Keynote Speech Delivered by Mr. Alieu Fuad Nyei at program marking the 24th graduation program of the Muslim Congress High School on Mechlin Street Saturday, July 27, 2013 Members of the Board of the Muslim Congress High School Madam Principal, Vice-Principals and Teaching Staff Invited Guests, My Respected Members of the Graduating Class Parents, Guidance, Ladies and Gentlemen I’m highly privileged and honored to have been invited to this program by the administration of this great institution to serve as Keynote Speaker. When I look around Liberia and elsewhere, I see men and women produced by this institution who are contributing significantly in their respective specialties. So, you the graduates have got a huge challenge in following the footsteps of those people. The role you will end up playing in society will depend on the decisions you make and actions you take after today. For this reason, I really want to speak to the hearts and minds of you the graduates because you have not come this far to be a failure; you must be successful and I pray that you all become successful. But success does not come easy; therefore, permit me to speak to you on the topic “Setting Ambitious Goals and Keeping Focus in Achieving Them”. My respected graduates, I want you to just reflect a moment away from the pomp and pageantry of today’s ceremony and ask two critical questions about your individual lives. What do I really want to be in Life? What do I need to do to get there? These questions set the framework for a critical self-assessment and evaluation of your lives. This is vital to the core message I’m hoping to pass out to you in this lecture. I guess already some of you are saying to yourself what career paths you want to consider. While some are saying, “I want to be a doctor, engineer, agriculturalist, accountant, physicists”; others are saying that “I want to be an Imam, a teacher, a social worker, businessman/woman” among many other professions. The Oxford Dictionary defines a “Goal” as something that you hope to achieve and “Ambitious” as needing a lot of efforts, money or time to succeed. With these definitions in mind, I know all of you have got goals to achieve. Some of them are ambitious (requiring more efforts to achieve), others are common, average or just ordinary. The goal for each of you coming to this great institution was to firstly graduate from here and get the high school certificate. But I know a few of you had an additional goal of scoring good grades and getting Division One or Two in the WAEC Exams. Those who had the additional and what I consider ambitious goal knew that to score good grades in this institution which has very good teachers, and perform well in WAEC, they needed to study more and go the extra-mile in conceptualizing the materials in every subject. Respected graduates, ladies and gentlemen, while others are today graduating with averages in the 90s and 80s, I know there are others graduating with averages just above the threshold of failure. This is an ideal example of the real world. Everyone cannot be same. Those who have goals that are common are most likely to be below while those with the ambitious and focused goals end up at the top regardless of how long it takes. So, I want to challenge you respected graduates to select goals that are ambitious in whatever career you decide to pursue. If you want to be a businessman/woman, say to yourself, I want to be a millionaire Liberian business entrepreneur. If you want to be a doctor, challenge yourself to be the doctor everyone runs to when they are ill not because you’re the only one around but because of the quality of services you provide. If you want to be a teacher, be the one all the students like because you teach very well and grade students fairly. If you choose to be a public servant or a politician, let people know you to be an honest person. Respected graduates, Ladies and Gentlemen, selecting a profession and expressing your desire to be the best in it one day are very easy to do. In fact you only need to conceive it or say it. But keeping focus in overcoming all of the challenges that will be there to pull you down is the difficult thing. You may want to be a successful business entrepreneur but you do not have a start-up capital, you may want to be a doctor but your parents do not have the money to pay your tuition. Or you may even want to pursue a career path that is presently not on offer anywhere in Liberia. In fact I know many of you confine your goals to what you think either you or your parents have resources to achieve due to these challenges. Let me tell you today that your current status (whether you’re from a poor background or constrained by other challenges now) has got absolutely nothing to do with who you will turn out to be in Life. Your destiny depends on you and only you-your hard-work, dedication and commitment. I came from a difficult background and got educated at a top ranked University in England, United Kingdom that means you too can do the same. My respected graduates, ladies and gentlemen, keeping focus means being persistent and doing the things you need to do until you achieve your goals. If you want to pursue higher education and your parents are resource-constrained, then you must score very high marks to attract a scholarship for your education. You need the same persistence we see in Liberians who set a goal to enter the United States by means of the Diversity Visa (DV) program. They will play the first time and don’t win, the second, the third and up to the 5th for some people before winning a place on the program. Each time they play and don’t win, they don’t give up. You too should not give up in achieving your goals regardless of the frustrations, disappointments and many other challenges that will come your way. Also, one critical success factor in achieving any ambitious goal is integrity. The University will train you as a doctor, teacher, educator, engineer, economist, etc but there is no relationship between the level of education you acquire and the level of integrity ingrained in it. The incessant quest for the material world often leads people to compromise their integrity. I want to admonish you today, my dear graduates, to be patient in your perseverance. If you decide to be a doctor, be honest in your profession. If you decide to be a teacher, be a teacher with integrity. If you decide to be an accountant, banker, or entrepreneur, or any other profession of your choice, make integrity and honesty the hallmark of your activities. Already, the Islamic foundation of your education should give you an enviable quest for integrity in all you do. Now to the parents and guidance of these beautiful, handsome, and promising graduates of this great institution, I want to thank you for the support. They could not have been here without your moral, spiritual and financial support. This is a graduation ceremony. That means, they are moving to another level that will require more support and I urge you to stand by them as you have done all these years. To the administrators and teachers, I want to say thank you. You are the unsung heroes of successful students who pass through your walls. Many people tell me, “Alieu, you’re a smart young man” without acknowledging the efforts of the teachers who guided me. I tell them I’m “smart” because of the teachers I had in school. We must start showing respect and dignity to those who take the courageous decision to be teachers in this difficult economic environment if the standard of our school system must continue to improve. Madam Principal, invited guests, my respected comrades of the graduating class, teachers, parents and guidance, ladies and gentlemen, today is a day to celebrate because it marks the end of a journey. But we should never forget that the road ahead is still long and difficult and will require hard-work, dedication, and commitment that you have never exhibited before. I trust you all will prevail by the grace of the Almighty Allah. I thank you!
Posted on: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 13:11:36 +0000
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