AUN is Grooming a New Generation of Leaders Who Are Transforming Nigeria
Remarks by President Margee Ensign at the formal launch of Zinger Wallet, an innovative Financial Services App developed by AUN Software Engineering Senior, Mr David Edijala, on Friday, November 5, 2021
Good afternoon, thanks so much for the invitation, thanks to my senior colleagues for being here. You know when I met with David and (?) this week in my office, there were a lot of things that struck me; your creativity, your energy, your desire to be an entrepreneur, but then you start talking about AUN and you said some really important things. You said AUN is a problem-solving community-enhancing education and maybe you captured what AUN is better than we have tried to, but reflect for a minute everyone on our mission and vision as a university.
The American University of Nigeria seeks to become a great centre of learning and research for Nigeria and Africa and become a catalyst for development in the entire world. It will thus be a university honouring the traditional roles of repository and transmitter of cultural knowledge and become a centre for the creation of new knowledge; this is new knowledge. AUN will also see as its focus the practical roles a university must play in the development of a great nation. To this end, AUN will not only be an agent of change in our area but will also provide our students with precisely the sort of liberal arts education envisioned when the university was established; to be students, to be those agents of change.
To fulfil this vision, AUN will foster the creation of leaders in this audience, AUN will foster the creation of leaders committed to sustaining a democracy in which diverse people share the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, proficient in creating and applying technology for wise purpose and dedicated to seeking a humane and prosperous world. I’m really proud of you two; I’m proud of the whole team. We do everything together. There’s a whole team, group of faculty, your friends, people who have supported you as you’ve gotten this far, but you represent what we try to do here at AUN, create leaders like all of you in this audience who will go out and make a great change in this great nation. We need people who are curious, adaptable, persistent, comfortable with failure. You will have them, I’ve had them, but you have to keep trying, you have to be focused on the long term. So, let me just end with the definition of Zinger, did anyone look it up? Zinger is an outstanding person or thing.
Congratulations!