Prof. Yemi Osinbajo at the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Forum 2017 on 15/10/2017

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Video Transcript

When I considered what to talk to you about I realised that you would have learnt practically all you need to know for now about entrepreneurship. But I thought I should share with you some of my thoughts on a subject that has always fascinated me; the subject of history, especially the tyranny of history. And so I chose the theme – the tyranny of history or the tyranny of the past.

History defined is simply the past, the past of individuals like you and I and the past of nations and people. The power of history is to present the past, sometimes so compellingly in the present. History in its best form is known especially as time, where time is a healer. But perhaps the tyranny of history, the way that history seems to want to control us and control the present, it always seems to be the most interesting and at the same time most challenging.

Our history can tie us down, compelling us to look backwards until sometimes we trip. It compels us to look at the present with fear and apprehension. Our history, our past, especially past failures, individually or collectively, can become a barrier for achievements or freedom.

Our political history in Africa would appear dominated by wars, famine, coups d’etat, corrupt governments, dictators and failed or failing states. Our economic history would also largely be of large scale poverty, infant mortality, maternal mortality, mortality in literacy, disease and misery.

So our history may seek to define our future in Africa, especially our expectations of the coming years. History of this bleak sort, has a way of subduing our faith and conscripting our vision for our nation and our society and indeed for ourselves.

In the same way, a history of personal failure can cripple our hope and limit our vision, it can frighten us to having a small perspective of life. Our family history, the misery and degradations of our beginnings, the shame sometimes and the disgrace of the past, the spectacular failures of the past are the tyrannical weapons of history.

These weapons whip us in line when we are thinking big, cutting us down to size as our self-esteem rises. Our past sometimes is always yelling at us: “unworthy, unworthy, unworthy” as we struggle to do right, live right and to live with dignity. 

But history, we must remember, is not merely a record of the past, but it is the past. It is gone! Our future is not determined by history or the past unless we allow it. The history of Africa does not determine its future. The days you live here are much greater and better than the past.