SPEECH:MOTIVATIONAL SPEECH BY OUT-GOING SENIOR PREFECT OF ST.MARY'S COLLEGE

The honourable Chairman, indefatigable Administrator,
Our admirable Deputy Administrator,
Honorable Principals,
My respected teachers,
Distinguished pupils and students of this prestigious Academy,
Good everyone!
It gives me great pleasure to be back at home, on the soil of my alma mater after 12 years. For 5 years I stood in your place on the ground as a pupil and for a year on this platform as the Senior Prefect. So this is my home and I am delighted to be back in your midst to address you on this auspicious assembly.

First of All, I thank the Almighty God, the Creator and Originator of everything and everyone, our Sustainer, Cherisher and Provider, for verily without His grace we will not be here on earth in the first place, talk more of gathering on this wonderful morning here in Yola. So, All Glory, Praises and Thanks be to be Him.

As mentioned earlier, I came to Engr. Enuma as a timid, little child in 1995. I was nurtured here by excellent teachers during my early youth and graduated in 2001 as the best student. In year 2000, I along with 6 others from Abia State went to Enugu for JETS competition. My performance there earned me a scholarship by the State Government which covered my Secondary Education. I also got another scholarship from the National Mathematical Centre to cover the cost of my books but I didn’t claim it because I already had one.

When I wrote my National Common Entrance Examination in 2001, I got a score of 637 out of 700 which was the best in the whole of Anambra State. That score earned me the sixth place in the National Merit Admission list of St.Mary's High School.
St.Mary's College which was the dream school for every male child in Nigeria was founded in 1961 and produced notable individuals such as Professor Anigbogu, the First African Neurosurgeon and Founder of Notre Dame hospital, Anambra, Dr. William Ifeacho, Former Vice President, Dr.Isong Ubiom, Democracy activist Chief Cham Cham Ozichukwu, Dr.Ifechukwu Ifebi of Jetro hospital, Dr. Nwahukwu Fimbar, to mention
but a few.


This is just a glimpse so you can understand the odds I faced in Lagos. I was overwhelmed by the quality of the people there, fear dawned on me and I thought I couldn’t cope, but then the spirit of confidence instilled in me  inspired me to move on and I excelled above all my peers.

Likewise, I earned another scholarship from Professor  Okunna Education Trust in 2004 after scoring distinctions in my JSSCE. Additionally, having distinguished myself from others in terms of character and learning, I was chosen by the overwhelming majority of teachers to be the School Senior Prefect for 2006/2007 session, a position which to my best of knowledge was not attained by anybody of low level since the founding of St.Mary's in 1961. The challenges I faced as the School Captain didn’t deter me from soaring even higher academically; consequently, I had distinctions in my SSCE WAEC which was the best in South East Zone.

Furthermore, as soon as I applied to the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, I was offered full scholarship due to my excellent background and today I am a 1st Class graduate of Chemical Engineering. All these I accomplished not by myself but by the Grace of Almighty God, the support of my loving parents and siblings and also the sacrifice of my teachers here  who laid the foundation for those in St.Mary's College to build on.

I want you to understand that you are also blessed and privileged to have all of these. The glory of God is equally given to everyone, we all have similar brains and the fact that you are standing here means that your parents love you and are supporting you fervently, moreover, those wonderful and caring teachers are still here, therefore I say to you: YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN MYSELF if you want to and you shall, by the Will of God. YES YOU CAN.

You can not only to surpass the notable people mentioned earlier but you can be greater in such a way that the whole world will reckon your names.

You can be great scientists and even greater than Isaac Newton, Alfred Nobel, Neil Bohr and Albert Einstein.

You can be great Philosophers and even greater than Plato, Socrates and Aristotle.

You can be great inventors and even greater than Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Charles Babbage, Rudolf Diesel and Carl Benz.

You can be great innovators and even greater than Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve Jobs of Apple,Mark Zuckerberg of facebook, Sergey Brim and Larry Page of Google.

I am quite optimistic that Nobel Laureates in both Sciences and Arts will come from a product of Aliyu Mustafa Academy that is because unlike others, we give gratitude to God, following our motto DEO GRATIAS. And what better way to show gratitude to God than utilizing the very gifts He gave us to pursue knowledge with excellence? And what better way of expressing thanks to our parents than for them to see us excel, succeed and become accomplished? Therefore, I say to you, indeed the sky is not your limit but your starting point. Conquer your fears and you will be whatever you want to be.

Listen carefully to the following quote of Marianne Williamson

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure, we ask ourselves who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous, actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us and as we let our own shine we will consciously give other people permission to do the same.”

In my esteemed St.Mary’s College, we end our talks by saying Deo Patriaque Fidelis , therefore I end by saying to you Floreat St.Mary's college, let St.Mary's college  continue to flourish. Thank you very much.