During his session at the platform, Kunle Soriyan mounted the podium and delivered his message with so much zest. He illustrated practically how we can think global and become borderless in our approach to nation-building and development as entrepreneurs, nonprofits and business owners. This, he said, is done by taking a stake at the table of power, leading by creating and birthing ideas and emerging with unique brands that address and solve specific human problems we are facing in our world presently. This should be done regardless of our present geographical location.
He started by explaining in-depth that there are three layers of political power blocks represented by people; those that are seen every time – the masses, those that are seen when they are revealed or appointed and those that are never seen. Those that are never seen control those that are seen when they are appointed/emerge and the appointed ones control the masses.
…people must start taking control not through ‘Government’ but by birthing productive ideas
He explained further by saying that during the earlier civilian, military and apartheid regimes, people’s choices were being controlled and generally, any time people find out that their choices are being manipulated, they reject the outcome. So the power blocks resorted to a higher resolution; they seemingly purport that people should make a choice about who they want to rule but the power to choose has been circumvented by party administration. During party administration, people take a stake in the options set for the people to choose from and that is where potential change-makers must take a stake. He went on to emphasize that people must start taking control not through ‘Government’ but by birthing productive ideas because transformation and growth in a nation come when entrepreneurs and nonprofits take responsibility for their environment.
In addition, he stated that in creating global ideas, we must think beyond relocation and that we need less capital and more guts and raw audacity to take those uncommon and unpopular steps. “To transcend power in the world, you have to transcend the limits of relocation and think more about penetration. ‘Ideas’ are what move in the world. To create ideas that solve demonstrable human problems we must think globally in our idea generation beyond the limits of our society and test our ideas to make them have a universal appeal and acceptance” he said.
He went further to add that nations grow with the collaboration and organization of their people in the diaspora and that entrepreneurs must embrace brain gain and the diaspora must understand their own responsibility.
Finally, he emphasized that our nonprofits in Africa need to intentionally search for the right ideas and pull resources together to fund these local ideas; one way to do this is to channel the funds sent from the people in the diaspora used for welfare economics into the investment in ideas. The creativity that comes from implementing these ideas is what forces the‘ Government’ to negotiate and collaborate with the private sector. It’s not going to come by arguing and fighting and by hating on government officials.
He said in conclusion; “We have to dimension our problems into measurable, usable, transferrable and containable, solvable ideas and that comes when visionaries like you and I take responsibility for those small sectors and begin to attack those ideas as commitments, sacrifices, services; that is the way it has to be. We become ideas shepherds taking responsibility at a higher level, developing a ‘helicopter-view’ over our issues and choosing which of them we will solve, the ones we will instruct our children to solve and the entrepreneurs will take their place by creating ideas. The guys with capacity and business here will form funds to fund those ideas, take equity in those ideas and watch them grow.”
