High Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs Delivers Transformative Charge at RSU 2025 Convocation Lecture

Opuda, Alabo High Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, Chairman of the 2025 Convocation Lecture of the Rivers State University (RSU), delivered a powerful and future-focused address yesterday that reinforced his lifelong advocacy for entrepreneurship, innovation, sustainability, and people-centred leadership.

The Convocation Lecture, delivered by Dr. Daere Afonya-a Akobo, FCIoD, Chairman/GCEO of PANA Holdings, explored the theme: “Joint University-Industry Ventures: Entrepreneurship, Technology, Sustainability, and People Nexus for Rivers State University.” 

High Chief Lulu-Briggs described the lecture as timely, transformational, and critical for repositioning RSU, now arriving at its 37th and 38th Convocation, for global competitiveness.

A statement by Nia’Bari Fakae, SA Media to Opuda, Alabo Dumo Lulu-Briggs, issued on 04/12/25, disclosed that High Chief Lulu-Briggs in his remarks,  stressed that modern societies rise not because of mineral wealth but because of the creativity, adaptability, and courage of their people. 

He charged Nigerian universities, particularly RSU, to take their place as engines of innovation by developing graduates equipped with clarity, competence, and character.

He urged the graduating class to embrace entrepreneurship as a habit and mindset, “a culture, not a fallback”, and to view societal challenges as opportunities for building profitable, scalable, and community-beneficial solutions. 

Drawing from his experience at Platform Petroleum, he recounted how conviction and calculated risk-taking led to Nigeria’s first marginal field “first oil” and how a once-rejected 7-storey design became the iconic 19-storey Platform House, a living testament that “whatever the mind can conceive, it can achieve.”

Highlighting the power of collaboration, he referenced the partnership that birthed SEPLAT, now a major energy player listed on both the Nigerian and London Stock Exchanges, as evidence that partnership multiplies impact.

On technology, High Chief Lulu-Briggs reminded the audience that digital fluency has become a universal language, urging universities to prepare students for emerging, undefined, and future careers. 

Turning to sustainability, he described it as both a responsibility and a legacy, citing the Ovhor Gas Processing Company, which today supports domestic gas supply and reduces emissions. Development, he emphasized, must walk hand-in-hand with environmental responsibility.

Above all, he affirmed that people remain the centre of progress. Values empathy, integrity, courage, service, are the pillars upon which families, institutions, and nations stand.

Reflecting on Dr. Akobo’s lecture, High Chief Lulu-Briggs noted its profound paradigm shift: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the RIGHT mind.”

 This, he said, is a transformational tool capable of changing lives and shaping societies.

He congratulated the graduating class, reminding them that convocation is not an ending but the beginning of responsibility. “You have been shaped here; now you must shape society. The world is watching to see what you will build,” he told them.

High Chief Lulu-Briggs thanked the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Zebulon Isaac Zeb-Obipi, for hosting him, and lauded Dr. Akobo for an exceptional, multidimensional lecture enriched with perspectives from Medicine, Law, Engineering, and Management.