By Dr. Akinwumi Adesina
As the saying goes, “Life is short so make the most of it.” While this is profoundly true, what we must ask ourselves is “what is the purpose of life itself?”
The answer is simple. Purpose is found in living for others. Not for oneself. Many live to acquire riches. There is nothing wrong with making money. Life, however, is more than working for mere silver and gold.
Riches are fleeting, but real wealth is touching the lives of others. Stock markets oscillate up and down as people trade riches. But real wealth—the type that is acquired from the lives of those that you will touch—lasts forever.
I know what a little kindness can do in changing destinies, as a foreign graduate student at Purdue University. I arrived in America in 1983 with only $750. My scholarship from my home country was not paid.
I was stuck in America.
I had to survive on $750 for six months. Of this, my rent was $100 a month, leaving me with $150 with which to survive. Each day, I walked several kilometers to school in the bitter cold and snow of Lafayette, Indiana, because I could not afford bus fares.
Neither could I afford basic things.
I had to improvise. Everything was about “value for money”!
If you economize, you are an economist!
Why pay for air when it is free!
Eventually, I came down to my last 25 cents in the world. As I approached the bus on that bitterly cold day, I put my 25 cents in the till. The bus driver said, “that’ll be 50 cents please.” I told him that’s all the money I had. Kindly, he put his hand in his wallet and paid the balance of 25 cents.
That same day on getting to campus one of my professors, Dr. John Connors, called me in. I let him know my situation. He gave me $100 and said, “you can pay me back in 5 years after you finish your PhD studies.”
But Dr. Connors did more. He helped me get an assistantship with another professor, Dr. Phil Abbott, for my master’s degree, and then with another professor, Dr. John Sanders for my PhD degree, who both paid for my tuition and provided me with decent stipends.
Their trust and investment in me paid off.
Many years after, I went on to win the World Food Prize—known as the “Nobel Prize for Agriculture”.
How could my professors have known at the time that they were helping someone who would later become a World Food Prize Laureate?
How would they have known they were helping someone who would later become President of the African Development Bank Group?
Yes, the African Development Bank Group that was ranked last year by Global Finance as the Best multilateral financial institution in the world?
How could they have known that this skinny kid would go on to manage not 25 cents… but $208 billion?
They are instruments of change—destiny shapers!
These encounters and experiences have helped define who I am and my approach to life … serving humanity and making a difference.
At the African Development Bank, I see my role as delivering hope for millions of people. In the past seven years, our work has impacted the lives of 350 million people.
I am excited that we have helped to connect 20 million people to electricity.
On a field trip to one of the project villages in Kenya not too long ago, I met one of our beneficiaries. Her name was Grace. She was very excited. When she was asked whether she knew the President of the African Development Bank—that is myself—she said: “I do not know the President of the African Development Bank; I do not even know the African Development Bank; all I know is that we once were in darkness, now we have light!”
That is a lesson there! Let your works and good deeds impact the lives of people, especially those who will never know you.
Today, we are building what we call the Desert to Power initiative, a $25-billion investment to harness the power of the sun and deliver electricity for 250 million people. When completed it will be the largest solar zone in the world.
It will be a spark of hope for millions more like Grace!
A world that faces new challenges, many of them happening simultaneously.
At the top of this is climate change, which poses an existential risk for the world. We must do all we can to keep global warming to no more than 1.5 degree Celsius.
We need innovations to power the world better with renewable energy.
We must do all we can to feed the world. It is not acceptable that over 2.3 billion people in the world go hungry. God did not create stomachs to go empty. He created them to be filled. There must be a hunger-free world.
More than ever, the world needs change makers. Change makers who can carry the love of God into a turbulent world. Change makers with a heart.
The future before us is not doom and gloom. It is a future of exciting and infinite possibilities. You have a role to play in this unfolding chapter of history. With God’s help and grace, I am confident that you will stand out and do exploits that will make our world a better place.
You cannot shrivel—you must blossom!
You cannot be hidden—you must stand out!
Learn to commit yourselves to working hard.
So, as you enter the labor market, stay in your mind.
Regardless of where you find yourself, live a purposeful life.
Inspire others!
Support others!
Pour yourselves into helping others unleash their potential.
Live for others—do not live for yourselves.
In doing so, you would have made the only wealth that fully counts—the wealth that makes a difference and creates hope for others!
Now, you must go out and be all that you can be.
Now you must rise and shine!
I love how the Bible puts it “Arise, shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Jehovah shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising!”
So go out and make a difference in the world.
Be a doer!
Never procrastinate.
Take actions.
Be decisive.
Be purposeful.
Be determined.
Be resilient, whatever may come your way!
If your plan A does not work, so what? There are still 25 letters left in the alphabet! And no alphabet is bigger than the other. Weave your life with all letters, regardless of where life puts you.
Hope is forward looking!
Never stop doing good.
Think with your head but act with your heart.
Editor’s note: a heavily edited Commencement Address to the Class of 2023 Calvin University, Michigan, USA By Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina President African Development Bank Group, 29 April 2023
