10th Welcome Address

The Holy Spirit, who is the chairman /CEO of Divcon Group, the chairman of this occasion, Engr H UF Enuha, ably represented by Engr P B Yaro  Managing Director, Cakasa Nigeria Company Ltd; The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Division & Management Board (NCDMB) , Engr  Ernest Nwapa, ably represented by Engr. Rotimi Olagbaye, Head Marginal Feld, NCDMB Captains and representatives of industries,  Our covenant, Spiritual and business partners, Gentlemen of the prints and electronic media,   Ladies and gentlemen.

It is indeed a singular privilege of God for me to stand here to welcome you to the 10th Annual Thanksgiving Meeting (ATM 2014) to mark the 10th anniversary of Divcon Group as an organization.

The journey has been a journey of abundance of God’s Mercy, favor and Grace. This same Grace has not only brought us to where we are today but will take us by leaps and bounds to the Pinnacle of excellence and exploits not only in the oil & Gas industry but in other areas of diversification that will gradually unfold in the coming years ahead.

Divcon has seen these past ten years as the formative and foundational years of preparation and capacity building for excellence and sustainability . As part of our capacity building, we have vigorously engaged in training and re-training of our human capital asset in order to operate at the cutting edge of technology, innovation and excellence.

We note however that the path to excellence and innovation is a journey and not a destination. We therefore aspire and motivate ourselves to stay focused on this path while riding on the shoulders of those who have travelled the road ahead of us in sustainable partnership and technical alliances. On this note, we have formed technical alliances with reputable, technology driven partners globally from the United States to Europe, from Asia to Africa. In a global village in which we all now live, we have deliberately taken steps to be the local- global organization in any country or location of our operation.

As an organization , our innovative drive into the future in the next decade will be fueled by development of the best people asset, deployment of cutting edge technology platform and provision of sustainable value added services to our customers. Divcon Group is a key stakeholder and a rising star in the horizon of the Local content development in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. We have come to recognize that the concept of free technology transfer is fallacy even though many would not agree. No one, no matter how you think he likes you would deliberately transfer his technology to you for  free of charge. You can buy technology, you can even steal technology as in the cases of  Japan, china, india, Singapore to mention but a few. This stealing of technology is what is  referred to as reverse engineering. Japan for example was down to nothing after the  world war but the travelled the path of reverse engineering in a story we are familiar with.  You must take deliberate steps that must cost you something.

These deliberate steps involve acquisition of the required intelligence to adopt the  evolutionary strategy of innovation coupled with revolutionary approach of creativity.

We believe that if Nigeria is to be technology giant in Africa, we must change both the  way we think and our consumer mentality to that which harvests creativity, innovation and  excellence.

We must deliberately change the limit of knowledge to update the facts of what we know  because exploits in life is predicated on the limit of your knowledge of God, who you are  and your natural endowments and potential

Since the passing into law of the Nigerian content Act, a lot have changed in the  technological development and empowerment of Nigerian in various sectors of our National  aspiration. I must be quick to add though, that we are not yet where we ought to be but we  are no longer where we used to be.

If we consistently take incremental positive steps of progress in the right direction, we  will soon discover that such incremental steps have translated to spectacular leap in  development, self-discovery and exploits as a Nation.

The executive secretary of NCDMB will in the course of this event, give us a taste of the  success story of the Nigerian content development.

It is gratifying to note the great strides and progress that has been made by the NCDMB  in creating the enabling environment for Nigerian to make technological advancement and  self-sufficiency. Nigerians are among the best brains in the world. Nigerians are making  positive waves of excellence, creativity and innovation in their chosen endeavors in USA,  Europe, Asia and around the world. Why can’t we create the enabling environment for such  great minds to make great positive impacts in their home country Nigeria? Why can’t we  convert our brain drain to brain gain?

I am glad to let you know that we are making serious progress in this regard however, the  following needs to be given immediate attention by all stakeholders if the gains of the  past few years to be sustainable : 

• Political leaders must see themselves as Nigerians first before the see themselves  as politicians so that National interest should be made to prevail over personal,  sectional and partisan considerations. On this note I want to use this platform to  appeal to the 7th session of the National Assembly to looks at the gains of the  petroleum industry bill (PIB) and pass it into law before the end of the end of the  year 2014. In doing so,, they will be carving a legacy for themselves as a group of  patriotic Nigerians who choose to do what is right to the Nation at such time of  need . 
  
• We must confront the security challenges we have across the Nation on four  strategic fronts namely spiritual, technology, military and diplomatic. Extra ordinary  problem requires extra ordinary solutions. We cannot continue to give reason why we  are failing we must start looking for reasons why we must not fail. The failure of the  Nigerian state portends catastrophic humanitarian disaster for the whole of Africa  and we must not allow this to happen. This not just the responsibility of a  Government alone, it is a collective responsibility to deploy our Spiritual,  technological, military and diplomatic capabilities to fight terrorism in Nigeria. 
  
• We must realize that the world is changing so fast and knowledge is increasing so  rapidly to the point that the more you know, the more you, the more you know that  you do not know. We cannot confront the challenges of today with the knowledge of  yesterday. As a Nation, there is a huge gap between what we teach in the schools  and the knowledge required to make impart outside the school. We need to  completely overhaul our educational curriculum to serve, not just this generation but  the next generation. The world is changing and in the realm of change, there is  nothing like being on the same spot. You are either moving forward or going  backward. In this regards, we also need to establish and fund research initiatives  and establishments. This is not a role for government alone. It must be private  sector driven. Our banks should start incentivizing long term developmental growth  with long term funding for research and development as well as capacity buildin

​​Over the past ten years God has blessed Divcon with committed, dedicated and loyal staff.  We will be showing a token of our appreciation to our staff in the course of this event. We  also have enjoyed wonderful partnership from our customers, many of whom are  represented here, We have equally had committed , dedicated covenant and spiritual  partners who are always ready to undertake the assignment of Divcon with passion and  utmost dedication. We appreciate you all.

Finally, I want to sincerely appreciate the love of my life, my sweetheart, my wife and my  friend, Mrs Faith Ikekhide. Your wonderful support is amazing. I love you. I also want to  appreciate my mother who denied and deprived herself of the necessities of life to give  her children a reason for living. I will never forget your tender love to me as a mother. You  are a mother among mothers.

The purpose of this event is to give Thanks to God for His Mercy, favor and Grace for the  past ten years and to commit into His hand the next decade of our lives as individual,  organization and Nation. I therefore welcome you all to the 10th Annual Thanksgiving  meeting (ATM 2014) marking the 10th year anniversary of Divcon.

Thank you and God bless you all

Engr Andy Ikekhide 

President, Divcon Group