Fashola, right, delivering the 42nd Convocation Lecture of the University of Benin, on the theme,” Freedom from Fear, Choices before the New Generation,”at the Akin Deko Auditorium, Ugbowo Campus in Benin City, Edo State on Friday 25th November, 2016.

Men and women now fly thousands of Kilometres in the sky. They eat, sleep, even now shower on the Airbus A380, an engineering feat delivered by engineers of Airbus and Boeing who started out life like you, as young graduates like you.

There are now driverless cars, and men have landed on the moon and have communicated back to Earth on missions driven by freedom from fear, sheer dedication, hard work and an indomitable spirit that refused to surrender to divination, but persevered against the odds of failure before success was achieved.

But these men and women who have freed their minds from fear are not done. They are pushing to send men to Mars – The Red Planet, they are looking for cures for cancer, alzheimer’s and other diseases.

This will be the work of science, research and engineering driven by freedom from fear, not by prayer, or sacrifice of fetish to some inanimate deity.

How do you free your mindfrom impossibility, improbability, and unlikelihoods?

The answer is simple. Remember always, that those words are negatives. Replace them with positive thoughts and actions.

This is what frees your mind from fear and helps you to choose, to see solutions and to look for opportunities, instead of dwelling on and surrendering to problems.

If you see unmanaged refuse as a problem, you may not think of recycling and re-use and the economic opportunities that have multiple benefits, including the ultimate removal of the refuse.

If you dwell on traffic gridlock as a problem, you are unlikely to focus on developing intelligent traffic management solutions like traffic lights or a radio station to manage it and create opportunities for yourself and others.

If you focus on crime and its burden, you may lose the opportunity to focus on crime management strategies like more policemen, crime detection methods, employment and training of judges.

Indeed, as they say, if you see every problem as a nail, the only solution you might evolve is a hammer.

So, please look for the positive angle of a difficult situation, because there will be one, if you look hard enough.

I urge you to free your mind from fear, reach for the skies, choose by conviction and not by fear; trust in your abilities and God given talent, take responsibility, work hard and pray if you believe.

Yes, Sango is the god of lightning and thunder, but all the sacrifices made to Sango has not generated 1 (ONE) kilowatt of electric power.

Electricity is produced byusing nature’s gifts , such as gas, water, solar and wind, harnessing their capacity through turbines made from steel to serve our energy needs, not by making animal sacrifices.

I will conclude by urging you to look for the book titled “Start Up Nation” by Dan Senor and Saul Singer , it would provoke your thinking as it did mine.

I am done.

Congratulations on your graduation. May the wind be behind your sails as you set forth in the journey of life.

May you fulfil your true promise, and may you be free from fear so that you can make good choices in your contribution to our national development.

Thank you for listening.

Being The Convocation Speeech Delivered By Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, At The University Of Benin On The 25thday Of November 2016

November 2016