The Samuel Alaba Odumade Education Foundation (SAOEF), as part of its Project 2022, has paid the fees of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the National Examination Council (NECO) of some indigent students in Lagos State public secondary schools.

Speaking on ‘Project 2022 in Lagos yesterday, the eldest daughter of the late educationist, Dupe Odumade, said: “Nothing is too much to immortalise the name of our late patriarch. Moreover, the youths of this country need to be assured now more than ever, that they are loved and remembered.”

On SAOEF, she said: “It is out to give assistance to indigent students in Lagos State public Secondary Schools and tertiary institutions.

“The foundation is set up to see to the needs of some indigent students in Lagos State public secondary schools and to immortalise the name of our late father, Samuel Alaba Odumade, who served as principal in several public secondary schools in Lagos State before he retired meritoriously.

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“The foundation was birthed in 2020.  Then, it was just NECO fees of indigent students  that we paid in four public senior secondary schools in Lagos State. The secondary schools that benefited were randomly selected from Lagos State Education District 1, Lagos State Education District 3, and Lagos State Education District 4.

According to her, the vision of the foundation is to graduate to a major stakeholder in giving good and quality education to the children of the poor.

She added: “We are pretty new, but we are surely going to actualise the dream of our late patriarch.

“Yes, it is very much in line with vision of our late father who strongly believed that good and quality education is the right (not privilege) of every Nigerian child. While growing up, we saw our father going out of his way to ensure that the children of the needy are educated. The word ‘No’ never existed in our father’s dictionary. He believed that ‘no child should be written off; there is no child that is not intelligent to attend schools”.

“There is no better way to immortalise the name of such a father than to put a functional education foundation in place.”