Awake, Sleeping Souls in Africa

Sleeping souls in Africa,
Oh, sleeping souls.
Wake up because the time has come!
the time which was envisioned by many
many who never knew how or when it would arrive. The time that actully slept but was thought dead or on exile.
The time that sees a rebirth of a different pedagogy (An American Styled) in higher education in Africa.

Why do you behave like a typical African?
One whose “capacity for deliberate pessimism about new projects, policies or programs often overtakes his capability for spontaneous optimism.”
One who sees only the hole in a doughnut?
Strive to be an optimist who sees the whole of a doughnut. Make a conscious move towards opening your eyes so that you can see the “timeless options and opportunities” that AAUN is offering to Africa.

You had all thought it would be an impossible task because of the very short interval.
I heard lots of you say and wonder: “how can a school open a year after the lay of its foundation stone”?
you further imagined that it was “yet not just any kind of school, but an institution of higher education that claims to be an arrow head of excellence in Africa.”

That is sheer day dream from any supporter of such an idea, you all thought.
I quite remember that day when one of you said it was foolish for me to leave my formal school (a Nigerian university), for this school you say was “yet to be born.”
But I put it to you this day that on the 12th of September, 2005, lectures started for the inaugural freshman class.

I challenge you right now to go for a tour of the school’s temporary campus, its facilities as well as the 500 hectares construction site.
I assure you that you would be marveled at the constructions at the permanent campus.

Why should you doubt the reality of a modern day world class University in Nigeria, when it is under the supervision of the American University of Washington?
With a free laptop computer and 24 hours internet facilities for all students
Or do you think it would be an elephant project?

Wake up, sleeping souls and if you find it hard to do, maybe you could go and see a doctor. Accept it or not: the only thing that is constant in the universe is change but when we refuse to change along with the times then it would imply that we are sleeping and might soon become dead;
one characteristic of the dead man is that he cannot participate in the existing world - that which a sleeping person can't do either.

So, if you refuse to change along with the times, to adjust yourself accordingly by being updated in the latest issues of the day, and accepting the reality of it, then you are sleeping and heading to the world of the dead.

I urge you to wake up right now to see the things that exist in the real world here in AAUN. You can do this consciously, and only if you realize that you have actually been sleeping.

Dash into the world of information!
Read papers and go to the website of the ABTI-American University of Nigeria at http://www.abti-american.edu.ng/ to see the mission and vision of the school and how fast it is achieving this.
“Perhaps, the worst thing that can happen to someone is to exist in the limbo of ignorance.”

So, you sleeping soul,
Wake up from your slumber!
Wake up from your dead world!
And you would be glad that you did,
Because your life would never remain the same.

I urge you once more that you arise now from your slumber because the era of procrastination has long been buried. The Calling Bell says:
Now is the time.
“The AAUN project must never be weighed down by negative thinking nor encumbered by any prejudice. It is a legacy started, which shall be sustained until the mission is accomplished and the founder’s vision becomes fully realized”.

Long live the Abti_American University of Nigeria
Long live the Founder