Leveraging Youth Power Technology To Develop The African Continent
okay
everybody welcome um it’s
such an honor to be home and speaking in
front of
a crowd of amazing nigerians but
even more so people from where i helped
from from iberia land
you know listening to everything i heard
today i was a bit
struck by the idea that we’re talking
about
self and self development
and over my years coming from a family
of
boys should i say that turn to men there
was always this impression that we had
as nigerians the opportunity to do so
much more
than just living and in
developing my skill set i went through
various journeys from
motor racing to oil and gas sector
and now i’m in i guess the tech sector
and the tech sector happens to be an
area where
something like tedx or kenny can can
actually happen
but it’s happening because of young
people it’s not happening because of our
leaders
and when i prepared for this
conversation i wanted to talk more about
what i do
but i then realized that there’s an
audience here and i wanted to give
something
that’s heartfelt but i think will
benefit as many people as
are in this audience and those that are
online watching as well
you know the covet situation has brought
something very interesting to
africa there is a
sense in my own heart that there is a
pause button there’s a reset button
happening around the world
the developing world is closing itself
up
they’re trying to find vaccines they’re
trying to look after themselves with
unfortunately millions of people
affected and hundreds of thousands of
people dying
africa however is sitting at this very
interesting crossroads
while those around us are hunkering down
and trying to find a cure we’re still
living where we’re still the energy of
life of the planet
our cases though we’ve lost many loved
ones
is not as bad and certainly a lot better
than most of the developed countries
in this pause i’d like us as nigerians
as africans as
the next big thing that’s going to
happen around the world i’d like us to
to take an opportunity to to think a
little bit about what we want
to happen in the upcoming decade
africa has this reset button right now
we can step a little bit further than
maybe the world wants us to to to rise
to
and in that technology will allow us to
do that
one detriment that we have as africans
as
nigerians is the power situation and
our situation is that we are we’re
living on legacy power
in fact in kogi state we’re one of the
blessed we’ve got uh garagu one and two
we have
power for maja kuta that could be
brought on the grid
but as africans were blessed in in the
land of sun
the first connotation of anything
african is that
you’re going to get burnt it’s it’s hard
out there and
um we need to harness this power
i created brick energy when i was at the
united nations as a under secretary for
an organization that focused on
renewables
and i realized that the northern
hemisphere wanted to save power
and save the planet southern hemisphere
needed power to develop
we must do something slightly different
we must
not focus on what everybody wants us to
have we need to focus on what we have
and take that and channel that towards
what could be a better nigeria
and a better africa and that comes from
taking our raw materials
and not what’s in the ground but what’s
above our heads the sun
empowers africans nigerian take needs to
take the
take that power and create value
sunpower is cheap it’s god given
it’s an energy that’s there just in the
ground and we’re taking that oil and
utilizing it for
um you know oil and petroleum resources
what’s important for us is that we need
to understand that the sun
can give us that same power the richest
man in the world
is building electric vehicles elon musk
who happens also to be south african
has moved to the us and he’s building it
well his company is now more valuable
than volkswagen
rolls-royce any brand you want to
imagine he’s a bigger brand
today on the stock exchange but what
is going to power that renewable energy
has the resource
to power those electric vehicles we need
to think differently
and those electric vehicles are going to
go offline
in europe neptune and in america also
very soon
and what’s going to happen is these
vehicles that they’re driving right now
are going to come to africa
and we’re going to be using them as
tokumbo
we need to get ahead of the curve
we as africans are blessed with the sun
and the challenge i’m giving to
my brothers and sisters out here is
let’s not wait for them to give us what
they
have discarded let’s get on top of it
let’s create let’s develop energy
and and i’m saying this to our leaders
as well you need to give us
our young people a young secondary
school students that are here
beautiful young ladies that this lady
that just came and spoke and
and spoke from her heart you need to
give us an opportunity
and that opportunity is to give us the
enabling environments to be great
africa cradle of mankind
our turn is about to come on that circle
of life
but we need leadership to take us there
we need
visionaries you know we love to go to
places like
dubai and the united states and see all
these wonderful things
but somebody gave the vision for dubai
to happen
out of the sun out of the desert and
we’re going there
oohing and ouring at burj khalifa
1960 we got independence what have we
built
what have people come here to see
that must change but it changes with our
people
with the hearts and minds of everybody
here and everybody watching
what do we want to be the legacy of
every nigerian that’s coming after us
i caution young leadership into not
thinking that young means 30
a 70 year old plus gentleman is running
our country
and for that myself in my 50s i’m a
small boy i’m a young man
we bow to our leaders and our elders
from african culture but the truth is
we want leadership that we can talk to
leaders that can hear us and see us
our dreams must not be overtaken by our
culture
that our culture whether you’re from the
north south east or west of this country
let that culture determine who we are
let us not divide ourselves because of
politics
but let’s look at what’s happening
around the world let’s add
as citizens of this world to what’s
going to be the greatness of africa
nigeria leads the rest of africa follows
if we sneeze the rest of africa gets a
cult
let us take that mantle of leadership
use our minds our vision our education
our greatness our youth which is our
greatest
asset and let’s propel that into a
different world a different world
that in a minute that i have i can tell
you a little bit about what i think is
going to happen
or i pray is going to happen in the
upcoming
elections we should look for leadership
that has
vision let us hear what they want to
what they dream what burj khalifa
they’re going to build
what greatness people come to nigeria to
see
those are the people we want to lead us
you know we talk about faith sharing
talked about
believing in our maker but our maker
also wants us to believe in ourselves
so that he can help us every one of us
whether we’re this eight-year-old or a
57 year old
or a 77 year old but without vision
we’re stuck so i pray that when you
leave this
amazing occasion in
the center of nigeria the heartbeat of
nigeria a place the british came knowing
that
everything must come through here to get
out
let us renew that spirit of greatness
for africa for nigeria
that everybody has come here people
around the world are listening to this
event
and let’s reset nigeria let’s reset the
pace in which we want to be
let’s not let uh let let us not let
others dictate to us
let’s dream bigger let’s dream wiser
let’s
let’s not be captivated by what we see
but
let us be inspired of what we see
outside and let’s bring that home
i don’t have much um that i can do to
inspire anybody but to talk about myself
but even then it’s a choice that i make
because i’ve been lucky to come from a
family where
my father did great things he was never
a politician
he built what he built in his own he
knew he came from greatness
and i hope that by talking i’ve inspired
you all to try to look inside yourselves
may god bless you all and and thank you
very much tedx for this incredible
patience