Over the past week, I
was in Yola where I attended the graduation ceremony of a few friends of mine
who had become ripe enough to say good bye to AUN. It felt so good to be back
to where I had spent four good years of my life. Reuniting with
friends once again was a thing of joy for me. I sure had a wonderful time to say the least. Usually,
every year, in the American University of Nigeria, hundreds of graduating
seniors assemble together in the commencement hall as they await to receive
their diploma.
Like previous commencements, this one was no different as Farida Ibrahim, a graduating senior was
selected to share with parents, students, faculty, staff and the entire world
the collective stories of the graduating class of 2013. Her speech was not only
intriguing such that it captivated everyone's attention but it’s depth left
some persons who were present in the commencement hall crying and some shaking
their heads in total amazement. undoubtedly, her speech was sophisticated enough to
have impressed an intellectual like Prof Pat Utomi as he tweeted “As I tweet I am on the platform at the
graduation of AUN in Yola and liking what I am hearing from the class
Valedictorian, Farida Great kid”
Please find below the
text of Farida Ibrahim’s speech:
Flying in a plane is not exactly a phenomenal event.
I mean, there isn’t really much to look forward to when you’re hovering 6, 000
feet above sea level and your heart is pumping at a rate you didn’t think it
could. Once in a while however, a plane full of people flies across the
Nigerian sky, and during that hour, something phenomenal, almost magical,
happens.
Arik Air
Flight W3905 was one such phenomenal one. As it took off from Abuja on the
morning of Saturday 16th January
2010, there was no indication that history was about to be made, until you
realize that it was coming to Yola. You see, it wasn’t just any other usual
flight to Yola, it was among many odd flights that week, during which a good
number of the people who sit here today arrived in Yola to write our collective
history. And so it is on a Boeing 737-800 that our story begins.
In the week during which that flight came, and in
the 171 weeks following it, 280 people have thrived in Yola, in every sense of
the word. We’ve eaten and slept here, we’ve laughed and cried here, we’ve been
successful and failed here, we’ve loved and loathed here. 280 beating hearts,
280 brilliant minds and 280 fascinating stories converged here, and so it is an
honor more than any I have ever received to stand before you today and tell a
story of hope, courage, and the triumph of the human spirit. Our story is like
none you have ever heard. This is the story of the class of 2013.
You see, our being here today is not a mere
coincidence. The inevitable implication of our standing today is that we stand
on the shoulders of giants and are shaded by the trees they spent their lives
planting. We stand because Balewa and Awolowo, because Ahmadu bello and azikiwe
stood. We stand because the Funmilayo kuti's the shehu yar'aduas, the Dele
Giwas and Saro Wiwas stood. We stand on the tall and valiant shoulders of the
Soyinkas and the Achebes, of the Adichie's and the Alkalis, we stand because
many have made sacrifices and paid dearly for us to have what we have.
And so long before this moment, long before we ever
came to AUN and our paths collided in beautiful disorder, the future started.
As we sit here right now, at this very moment, we are already late. Therefore,
the ability to waste any more time is no longer an option available for us.
Over the past few days, we have heard again and
again from so many people about the wonderful and life-changing experiences we
have had here, and so there is no need for me to reiterate that. It is in that
spirit that I bring you a slightly different message today.
My fellow graduands, we leave our soon to be alma
mater at an extremely crucial and troublesome time for our country. As I speak
to you at this very moment, 70% of Nigerians live on less than 2 dollars every
day. 2 dollars a day is about N300 naira. 2 dollars a day, ladies and gentlemen
means that millions of children will go to bed hungry tonight. That hunger will
prevent them from paying any attention in school tomorrow, thus preventing them
from thinking as much as they should and can. That hunger will deny them a
future long before they can even imagine one. More than one-third of Nigeria’s
children who should be in primary school are not in school. For all of those
children, it means that a future with limitless possibilities like ours has
been violently snatched away from them, never to be recovered and restored.
Nigeria remains one of the 3 countries in the world where polio is still
endemic. More women die from childbirth here, than in some war zones. Millions
of women are unable to improve their quality of life and those of their
families because of structural and institutional sexism which manifests in so
many different ways. I could go and on about Nigeria’s problems, but all of
these are not new to our ears.
Every human being deserves to live with dignity and
with hope and with possibilities available to them. Do most of the people in
our country live like that? How many Nigerians can wake up every day and be
sure that their rights and dignities will not be stripped away, or that their
poverty will deny them all hope and possibility?
How many of us have a contextual and critical
understanding of our history as a people. If we do not know where we are coming
from, where we are will make no sense. If we do not understand where we are, we
set off on the wrong path on the road to where we should be. If our priorities
as a nation with regards to where we should be are wrong, then where we can be
will forever be out of our vision and out of our reach.
How long will we keep making excuses for Nigeria’s
relative lack of progress? Why do we continue to take one step forward as a
people, and 3 million steps backward? Why do we punish and vilify good people
and values, and reward and uphold mediocrity and evil? What are our obligations
to the Nigerian project? Is it okay for some of us to see service and holistic
citizenship as making money and just paying taxes and occasionally voting? What
are our obligations to fellow citizens? What obligations arise out of our privilege?
Make no
mistake, we are privileged. In a country whereby everyone should and can have
the opportunity to grow and prosper, yet only so very few do, we are unique
products of the unfair and unjust nature of the postcolonial state in Africa.
We represent a category of Nigerians with more power and privilege than we are
willing to admit and take responsibility for. We are part of the problem, but
like the strange paradox that Nigeria is, we are also a major part of the
solutions.
Nigeria has come a very long way since 1960, but we
have a far longer and more difficult journey ahead of us. We can no longer
afford to kneel under the destructive spell of mediocrity and fear. In the wise
words of Achebe, our elders say, that the sun will shine on those who stand
before it shines on those who kneel under them. If the sun will shine on our
generation and on the Nigeria we seek to create, then we must stand up for what
we believe every step of the way.
We have everything that we need to build something
far bigger than ourselves. Why then should we settle for anything less than
excellence?
My fellow graduands, our time has come. Ours has
been an education for peace, truth and progress, and for a truly unified
country. Our education must bring justice to the unjust. It must fix our
economy, tell our stories, find cleaner sources of energy, build ethical
businesses to take over the forbes list, make academy award winning movies,
develop technology for the next century, and bring hope and justice to those
that shall come after us. And it is possible. In our day, in our time, with our
work and through our hands, that Nigeria can move from a mere possibility, to a
reality more powerful than we ever imagined. Ours will be the time when Nigeria’s
children will hunger or thirst no more, where our brothers and sisters will not
be cut down by violence in their prime, where our uncles and aunts will not
burn in the attempt to clean out a fallen fuel tanker.
Ours shall be the generation to fulfill Fanon's
prophecy of discovering our mission and fulfilling it, because there is no more
opportunity for betrayal.
All of these are possible, but like all other
solutions, they come at a price. In the words of Kaushik Basu, people say
unfair societies are self-destructive. In truth, they can last for centuries
& that is why we need vigilance & conscious action.
My question to us all is, are we willing to pay the
price of action? If we assume that we have nothing to do with the fate of our
country and our continent, we are greatly harming ourselves, the legacy of those
before us, and the capacity of those after us.
We are all that we have. We have no one else,
absolutely nothing else. If we refuse to believe in the Nigerian project, if we
refuse to take on the Nigerian challenge, ours shall be a generation unforgiven
for eons to come, carrying with us a mighty burden of failed promises. Because
we have lost the privilege to be ignorant or to choose inaction, this is a
promise we must fulfill. May we never forget that our choices matter.
It is in reflection of all of these realities and in
celebration of the future of possibilities that lies ahead, that we gather here
today.
However, make no mistake, today is not just our day.
Today is in gratitude to our mothers, who have spent countless nights in
prayer, on their mats, holding their rosaries, in mosques and churches, in our
living rooms and in their bedrooms, praying tirelessly during the night and
working ceaselessly during the day that we may have an education worth having.
Their prayers will never be in vain.
This is in gratitude to our fathers, who continue to
give everything and more so that we may fulfill our potential. This is in
gratitude to our families, who have given up so much in order for us to be
here, who are the true definition of sacrifice. This is in recognition of our
teachers, who have dedicated their lives to bringing knowledge to us so that we
may fulfill our purpose. Today is in gratitude for the American University of
Nigeria, and all of its staff, its administrators, and its leadership, who continue
to give everything they have without hesitation so that our tomorrow is better
than our yesterday. Today is in gratitude to our founder, our board of
trustees, and our president, who continue to provide strong and committed
leadership to our development and growth as an institution. We are only because
all of these people are, and to them our gratitude and thanks are eternal and
boundless.
As I conclude, it is important for us to remember
that in our quest for a greater future, we must never place perfection over
progress.
Nelson Mandela said that sometimes it falls upon a
generation to be great. You can be that great generation. The only true way to
let your greatness blossom is to dignify it via action. Dear class of 2013, how
will we use the education we have been given to act for the greater good of us
all?
Will we have the courage and dignity to act and to
serve no matter the odds? Will we serve ourselves or will we serve our country?
These are questions each person must answer in their own, and yet its answer
will affect us all.
Dear class of 2013, a very very long journey ends
today. You have crossed the finish line and the world awaits your
contributions. As you go forth and conquer in strength and in faith, I wish you
good luck and Godspeed. Congratulations!
Farida
Ibrahim
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Twitter: @huntlya
