Political Panorama - Special Edition - Dec 12, 2025
A National Moment at Achievers University
The
15th Convocation Lecture delivered by Alhaji Lai Mohammed at Achievers
University, Owo, on December 12, 2025, was more than a ceremonial address. It
became a defining national reflection - an unusually frank, deeply personal,
and intellectually provocative message that spoke to students, universities, policymakers,
and the Nigerian government with equal force. In his lecture titled “Don’t
Just Graduate, Innovate,” he did not offer praise for its own sake.
Instead, he provided a compelling call for reinvention, innovation, courage,
and national introspection.
It
was a message full of lived experience, compelling narrative power, and
national urgency, a combination rarely achieved in convocation speeches in
Nigeria.
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| Alhaji Lai Mohammed |
The Strength of the Message to Graduating Students
What
made Lai Mohammed’s lecture remarkable is the honesty with which he dismantled
the myth of a straight, predictable life path. By detailing his own journey filled
with zigzags, disappointments, reinventions, and moments of unexpected
elevation, he revealed to students that success is not a straight-line
narrative but a dynamic process that bends, breaks, and reshapes itself over
time.
He
did not speak theoretically. He spoke from the ground of his own life - how he
moved from an articled clerk to an academic hopeful; how he became a Public
Relations Officer at the Nigerian Airports Authority; how he simultaneously
pursued a law degree while working full-time; how he resigned abruptly from a
powerful position; how he co-founded a law firm; how he suffered a political
defeat; and how he ultimately rose to national prominence as opposition
spokesperson before being appointed Nigeria’s longest-serving Minister of
Information.
This
intimate recounting was meant to arm graduates with psychological resilience.
His stories illustrated that setbacks do not invalidate destiny; instead, they
often initiate reinvention. His insistence that boldness is a strategic form of
intelligence, that innovation is a survival strategy, and that humility opens
doors that pride closes, offered graduates a practical philosophy for
navigating the uncertainty of today’s job market.
For
a generation that faces technological disruption, AI-driven job misplacement,
and an economy unable to absorb its growing youth population, his message became
not just inspiring but very essential.
Why the Message Matters for All Nigerian Students
What
makes his lecture relevant beyond Achievers University is that it directly
addresses the existential crisis confronting the Nigerian student nationwide.
Many graduates cling to outdated assumptions that degrees guarantee
employment, that hard work automatically produces secure careers, or that the
job market will remain stable and familiar. However, Lai Mohammed paints a newer,
harsher picture, one in which industries evolve rapidly, jobs vanish, and new
fields emerge faster than universities can redesign their curriculum
He
urges students across Nigeria to adopt a new mindset. A mindset that embraces
continuous learning, accepts failure as part of progress, encourages
creativity, and rewards calculated risk-taking. His life, presented in raw
detail, becomes proof that rigid career expectations often collapse under the
pressures of reality, and that reinvention becomes the winning response. His
message, therefore, becomes a national message and not just an academic one.
The Urgent Call for Nigeria’s Government to Take Education
Seriously
Beyond
the anecdotes and personal lessons, Lai Mohammed’s lecture makes a deeper
statement - that Nigeria cannot achieve national transformation without
drastically elevating the priority and quality of its education sector. The
consistency of his reflections reveals a truth that innovation thrives in
environments where education is well-funded, where research is supported, where
academic development is encouraged, and where institutions have access to
modern facilities.
Nigeria,
unfortunately, has not created such an environment.
For
decades, the country has underfunded its universities, allowed research
infrastructure to decay, neglected curriculum modernisation, and watched its
brightest students migrate abroad in search of intellectual nourishment. Lai
Mohammed’s lecture implicitly challenges the government to rethink this
posture. If Nigeria wants innovators and not just certificate holders, then
funding must align with its ambitions. It must invest in laboratories, digital
infrastructure, AI literacy programs, research centers, and entrepreneurial
incubation.
Education
cannot remain an afterthought if the country hopes to compete globally.
Why TETFUND Must End Its Discrimination Against Private
Universities
One
of the most pressing policy issues that Lai Mohammed’s lecture highlights is
the exclusion of private universities from benefiting from the Tertiary
Education Trust Fund (TETFUND). This policy, established years ago, has become
increasingly outdated and counterproductive. Private universities now carry a
significant share of the national educational workload. They:
- acommodate students who public
university disruptions would otherwise strand,
- operate uninterrupted academic
calendars,
- produce some of the nation’s most employable graduates,
- contribute significantly to
technological and research development, and
- relieve pressure from overstretched
public universities.
Yet
despite this, they receive zero government support through TETFUND.
This
exclusion contradicts national interest. Education is a public good, regardless
of whether the provider is public or private. Every student enrolled in a
private institution is still a Nigerian citizen, still part of the nation’s
future workforce, and still deserving of access to modern educational
infrastructure.
A review of TETFUND is long overdue. By integrating private universities, Nigeria would:
- strengthen its overall research capacity,
- promote healthy academic competition,
- expand national access to quality education, and
- build a more equitable and progressive knowledge economy.
His lecture
underscores that innovation cannot flourish under discriminatory policy
frameworks.
Other National Messages Embedded in the Lecture
There
is a larger philosophical message embedded in Lai Mohammed’s narrative. He
suggests that Nigeria cannot become a great nation unless it rewards merit,
encourages knowledge creation, and invests in the intellectual potential of its
youth. Innovation will not come from certificates alone, but from the courage
to think differently, the discipline to prepare, the humility to learn, and the
boldness to seize opportunities even when those opportunities appear disguised
as problems, crisis moments, or unexpected detours.
He
calls for a Nigeria where:
- courage is rewarded,
- competence is recognized,
- educational institutions are
empowered,
- students are trained for the global
economy, and
- government policies stimulate
creativity rather than suffocate it.
This
holistic message transforms the lecture from a graduation speech into a
national mirror.
The Symbolism of Delivering the Message at Achievers
University
The
setting of the lecture - Achievers University is itself symbolic. As a
fast-growing private university that continues to push boundaries despite
limited access to national funding, Achievers University represents the
emerging future of Nigerian higher education. It demonstrates what private
initiative, disciplined governance, and creative academic management can build
even in an unfriendly policy environment. Supporting such institutions would
significantly strengthen Nigeria’s educational landscape.
That
is why the call for equitable funding, especially through TETFUND reform,
becomes even more critical.
Conclusion: A National Blueprint Disguised as a Convocation
Lecture
In
its entirety, Lai Mohammed’s lecture was not just addressed to the Class of
2025. It was a message to Nigeria. It was a challenge to the nation to embrace
innovation, to empower its youth, to reform educational policy, and to build a
system where success is defined not by certificates but by creativity,
resilience, and reinvention.
For
students, it was a reminder that the future rewards those who innovate, who
dare to speak, who take risks, who learn continuously, and who have the
humility to reinvent themselves.
For
universities, it was a call to modernise.
For
the government, it was an urgent demand to take education seriously and eliminate
discriminatory policies such as the exclusion of private universities from
TETFUND.
And
for Nigeria, it was a wake-up call that the future will not wait. The country’s
destiny will be shaped not by the quantity of its graduates but by the quality
of its innovators.
Lai
Mohammed’s Achievers University lecture, therefore, stands as one of the most
important educational reflections of our time - a national blueprint presented
in the gentle clothing of a convocation speech.
Until next week, this is Political Panorama with Ola Olateju watching the horizon,
one controversy at a time
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