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BEING THE ADDRESS DELIVERED BY AMB (SIR) S. OLA AJIMISAN
ON THE OCCASION OF AFROSKY'S ESSAY PRIZE PRESENTATION
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you all to the epochal occasion of the presentation of prizes to the participants in the first edition of Afrosky's Essay Competition.
Today is not just about the presentation of prizes or the competition. It is a date with the history of human progress and innovation. Today is not just about winning or smiling home with consolatory prizes. It is about being a part of a revolution in the contemporary social media networking.
Today is not about the inventor of Afrosky or the indefatigable organisers and keenly observant judges who chose the topics, supervised the writings at Ilaje High School, Igbokoda, Cherubim and Seraphim Academy, Ugbonla and Community Grammar School, Zion Pepe; read through, graded the scripts or stay awake like "Meleju-orun" (rooks) monitoring the votes on Afrosky's platform. It is about being partners in the progress that has consolidated the collective status of the Ilaje as being innovative, inventive, recusant and resilient in their drive for discoveries and conquest of their environment for collective good and prosperity. That is the meaning of Ilaje- struggling, winning, benefiting and celebrating together!
For a decades, the Caucasians and foreigners dominated social media networking. Today, we are proud to announce unapologetically and unequivocally that an Ilaje man has impregnated the silence of Black Africans in the global market of social media networking. Today, an Ilaje man has set the pace and has posed a disruptive history of being not just a spectator. Today, an Ilaje man has affirmed and upheld the fact that there is no space too small or obscure for Edumare to raise a champion and an inventor who will change or disrupt the monotonous and monopolistic narrative and market which is hitherto characterised by the dominance of the foreigners. It is the inviolable will of Edumare to give the world Afrosky through an Ilaje man. In our time, a home-grown social media network that we can be proud of and call ours has come to stay. Neither the prison wall of passivity nor the deity of cemetery can inhibit its stay or curtail its wider reach. The deity of the sea is unstoppable and we represent the same spirit of invincibility for which Malokun Ogbolu is eternally reputed.
To the inventor and the judges, history has written you on the marble, never to be forgotten. To the competitors, whether you win or you do not win a prize, I announce that you are all winners, especially for being indispensable parts of the history of human progress. Go into the world with the consolation that you are all sportsmen dignified by posterity. Afrosky has made a virulent statement that in the coming years, Africans will no longer watch as dolls or spectators on the table of creativity and technological inventions. They will take their place of bride on the table and in laboratories of global competitiveness and cutting-edge discoveries.
I have a dream that one day, my little children will join other global champions to determine the direction of the world in all stratospheres. That time, they will no longer be scorned as folks who know nothing other than fishing. That time, they will be reasons to remember home and for people to say that they are "Romi-roke eyi mi jofi ala". Then, they shall not be judged by the world based on past history of passivity and uncreativity or the colour of their sepia skins but by the contents of their dignifying demeanours and what they have to offer humanity. The time is now! Aye ma fuge! If you see what I saw, shout "Awa ye ee!"
By AMB. (Sir) S . Ola Ajimisan