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2060 Futureshock | Ross Alabo-George | TEDxPortHarcourt


tell a quick story and it’s a story
about evolution nation’s evolved and
societies evolved and if nations do not
prepare for the kinds of revolution that
will come nations will fail in 1960 we
had our independence but before
independence there was a Nigeria that
was not Nigeria I will take you back a
hundred years before 1960 it was in 1860
at the time of experiencing a blossoming
economy but our economy was based on
palm oil and so we had what we call the
oil reverse protectorates before that
time and so in 1860 the people of Maine
big Kingdom the people of bonny Kingdom
and the color very people they were
independent nation states and this
nation states we are blossoming they had
their heads of states Kingdom Acree was
the head of states and was the
precedence King minge of memory was the
head of states and it was a president
King peple of bonny was a president on
his own and these three major nations
controlled the palm oil trade of the
world 50 percent of the Palmer trade in
the world they controlled five hundred
thousand dollars watts of palm oil trade
another time the entire parallel trade
in Britain was worth a million pounds so
the oil rivers Protectorate at the time
controlled half of the world’s Pam
l-train can you imagine that and if you
consider the fact that Nigeria was
bought by George Goldman told Goldy in
1884 for a chatter fee of 895 thousand
pounds then you will understand how rich
that zone was look at it the zone
prosperous blossoming in palm oil but
then something happened
it was shocked they were not expecting
it Europe gathered in Germany and
decoded the Berlin Conference of 1884
well that is so painful it’s not our
kings and heads of states and these
three nations they did not know that
there was a plan and there was a meeting
going on to truncates
their leadership at the time Britain was
not a colonial master the Great Britain
was a partner they were trading partners
but now imagine it in 1884 they were
Emmeline they are trading partners when
Bonnie and Calipari they did not know
what was going on and after the meeting
in 84 they had to implement the details
of the Berlin conference our trading
partners came to the shores again but
this time they did not come as traders
the cameras were colonial masters they
came as our lords and call them consuls
the beard the power of the Queen and the
kings of England it was a this figure in
moments in the oil rivers Protectorate
they didn’t plan for it they didn’t have
a clue that it was coming there was the
knowledge if they had known if they had
known they would have contributed and
have been part of the real nature
company because they had enough money to
the table our people invested in in in
ornaments the pony people the same thing
and even the people in brass but when
that happened in 1984 there was a
shattering system in the region we went
into a depression and that was the most
difficult depression that Nigeria has
ever seen in 1884 up until 1900 we
thought over 20 was in the $90 because
the Kings who used to collect tariffs
the Kings who used to collect customs
duty they were cut off I mind you the
people of this area there were not
Fisher men they were traders
those people were not farmers they were
traders they were middlemen because they
had advantage of the access of the
rivers they controlled all the trees in
the river mouths but in 1884 all of that
ended and it was such a major issue
because they were not expecting it and
that’s why the scripture says that
people perish for lack of knowledge we
got into another realm in 1900 there was
so much poverty between 84 and 1900
there were fighting wars in fact it
became so bad that in 1895 King
Frederick minge the 8th of Namba kingdom
could not stand it anymore
he’s someone does people into a meeting
mobilised 2,000 men and attacks the
acacia beasts of the Royal manger
company if you look at the slide there
is a picture of what they call the white
man’s grave in brass the picture is
still there that’s it what happened
there is that when they occur ceded to
the Ranger company base they took
hostage 60 whites traders they killed 40
and they ate them ceremoniously what
happened to the remaining 20 I don’t
know but 40 of them were killed cooked
and eaten why there was a depression in
the land today we complain of a
recession but the recession that we see
today was nothing compared to that of
1895 that singular event sent shockwaves
in London and sad John Kirk who was that
then the console in zambezi what sense
to name it to go and find out what was
going on the British public were enraged
how could these people be so much
treated that they could kill and eat
four people that’s events triggered
several other resistances within the 90
daughter and that was when the British
called off the chatter of the royal
mention company of George Tolman toldi
and Nigeria became under the direct rule
of the crown 1900 to 1960 the trade
continued there was some ephemeral trade
going on but in 1957 something happened
there was another blessing for the
region
we discovered in the library or
libraries of little community a quick
turn in by other states a sleepy
community not ever dreaming that they
will ever find such a commodity under
the ground but I woke up one morning and
I saw white men drilling and all I began
to flow so in 1957 we began to produce
all in the library and we produce oil
non-stop for 20 years
so up until 1977 the library witnessed
twenty years of steady constant oil
drilling and at the peak in 1964 or
later was producing five thousand one
hundred barrels of oil per day well they
put this oil for 20 years so at breasts
we’re estimates that 40 million barrels
of producing a library today’s costs two
billion dollars has been extracted from
a library but a library is a dead
community as I speak to you all Avery
does not have a good primary school a
library does not have a good secondary
school Larry does not have a good health
center there is no monuments nothing of
value except the fact that in history
only improve just be remembered but it
was once an oil-producing community the
world does not remember you when you are
down and that’s why the Bible says that
the wisdom of a poor man is the spiced
with continue down the Kapton drilling
oil we’ve seen it happen in several
areas every when the Niger Delta right
now has an oil field but you see the
truth of this is that all of this oil
fields one thing will be empty but our
leaders are not thinking 35 billion
barrels of oil have been drilled and
exported since 1960 cumulatively
we have sold one hundred and thirteen
trillion Myra water oil all we have left
is part of 7 billion barrels left as
reserves and at the rate of 2 million
barrels per year which we exports that
means that we have less than 40 years to
go so it means that by the time we are
we are hundred years from 1960 our oil
is dried up
and if you think your hell will not dry
up if you think that the oil will not
dry up
you only need to think about sugar sugar
at the point in the fifteenth sixteenth
and seventeenth-century
was the most valid commodity in the
world sugar was the reason when slave
trade began once you understand so that
was the reason why France gave Canada
for it little island of Guadeloupe after
the eight-year war sugar so that was the
reason why America lost why Britain lost
the picture is war because the British
forces were so busy protecting the
plantations sugar plantations in the
West Indies they were so busy
the Americans were fightin the Peshwas
were fighting Britain was preserving his
plantains his plantations sugar you
think that sugar people thought that
sugar would not go anywhere
sugar is the reason why thousands and
millions were killed in India and in
fact when sugar was discovered it was
medicine sugar used to be mention in the
southeast and in Southeast Asia and in
India but today the stuff that was
medicine our women dread sugar the dread
sugar so badly right now and that’s why
in the Bible there’s no word or mention
of sugar because in Bible days it was
honey and today the whole world is going
back to honey so if you think that the
oil will be here forever you need to
think again because the moment is
running close and I can predict for you
by 2060 I all will be gone but even if
we have oil even if we have it don’t you
know that Europe is moving away from
fossil fuel don’t know the Great Britain
by 2040 sees no more fossil fuel so no
more reasonable gasoline our biggest
rate as India no more fuel
no more gasoline so they won’t buy from
us so even if we had a trillion barrels
or oil mean nothing I we’re ready for
the future what have we done what have
we done with what we have received
my work today is to bust the bubble and
set your minds thinking into the future
in the Greek word future means prophesy
to prophesy and so it means that the
knowledge system that would be today was
correct in its the picture of the future
and what must we do
what is the next energy reimbursed rego
thing therefore that our oil by 2016
will be gone there are things we must do
the world is moving fast and scarce
resources are becoming irrelevant
technologies making scarce resources
like like capital land irrelevance cheap
labor technology with cheap labor
irrelevant
so we come up go the way of him we
cannot get away of China China has
developed this economy using shift lever
but by 2060 technology will emit chief
liberals in relevance so that’s the way
we can go so the only option that we
have is the posture knowledge is to
pursue the American agenda when America
got its independence in 1776 America was
delayed back but America’s pain and
continued to innovate they began to be
creative
America was thinking creatively and so
in 1876 a hundred years after
independence America had invented the
telegram America invented the telephone
and by 1918 when America came upon the
world stage
after during the World War one the world
Stood Still
because a new Power had emerged how do
we proceed from here we need creative
energy the whole world is moving Saudi
Arabia has a sovereign wealth fund worth
two trillion dollars to three non
dollars two trillion dollars combined
Apple Microsoft beckford head Warren
Buffett’s company four of America’s
largest company can be bought with two
trillion are Saudi Arabia has kept that
a sovereign wealth fund no it has a one
trillion in Soviet for Russia which is
one of the biggest effort
is reread rafts in his Constitution so
that its economy will become dobrze
Nigeria you know what we’re doing
nothing what’s happening to our
universities a lot of us here are
students what’s happen or universities
Harvard University has an endowment form
of 7.5 billion dollars that’s mana you
are no projects here has an unknown
endowment of twenty seven point two
billion dollars that’s more than your
annual budgets in Saudi Arabia King
Abdullah University has twenty two
billion dollars that’s just about your
annual budgets in Nigeria all our
universities put together plus the River
State University of Science and
Technology and university of protocol
has less than ten million dollars all
combined it’s not the way we must go is
there a future for our young ones don’t
you see that Google does not employ
people based on certificates anymore 20%
of global staff today do not have the
grease they don’t have to grease their
work on certification and it’s still the
core godliness what Google called
godliness is the ability to be a misfits
to be a square peg in a round hole Bobo
wants you to be when you go for when you
go for when you go for interviews in
blue chip companies these days they’re
not looking at what you have lent gogo
will tell you plainly that they’re not
interested in what you already know
gobo wants the ability of Lane ability
that you are teachable that you can lend
and they call it intellectual humility
that you can process on the fly that is
what we are looking at that is what
technology companies are looking at and
that’s the way the world is headed to
there’s something called and we always
hear it people say knowledge is power
and people have described all of that
knowledge is power but I’m here to tell
you on those red carpets that knowledge
is no longer power for the next
generation the knowledge is essentially
energy and knowledge is the next energy
you know why because power come
not be transformed from one part to
another that’s what were told in physics
but energy is transforming and
sustainable and so to create the the
energy of the next generation we need to
start thinking about our children I have
a son by 2060 my son will be an adult
and my son will have a child already
myself tamper with petroleum engineering
I will not even allow it because there’s
no future there we spent three billion
dollars just this year three billion
dollars just this year looking for oil
in the North three billion dollars
looking for oil in the Middle Belt and
in the North when we have nothing in our
universities Melford Aquino was such a
star Melford Akio set up the University
inverse of Science and Technology and in
that university then something called
amphitheatre and the amphitheater
reminds me of the great science of
Ephesus the Bible says in the book of
Acts of the Apostles chapter 18 verse 21
that Ephesus was a great city and that
the opinions and the strangers in
Ephesus they gathered and if they all
they talked about and listened to was
new ideas look at it
[Applause]
new ideas it’s in the Bible acts of
supporters 18 fast 21 10 years under
strangers they discuss only new ideas an
emphasis for such a great city and no
wonder the Bible says that in the still
in the city of Ephesus
so Minds will accrue the Word of God
that it prevail I am here today just to
make you understand that there is
something that we must do and the thing
that we must do does not depend on our
leaders it is upon us to take action it
is upon us to begin to build creative
energy and that’s when you see the kind
of people that we’ve assembled today
they’re creative people that is the
occupation for the future the future is
not for engineers is not for lawyers is
for creative people and so you can be an
engineer you can be a lawyer but then
there is an intuition there is a
creativity that is born in you it is
that creativity to have your future and
can make you prosperous in this
generation that is coming you know
something I don’t want to take much of
your time
[Applause]
it rounded up the other speakers eyes
and rounding up I need to make this
clear
now when Adam Smith the great
philosopher and author of the book The
Wealth of Nations they called the book
The Wealth of Nations and then he puts
underneath he said and interrogation
into the nature and causes of wealth of
nations so it means that the wealth of
nations actually costs the nation’s most
cause their wealth and the missions must
produce the world’s when Adam Smith was
writing his book in 76 in 1776 and he
was describing how powerful the American
Empire had become and I’m Smith only
used one term to describe the American
Empire the British Empire then is it
Magna veeram Matar and what that means
is the mighty model of great man that
Britain a great empire have been able to
build a nation like America instead it
had bred and forms the men who be able
to achieve such great actions and laying
the foundation of so great an empire
what this means is that nations are not
built by infrastructure brick and motar
nations are built by people measures are
built by men and that’s where the next
generation in this era of the oil busts
will come from the wombs of our women
they are children that will emerge and
change the state of this nation we need
to encourage and that’s why it’s
important people have talked about how
we must treat our women the women are
the new oil wealth and your children
would be the only ones that can change a
nation of this country I hope my
brethren like Saint Paul will say that
as we move on our children because in
this generation we are already gone and
2060 is just here hundreds after
independence are we thinking time I hold
my grandchild someday and tell him that
this nation it’s a Magna veeram matter
thank you
[Applause]
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