The Lagos state governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has admonished Nigerian youths not to glorify ignorance no matter their position on the olodo uprising debate.
Delivering
the lecture of the 2026 Undergraduate Convocation Ceremony of Babcock
University themed, Breaking New Grounds, Sanwo-Olu said that there is nothing
wrong with building an audience but let what you offer that audience be built
on substance.
“Decide
today that you will always be hungry for opportunity, hungry for learning,
hungry for new challenges.”
“Let
me offer this piece of advice, which speaks directly to your generation. The
internet has recently been abuzz with debate about a so-called “Olodo
Uprising” — the worry that our society is beginning to celebrate virality over
value, popularity over proficiency, and entertainment over expertise. Whatever
your opinion of that debate, make up your mind today that you will never
glorify ignorance or a lack of curiosity. There is nothing wrong with building
an audience — but let what you offer that audience be built on substance.
Decide today that you will always be hungry for opportunity, hungry for
learning, hungry for new challenges.
“There
are many paths ahead — find your own. Do not try to copy and paste another
person’s life. Some of you will pursue the creative industries, like Davido and
BNXN, who walked this Babcock path before you. Some will follow the startup
life, like Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who met here at Babcock and went on
to co-found Paystack, one of Nigeria’s most beloved technology success stories.
Some of you will build careers in medicine, law, public health, accountancy,
nursing, music, ministry and public service.
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“Never
forget that your real value does not lie in your social media following
— important as that may be. Start before you feel ready. Build a track record
of finishing small things. Treat your first job or venture as a training
ground, not a destination. Seek mentors deliberately. Guard your integrity as
your only non-renewable asset. Dig your well before you are thirsty.
Under-promise and over-deliver — not the other way round. And in all of it,
remain purposeful and godly in service: let the fear of God, and the love of
neighbor, be the compass by which you break new ground.”
Going personal, Sanwo-Olu recalled that almost forty years ago, he took stood
in the same existential spot at the University of Lagos, where he
completed an undergraduate degree in Surveying, in 1988.
“It
was a very different world back then. If any of you were taken from the present
and dropped into 1988, you would find it near impossible to recognize. No
internet, no mobile phones, no email. The digital screens we knew were mostly
television sets and simple calculators — everything else was analogue: print
newspapers, wooden billboards, paper posters, analogue clocks and watches.
“Unlike
you, we did not have the world at our fingertips. Access to information was
limited to physical libraries. There were no virtual meetings or remote work
opportunities. If you were fortunate, you had access to a fax machine;
otherwise, you sent a letter that travelled slowly through the post and
demanded extreme patience of you.
“But
it was the world we knew and accepted, and we tried our very best to make the
most of it. The same challenge now confronts you all — to accept the world as
it is and to make the most of it. Do not waste your time wishing it were a
different world. Embrace it, and then work to shape it into what you would like
it to be.
“Like
many of you, I harbored some anxiety about what lay beyond the walls of the
University of Lagos. I wasn’t absolutely sure I wanted to build a career in
surveying, even though I had spent years studying it. More than anything, I did
not want to limit myself early on.
“Therein
lies an important lesson. You do not need absolute clarity or certainty to take
the next step. More important is
faith
—
a concept you will all be familiar with, as products of a Christian university.
The Bible tells us that faith is the evidence of things not seen. New ground is
broken by institutions and people willing to act without full knowledge or
certainty, knowing that what matters most is a capacity and willingness to
press forward, put the past behind, learn fast, and adapt nimbly.
“In
the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:13–14: “But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward
the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ
Jesus.”
Get
used to trying and failing. Life rewards, most of all, the people who rise
fastest after failing — not those who wallow in self-pity and a defeatist
mindset.
“After
graduating from university, I tried my hand at a string of businesses that
failed. Sometimes the lesson is that you need to try again. Other times, the
lesson is that this is not the line for you, and you need to try something
else. The more you try and fail, the more you build the capacity to know
exactly what lesson failure is teaching you, and how to use that lesson to
propel yourself to the next level of your life.
“You
may have heard the parable of the Chinese farmer. Once upon a time, there was a
farmer in rural China whose horse ran away. It was his only horse, a prized
possession, and now it was missing. Friends and fellow villagers flocked to his
home to sympathize with him. “We are so sorry to hear this bad news,” they
said. “It is so sad.”
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