Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, and the immediate past Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, on Tuesday, urged the graduating students of Lagos State University (LASU) to embrace the future with their acquired skills, a technological marvel and self-discipline for enormous possibilities of prosperity.
Governor Sanwo-Olu and the former minister made this charge while speaking at the 27th Convocation Lecture of the university, titled “Embracing the Future: Navigating the Intersection of Technology and Humanity,” held at the School campus in Ojo, Lagos.
The governor, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, encouraged the graduates to stay up-to-date with the latest technological advancements and imbibe hard work, asserting that there was no shortcut to prosperity.
The governor pointed out that one could be rich if one had the knowledge needed by the people, noting that human beings had never been more remunerated than now.
“The world has changed, and young graduates must be ready as there is no shortcut to success. Human beings have never been more remunerated than today. If you have knowledge of what people need, you can become rich,” Sanwo-Olu said.
The governor, while reiterating the need for human readiness for emerging technology, further noted that technology allows consistency and builds a better life, adding that it makes things easier as it continues to shape human lives, especially those of future generations, in profound ways.
Besides, he said technology had the potential to revolutionize education, transform social interactions, redefine the workforce, and immensely impact physical health, maintaining that it was important that they imbibed its usefulness in all spheres of human endeavour.
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The governor stated that Lagos State remained the first government institution in the country to implement 11 modules of Oracle ERP, which brought efficiency to the government’s activities in the state and helped eliminate ghost workers, thereby saving the state government a lot of money and tracking operations and ongoing projects within the state.
Fashola, the Convocation Lecturer, stated earlier in his lecture, “Embracing the Future: Navigating the Intersection of Technology and Humanity,” that humanity and human civilization, as well as the intrinsic values that have kept man at the apex of all things that exist in the world, must be preserved in spite of technology.
According to the former minister, the students are graduating into a world of technology at a time when talent is being rewarded at an unprecedented level.
Therefore, he enjoined them to continuously educate themselves, either formally or informally, just as he equally tasked them with being self-disciplined beyond skills and education.
Fashola, who is also a former Lagos State governor, emphasized that self-discipline would complete all the work their parents, guardians, and lecturers had done and concretize and define their reputation. He said that it would be the compass for their integrity and determine whether they were trustworthy.
He stressed that only hard work provides sustainable wealth, not ritual, no fake pastors or imams, and no trafficking in illicit drugs.
“Partly, the education you have received here will take you someway on your journey, but it will not be enough. You will require more things, including continuing education in the formal and informal way. Life becomes meaningless the day we stop learning. But over and beyond skills and education, you will require self-discipline,” he said.
In her welcome address, the Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University, Dr. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, said the university was committed to leveraging technology to enhance its service delivery and improve the lives of its staff and students.
Olatunji-Bello added that in the domain of education, technology had facilitated online learning, making education accessible to a wider audience, noting that besides, e-learning platforms, digital test tools and visual classrooms had equally enabled continuous education.
She stressed that education educates learners to move around and do business, but the debate on how it impacts humanity both now and in the future had not been sufficiently addressed, saying that “it is imperative that we find a balance between technology and humanity by harnessing the power of technology to improve lives and humanity in general.”
Citing few of the technologies developed in the university to ease challenges such as the manual admission clearance, school fee payment, course registration, result operations, certificate and transcripts processing, among other developments which were all digitalized, the vice chancellor stated that all the technological development had earned the institution an accolade from far and wide, including its recognition as the most digitally advanced state university in Nigeria at the Nigeria Information Technology Award (NIT).
On the lecture’s theme, Olatunji-Bello stated that it underscores the university’s position about the persistent involvement of technology in national development and people’s daily lives.
