Creative Ingenuity: a humbled step towards dignified entrepreneurship, being the title of a paper presented by Hon. Aiyamenkhue Edokpolo, SSA to Edo State Governor- politics and Strategy. 29th August 2009.

By Edo Benin

By the grace of God almighty, I wish to acknowledge His Excellency, the comrade Governor of Edo State who is ably represented by the Honourable Commissioner for Information and Orientation; representative of the Deputy Governor, representatives of His royal Majesty-the reverend Omo n' Oba n' Edo- Oba Erediauwa CFR, Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Arts, Culture and Tourism, distinguished politicians and captains of industries here present, traditional leaders, youth groups, my Lord spiritual and temporal, gentlemen of the press, distinguished ladies and gentlemen.

This piece was carefully crafted to salute the spirit of hard work exhibited by our dear sister Miss Iziengbe Osaikhuwomwan the editor-in-chief of Coral Africa -an emerging news print of excellence for which we are celebrating its maiden public presentation today. Sincere minds here present will agree with me that what sustains a given business is the innate force behind it. For the purpose of definition, I wish define creative ingenuity as the innate force behind a given concept or product or substance. A keen observer of the Benin National Congress will affirm that we have been undoubtedly committed to the promotion and protection of intellectual properties, this is so because, the BNC as conceptualised by Yours Sincerely was to provide a platform for intellectual appraisals of contemporary issues and developments as well as an intelligentsia review of our cultural and historical antecedents. It was therefore not surprising to me as president and trustee of the BNC that one of the most active female members of the Congress could conceive of such a rather mountainous intellectual property like Coral Africa.

To me, this celebration calls for a deep sober reflection on why our useful and energetic young men and women will live their fatherland Nigeria through land transportations Kris-crossing several deserts; mountains and the dreaded Atlantic ocean for greener pastures, when in fact, they can progressively invest their travels fair for purposeful projects like the one we are marking today. I weep anytime my attention is drawn to the gory pictures of our precious brothers and sisters who die on their ways to their destined Europe countries. If you read the news papers yesterday, I particularly addressed a letter to the Amnesty International and the Red Cross Society on Friday 28th August 2009 on behalf of Nigerians on the death-roll in Libya and Morocco based on the seeming failures of the federal Government to rescue the able-bodied-Nigerians whom in my view are trying to escape the economic depression in Nigeria; and or are too lazy to rise to the rescue of Nigeria by engaging in purposeful causes that can help shape Edo State and Nigeria like advanced economies that we are all craving to be at all cost. My take on this subject is that the federal government must review its foreign policy with some of these seemingly hostile and too religious North African countries who take pleasures in brutal executions of foreigners at the slightest provocation. The Benin National Congress is at the verge of dragging the federal government to Court to account for constitutional rights of these Nigerians in Libya to fair protection and dignified representation in their ugly predicaments.

At certain points in my life, I have been tempted to travel through these highly deplorable routes to Europe, but I was very conscious that it must be a very deadly one because it appeared too cheap to be realisable or achievable. I am not pretending to be a die-hard patriot, yet I strongly believed that on less the youths stand-up for the good of Nigeria, we will all continue to be in mess and survive at the mercy of imperialist nations like the United States whom have classified us a failed-state. It is on this score that I seize this medium to appeal to Nigerians with good conscience to conceptualise ways and means to move our dear Edo State and Nigeria to the next level of development. To achieve this, Youths must seek to choose role-models that are distinguished patriots or compatriots of their respective societies and not criminal elements whom emerge into national limelight through fraudulent means of abandoning state contracts after collecting 60% mobilization fees; stealing public funds as political appointees or elected political office holders. We equally have popular religious leaders with very strong national reputations, but in truth, some of them are not better than the common thieves because they have failed to positively impact the lives of their members whom they drain daily in the name of church offerings and tights, while they ride on private jets and luxury facilities.

It is very clear that the Adams Oshiomhole administration that some of us joined forces to democratically install is one that has set the tune for proper and purposeful development of Edo State; we are all living witnesses to the beautification project which is an integral part of the infrastructural development policy; this is side by side awards of infrastructural projects. It our prayers that we will support the state government to succeed. I solicit the contribution of our “widow's mind” to this launching so we could by so doing encourage others to take-up similar initiative.

I thank you specially for listening and God bless you.