as a state where individuals are unable to help themselves as a result of repeated failure due to unmet expectations. While he shared, he talked about an experiment that was done on a particular specie of fish called the “Piranha fish”.

This fish, been placed in an aquarium, tried several attempts to step out (of the aquarium) but soon discovered ‘in its psyche’ that it was meant to remain bound in its helpless condition.

Pastor Poju related the story of this fish to the condition of our nation, saying that after several attempts to try to get our nation Nigeria in a developed state, she still has not grown into a developed nation. And so everyone is tired in the country – No one wants to get into politics any more. “Politics is a dirty game”, they say, as the citizens have adjusted to the situation and resigned to accept our present condition.

He then encouraged the audience that the power to change this nation lies not in just the leaders alone but in how well the citizens who are educated can participate in politics. These citizens have to be educated enough to able to effect a positive change.

Finally, Pastor Poju mentioned that the purpose of this 11th edition of the Platform is to enlighten the people who will rise up to the challenge when they decide to get involved in the political system.

“Getting a PVC is the smallest level of engagement in political matters.”, said Pastor Poju. He shared the story of Pastor Francis Adebayo (one of today’s speaker) who wanted to construct a road but was told he needed to give an amount as bribe to ‘push’ this work. This Pastor then decided to take up the challenge and #GetInvolved.

“Getting a PVC is the smallest level of engagement in political matters.”

During his speech, Pastor Poju shared a research done by some historians. These people found out that the way to destroy a nation is to destroy their politics.

He therefore urged everyone to get into the system and become politically literate.

You can listen to the full speech of Pastor ‘Poju by clicking the link The Platform, Get Involved 01 Pastor Poju Oyemade