Graduates must lead, innovate, build better Nigeria — Expert

A tax administrator and financial services expert, Omoba Erinle Adeola Adeleye, has charged Nigerian graduates to take responsibility for the future of the country by embracing leadership, innovation and nation-building.

Adeleye gave the charge while delivering the convocation lecture at the 18th Convocation Ceremony of Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, on Wednesday.

The lecture, titled ‘Reimagining Nigeria: Leadership, Innovation and the Future of Nation Building’, was delivered on his behalf by a partner at The A’s Consulting, Abiodun Ekebafe.

Adeleye described Nigeria as a nation endowed with significant human capital but grappling with widespread frustration, urging the graduating students not to join the growing number of Nigerians who only criticise the country.

He said: “Nigeria has arrived at this decade carrying both extraordinary human capital and extraordinary frustration in the same breath.”

The convocation lecturer told the graduating students that their university certificates should not be viewed merely as tickets to personal advancement and professional success, but as a call to responsibility.

According to him, every certificate earned by the graduates represents a summons to answer a critical question: “What kind of Nigerian will you be, starting today, regardless of where you stand?”

He urged the graduates to reject what he described as the “excuse of smallness”, encouraging them to compete with the world rather than limiting their ambitions to competing with their classmates.

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Adeleye also challenged them to build initiatives and institutions capable of outliving their immediate personal needs, stressing the importance of creating lasting value for society.

He advised the graduates to remain teachable even after attaining success, mentor others before they feel completely prepared, and choose their associations with the same seriousness with which they selected their courses of study.

On leadership, Adeleye noted that it is not necessarily a function of age or official position, but of the courage to identify gaps and take action to address them.

“Nigeria does not have a shortage of people planning to lead eventually. It has a shortage of people leading today, imperfectly from wherever they happen to be standing,” he said.

Speaking further on nation-building, the guest lecturer said the graduates have inherited valuable lessons from previous generations and should deploy such knowledge and experience in creating a better future for the country.

He urged them not to allow frustration or cynicism to prevent them from contributing meaningfully to national development.

“Do not waste that advantage on cynicism,” he admonished.