Abuja (Sundiata Post) – President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina says that he sees his role as the Bank’s President “as delivering hope for millions of people.”
Dr. Adesina made the remark during his Commencement Address to the Class of 2023 at Calvin University, Michigan, USA.
According the AfDB President, “In the past seven years, our work has impacted the lives of 350 million people. I am excited that we have helped to connect 20 million people to electricity. On a field trip to one of the project villages in Kenya not too long ago, I met one of our beneficiaries. Her name was Grace. She was very excited. When she was asked whether she knew the President of the African Development Bank –that is myself — she said: “I do not know the President of the African Development Bank; I do not even know the African Development Bank; all I know is that we once were in darkness, now we have light!”
“That is a lesson there! Let your works and good deeds impact the lives of people, especially those who will never know you. Today, we are building what we call the Desert to Power initiative, a $25 billion investment to harness the power of the sun and deliver electricity for 250 million people. When completed it will be the largest solar zone in the world. It will be spark hope for millions more like Grace! Class of 2023, the present and the future belong to your generation. Your creativity and dynamism will make a difference for good.
“In front of me today I see builders and shapers of hope. You have been well prepared to go into the world to be the change makers. You have received a world class education. You have been exposed to great ideas, and you’ve worked alongside faculty and students from all around the world. You are ready — and the world awaits you! A world that faces new challenges, many of them happening simultaneously. At the top of this is climate change, which poses an existential risk for the world. We must do all we can to keep global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“We need innovations to power the world better with renewable energy. We must do all to feed the world. It is not acceptable that over 2.3 billion people in the world go hungry. God did not create stomachs to go empty. He created them to be filled. There must be a hunger free world. The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us the importance of global pandemic preparedness and the need to ensure that no one is left behind when it comes to access to affordable health care. After all, all lives matter, regardless of where one lives in our global village, whether you be rich or poor. We are all belong to God’s family. He who cares for each one of his creations, expects us to go into the world and do likewise.
“I am confident you will do so throughout life. There are lots to do to bring about peace in our world with rising geopolitical tensions and rising fragilities. And there’s much to do to ensure equal opportunities for all. Regardless of ones’ economic, social, or racial background, we must create a level playing field for a more just, fair, and equitable world.
More than ever, the world needs change makers. Change makers who can carry the love of God into a turbulent world. Change makers with a heart.The future before us is not doom and gloom. It is a future of exciting and infinite possibilities. You have a role to play in this unfolding chapter of history. With God’s help and grace, I am confident that you will stand out and do exploits that will make our world a better place.
Recounting what a little kindness can do in changing destinies, Dr. Adesina said, “As a foreign graduate student at Purdue University. I arrived in America in 1983 with only $750. My scholarship from my home country was not paid. I was stuck in America. I had to survive on $750 for six months. Yes, you heard me right: six months! Of this, my rent was $100 a month, leaving me with $150 with which to survive. Each day, I walked several kilometers to school in the bitter cold and snow of Lafayette, Indiana, because I could not afford bus fares. Neither could I afford basic things. I had to improvise. Everything was about “value for money”! If you economize, you are an economist! You don’t buy donuts because the middle is hollow! You don’t buy crisps because the can is half air. The day you find that out in the store you ask for a refund. Why pay for air when it is free! Eventually, I came down to my last 25 cents in the world. As I approached the bus on that bitterly cold day, I put my 25 cents in the till. The bus driver said, “that’ll be 50 cents please.”
I told him that’s all the money I had. Kindly, he put his hands in his wallet and paid the balance of 25 cents. That same day on getting to campus one of my professors, Dr. John Connors, called me in. I let him know my situation. He gave me $100 and said, “you can pay me back in 5 years after you finish your PhD studies. But Dr. Connors did more. He helped me get an assistantship with another professor, Dr. Phil Abbott, for my master’s degree, and then with another professor, Dr. John Sanders for my PhD degree, who both paid for my tuition and provided me with decent stipends.”
“Their trust and investment in me paid off. Many years after, I went on to win the World Food Prize – known as the “Nobel Prize for Agriculture”. How could my professors have known at the time that they were helping someone who would later become a World Food Prize Laureate? How would they have known they were helping someone who would later become President of the African Development Bank Group? Yes, the African Development Bank Group that was ranked last year by Global Finance as the Best multilateral financial institution in the world? How could they have known that this skinny kid would go on to manage not 25 cents but $208 billion?”
