Kehinde Laniyan pays tribute to Chief (Mrs.) Gladys Aduke Vaughan, founder of Omolewa School, Otun-Iyalode of Ibadanland, pioneer educationist and a devoted a humanitarian.
ON 15 April 2014, Mrs Gladys Aduke Vaughan passed away into eternity at the age of 93, leaving behind children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and more importantly, a legacy of service to people. She pioneered one of the oldest private elementary schools in the city of Ibadan, Omolewa Nursery and Primary School, established in 1962. She was a foremost educationist, who had chosen teaching career deliberately because of her love for children and the impact she had desired to have on their future.
As a spinster, information has it that she was always surrounded by children, nursing in her heart deep affection for them. One day in her life in England while in training as a teacher was recalled: she woke up in the middle of the night, thought deeply about what life had in stock for a Nigerian child. Interestingly, that future that she ruminated deeply upon over 50 years ago is here with us while she is being counted today among the few worthy elites of her time who had the courage to affect the future.
Omolewa School had inspired several generations of Nigerians, contributing significantly to national development, especially in Southern Nigeria. This point cannot be overstated because building institutions in Nigeria has become a nightmare with governmental institutions and structures falling apart like a pack of cards.
Thousands of amazing people who have achieved enormous success in the modern professions — medical doctors, lawyers, professors, scientists, engineers, teachers, corporate managers, nurses, church leaders, government officials, etc. had their illustrious foundations at Omolewa School. Former Omolewa students had attended
Nigeria’s leading secondary schools and have gone on to graduate from renowned universities in Nigeria like the University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Lagos, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University and several others. They have also attended renowned universities all around the world, including Europe, US, and Canada.
One should not wonder why former Omolewa students are very loyal to their alma mater. It is because of the outstanding education and the love they got from the school during the early ‹ foundational period of their lives. They all exuded gladness and were very active during the school¹s celebration of its golden jubilee in 2012. They appreciated passing through the school and had expressed this in no uncertain terms. The testimony of one of the students who graduated over 40 years ago was very typical. She wrote with joy, “ My grandmother, without any hesitation registered me in the school. I would say this decision is one of the best decisions ever taken on my behalf. This decision, taken with solid faith, helped to shape my future.” She concluded that she was just lucky to have gone to Omolewa at the time she did.
Ironically, Mama Omolewa, as she is popularly called would always avoid the limelight. However, from today and for many years to come, providence had dictated that she be celebrated and lights beamed on her selfless way of life, lived impacting on people around her. She had lived a life so that thousands of children and relations that passed through her hands could reclaim their lives back and enjoy it in great abundance.
Omolewa School is a good example of what the private people can do for our country in the area of educational institution building, especially when we are blessed with people imbued with powerful vision of tomorrow. Even the elites in governments today have few things to learn from the initiative of Chief Mrs Gladys Aduke Vaughan and for
the reason of the success she made of Omolewa. They should rather encourage private investments in education and not stifled them to death as embarked upon by successive military governments in the 1980s and 1990s.
Moral upbringing and discipline that became the hallmark of Omolewa School were derived from the Christian faith and background she had. Chief (Mrs.) Vaughan was deeply committed to a progressive Christian faith that embraced everyone irrespective of their religion. She saw God in every child and must have held on to the commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ that says we should allow little children to come onto him, because theirs is the kingdom of God.
Mrs Vaughan worked with people from various religious, ethnic, socio-economic and national backgrounds to advance the common good. She reflected the ideas and values of progressive egalitarianism that was expressed in the high academic, moral, and ethnical standards that have shaped Omolewa School for over half a century.
It is noteworthy that her grandparents were part of the first small Christian converts in Ibadan in the mid 19th century. Through the CMS mission station in Ibadan, they were also the first group of educated elites in Ibadan by the late 19th century. This Yoruba Christian missionary foundation was important for what she would later accomplish as a pioneering educationist immediately after the attainment of Nigerian independence in 1960.
It is important to mention that she had the fortune of being brought up in different Christian homes while schooling in Lagos and teaching in Abeokuta where she had to live in the palace of Alake of Egbaland, Oba Ladapo Ademola, a royal personality described as an “embodiment of Christian virtue”. In Ibadan, her home town, she was from the age of five under the tutelage and spiritual warmth of missionary teachers who imparted in her deep religious and moral instructions. Indeed, moral instruction that was recently introduced as a compulsory subject in the new schools curriculum by the Nigerian government had been part of Omolewa’s foundation, meaning that God had made her to see this end right from the beginning.
Chief (Mrs.) Vaughan was a committed humanitarian and philanthropist. She served as a member of the Red Cross Society, as a Matron of the Motherless Babies Home and as a Matron of the Alanu Fund which caters for the unfortunate patients of the University College Hospital, Ibadan and their relations. She offered hundreds of scholarship at Omolewa to many worthy young people who have gone on to serve the country in all works of life and have emerged as highly successful professional throughout the world. Her life was profoundly enriched by the thousands of students who had passed through the gates of Omolewa School in over 50years.
Her brother, Chief Adisa Akinloye, who made a mark in Nigerian politics, in an interview many years ago described Mrs Vaughan as a willing help and ready hand when it comes to helping poor parents to whose children she granted scholarships. He remarked, “During the Nigerian civil war, she gave scholarships to children of war victims and adopted some and catered for their education from primary to university level.”
Her services and humanitarian gestures got her recognition of being conferred a Non Hereditary chieftaincy title. She had also worked her way through the tedious Ibadan chieftaincy linage to become the Otun Iyalode, the leader of the female chiefs in Ibadanland. Professor (Mrs) Bolanle Awe captured vividly the essence of the chieftaincy title conferred on Mrs Aduke Vaughan in a recent publication when she wrote, “These female chiefs are the queens of women, they are their spokespersons and watchdogs to ensure that all is well with the city; theirs is truly selfless, dedicated service whose ultimate reward is paradoxically more giving!”
Mrs Vaughan hailed from two of Ibadan’s most prominent families, the Akinloye and Okeowo and was married to the late Chief A. A. Vaughan, and is mother to many highly successful children. Chief (Mrs.) Vaughan was an Old seminary (graduate of CMS Girls Grammar School, Lagos). She studied nursery & elementary education in England in the late 1950s and taught at MaryHill Convent School, Idi Ape, Agodi, Ibadan before founding Omolewa School in 1962.
Laniyan, an indigene of Ibadan.
