APC Chieftain Dazzles at Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish Public Lecture, Unilorin

Those were words of Apple Co-founder, late Steve Jobs, in his commencement speech at the 2005 graduation ceremony of Stanford University.

However, Jobs wasn't the speaker this time. Instead, it was the title of this year's public lecture organised by the leadership of FOSSA (Faculty of Social Science Association) delivered by former Minister of Youths and Sports development, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi.

The public lecture started by 10am with the Opening prayer delivered by by the faculty officer, Mrs. Osagbemi. Next was the opening speech by the Dean of the faculty, Dr. Bashir Salary. Next, was the welcoming speech by the faculty president, Sen. Lukman.

In attendance were the Dr. Olakitan Awodun, the Chairman of Kwara State Internal Revenue Services, Chief Olushola, the Kwara State Commissioner of Police—represented by his assistant, Philip Ezekiel, the guest speaker— Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, Hajia Sarat Adebayo former women leader, APC Kwara state, Otunba Oladokun Johnson, Hon. Alibi Bahago Patigi and a host of others.

The citation of the guest speaker, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi revealed he had his first degree in Mass communication, was a former editor of ThisDay newspaper, former Commissioner of Education and Technology, former Minister of sports and youth development and currently the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressive Congress (APC) . He gave an inspiring speech on "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish".

According to him, theme may sound rather confusing but it holds quite heavy meanings.
"As our achievements grow, so does the hunger and desire for more gets dulled. If we are to achieve, we must retain the sense of hunger and curiosity," he said.

He told a story of his infancy, how he was left-handed and his mum thought it was bad because the culture of the Yoruba tribe frowned at handling the elders with the left hand. So his mother tied a piece of cloth on his left fingers and forced him to use his right. He later subjected to his left as he grew.

This he explained that nothing can really change your inner self but you can always "....improve yourself by being always open to new developments and being able to preserve your interest to explore."

"Never set the celebrations of your achievements from dawn to dusk. Never have a limited level of satisfaction; stay hungry. never let the pleasure of your achievements take away your time and desire," he said. He stated further that every child always wanted to know who God is but during the cause of time, we forgot totally about our wonder about God. "If we'd never stopped our hunger for who God is, we would have found God the way it's possible to be found"', he said.

He made pointers at a new profound excuse, "Who E Epp?" is a tragedy all must avoid. Every time a student is asked about a particular study, the reply goes thus: 'Who dah one epp?"

He advised students to make proper use of extra time.  He said "if I had known better, I would have used the extra time I didn't need for exams for extra knowledge." He said ability to preserve the child in you is the way to maintain your hunger; ask questions out of curiosity, always maintain your inner child. Do not feel you are ready and ripe for the ripeness of the banana is also the beginning of its decay.

Dr. Muritala Olakitan Awodun gave an impromptu but concise speech on Kwara State Internal Revenue Services (KWIRS). He said 2013 was the year Million Term Strategic Plan was decided. Funding is crucial for development and source for funding is necessary. After the election of 2015, the bill was granted on 2nd of June,  2015 and executed between June and September.

On the 1st of October, the ministry structure i.e. the board of internal revenue was dissolved and there were new recruits of mostly youths. New strategies were introduced to change the shape of revenue collection. The PPT (change  *People* , Change *Process*, Change *Technology*) idea was introduced.

Also introduced was the PRESS strategy;
P=Persuade and Patronize
P= Raise and Support
E=Energize the people
S=Select carefully
S=Sequential Reporting

By 2015, the monthly revenue of Kwara State was 600million naira. It rose to 1.45 billion naira in 2016.

Next up on the agenda were donations in which the Guest speaker, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi and Dr. Muritala Awodun donated a sum of Two hundred an fifty thousand naira each. By the end of the day, a whooping sum of #1million  was raised from the donors at the lecture while others said they will make theirs in private.

After exhausting the items on the agenda, Dr Saka Lukman (Staff adviser) gave the closing remarks to officially drop the curtains of the event at about 12:22pm.

Azizat AbdulSalam
&
Muhammad Basheer Ishola

UCJ, Unilorin.