I welcome you all. I greet you compatriots and stakeholders in this project, our project.
I want to specially recognize all of our guests who are here today and are availing us the luxury of their time. I pray and I wish by the time you all leave here today, you would have been convinced that the project is worth investing in. You are all worthy of recognition.
What is this project? The project is the celebration of a man we have adopted as our role model, a man we are all proud of, a man in whose hand , as young men and women , we can entrust our future.
Today, history is being made and I’m happy for us all who are witnesses to this history.
I feel highly honoured to stand before you as we mark the second edition of Osinbajo Day with people from different parts of the country. Our members in the 36 States of the federation are also gathered in the state capitals as we are doing here celebrating our own father , uncle , brother ,pastor, source of inspiration and Vice President of Nigeria Prof Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo.
We began this journey last year like a child's play but through the efforts of promising young Nigerians, many of who have never met the man but who know him by reputation,it has gotten bigger this year with the promise of becoming huge in the years to come.
This is not a time for long speeches. It is rather a time to reflect and celebrate an iconic leader, who by God’s grace is destined for greater role.
Our purpose of gathering here is not for any reason than to celebrate the unique leadership qualities of Prof. Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo.
We are celebrating him because if we have lost hope, he has given hope back to us. If the future looks dark and bleak he is shinning light on it.
As we have said in our earlier releases this is our initiative. We no longer will sit on the sidelines and wait for some self serving individuals and politicians to saddle us with a leadership that will bring us misery and sadness. President Buhari has built a solid foundation, we therefore must ensure that whoever comes after him will rather build a beautiful edifice on it than demolish it.
We have seen in this man that person who share in the vision of Mr President and have similar selfless attributes as him.
Osinbajo is one who can inspire hope in the young. One whose word is his bond. One who is not after personal aggrandizement. One who in our nation has given a new meaning to loyalty and dependability.
The theme of this year’s celebration is clear: OSINBAJO: THE FUTURE BECKONS..
With it, we are appealing to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to throw his hat into the ring and take up higher responsibility having worked diligently with the President and with great results to show.
We are also calling on all of us gathered here today to assume the role of apostles by going out there to preach the gospel according to Osinbajo. He is our leader ,he is our actualiser and I want you all to become the brand ambassadors . We should go out and market him across Nigeria as that man who has the magic wand to take us to the promised land.
This country , and our generation, requires a hero , one that can inspire us to great deeds. It was Andrea , a philosopher who in an exchange with Galileo a fellow philosopher declared that ‘unhappy is the land that has no heroes. ‘
As young people we have longed for an hero. We have found heroic attributes in Osinbajo.
Even if he were not a politician, even if he will not contest for public office now nor in the future, this man deserves to be celebrated for who he is and for the symbols he offers and projects to young Nigerians.
It is for this reason and many more that we have chosen, at personal sacrifice, to build a movement around him.
“If Heaven does not completely abandon this land of the Gods, there must be an uprising of grass-roots heroes.,” so says Yoshida Shoin a Japanese politician . It is that uprising we want to unleash as young men and women to create our own heroes with whom we shall salvage this country.
Who knows, your voice, my voice and Osinbajo’s voice may be the redeeming voice for our nation which is presently being badgered and buffeted by shouts of divisiveness and disunity.
Osinbajo may be the one to point our teeming youths to the right path. He may be the one to awake in us that creative energy that will bring our country back to reckoning and make all Nigerians proud once again of their God given country.
We appreciate all of you who have made contributions to make this possible.
In the months ahead we shall ask for more sacrifices from you all to make our dream come true.
Thank you for coming.