Sodik Musa @tcashflow14 - Twitter Profile

7 months ago

My Speech at the 25th Year Reunion of Offa Grammar School Class of 2000. La Mango Restaurant, Ikeja, Lagos on November 29, 2025 Dear brothers and sisters, good evening. I am genuinely grateful to be here today. It has been a quarter of a century since I saw many of you. I am thankful for the opportunity to reunite. I have been asked to speak on Nation Building and to do this, allow me to open with the words of Confucius: The illustrious ancients, when they wished to make clear and to propagate the highest virtues in the world, put their states in proper order. Before putting their states in proper order, they regulated their families. Before regulating their families, they cultivated their own selves. Before cultivating their own selves, they perfected their souls. Before perfecting their souls, they tried to be sincere in their thoughts. Before trying to be sincere in their thoughts, they extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such investigation of knowledge lay in the investigation of things, and in seeing them as they really were. When things were thus investigated, knowledge became complete. When knowledge was complete, their thoughts became sincere. When their thoughts were sincere, their souls became perfect. When their souls were perfect, their own selves became cultivated. When their selves were cultivated, their families became regulated. When their families were regulated, their states came to be put into proper order. When their states were in proper order, then the whole world became peaceful and happy. In this short but profound text, he teaches that the road to a just and peaceful nation begins with the individual. Before a state can be properly ordered, the family must be regulated. Before the family can be regulated, the individual must be cultivated. Before the individual can be cultivated, the heart must be made sincere. And sincerity begins with honest thought, grounded in true knowledge. That ancient ladder - from knowledge to thought, to character, to family, to nation - captures the central message I want to share tonight: nation building starts with me. With you. With each of us. We look around Nigeria today and we see failure in leadership, failures in institutions, and failures in systems. It is easy, very easy, to blame government officials, politicians, and people in authority. But the uncomfortable truth is this: We have corrupt leaders because we are a corrupt people. We tolerate what we should reject. We excuse what we should confront. We accept what we should challenge. In quality management, we are taught three simple rules: Do not accept defect. Do not create defect. Do not pass defect along. If we applied these three principles to citizenship, Nigeria would be a different nation entirely. Imagine a society where no one accepts wrong, no one creates wrong, and no one inflicts wrong on another. Imagine a society where personal integrity is non-negotiable. That is what Confucius meant. That is what nation building demands. Because the truth is this: every time we cut corners, pay a bribe, inflate an invoice, cheat the system, or even look away when wrongdoing happens, we contribute - quietly but powerfully - to the decay of our own country. We talk about bad leaders. But as political scientists often say, nations rarely rise above the moral standard of their citizens. In other words, we get the leaders we deserve. Let me remind you of our final year at OGS when Suraj was omitted when the list of prefects were announced, despite clearly being one of the best students around. This omission reflected a policy of selecting only science students for leadership roles. At barely seventeen, Suraj refused to accept this wrong. The next day he returned to school with a ten‑page rebuttal, pasted it on the notice board, and challenged the authorities. It sparked a conversation that would not be silenced. Inspired by him, I later led a protest demanding that our WAEC fees be refunded after we heard on the radio that the state was returning the money but our school had taken no action. Over the following years the policy changed; non‑science students began to hold leadership positions — an assistant head girl in 2001, an assistant senior prefect in 2002, and a head girl in the 2003/2004 set. One person’s refusal to tolerate injustice made a lasting difference. We gather tonight as people who have been blessed with education, opportunities, networks, and a measure of influence. Twenty-five years ago, we sat in the same classrooms dreaming of a better future. Today, we are no longer dreamers - we are the adults in the room. We are the ones responsible for shaping the future our children will inherit. So the question is no longer, “What is wrong with Nigeria?” The question is, “What is wrong with me? What am I contributing? And what can I fix?” Nation building is not a speech. It is not an election cycle. It is not about whichever administration is in power. Nation building is a personal discipline. A daily decision. A moral commitment. It is stopping at traffic lights even when nobody is watching. It is refusing to pay bribes even when it inconveniences you. It is choosing honesty in business even when fraud seems easier. It is treating people with dignity even when you have power over them. It is raising children who know integrity not as theory, but as lifestyle. Because as Confucius reminds us: If we regulate ourselves, our families will be strong. If families are strong, communities will be stable. If communities are stable, the nation will thrive. The next 25 years of our lives will be even more influential than the past 25. We must not waste them. Let us commit tonight to becoming the kind of citizens Nigeria needs - citizens who are disciplined, principled, courageous, and uncompromising in the face of wrongdoing. Let us commit to nation building as a personal responsibility. Let us leave this reunion determined that when history records the story of Nigeria, it will say: “They handed over a better country than the one they met.” And if anyone asks how we did it, we can point back to Confucius and say….We started by fixing ourselves. Thank you, and God bless you all. God bless our families. And God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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