Foremost educationist, administrator and mentor to many, Chief Guy Garguilo, is dead.
The one-time principal of Ajuwa Grammar School, Okeagbe Akoko, Ondo State, passed on in the United Kingdom (UK) on Monday after a short illness. He was 87.
The late Garguilo, a Briton, died “the way he liked to die,” according to Mr. Ayo Eye, one of the closest old students to the former principal.
According to Eye, the late Garguilo “always said he would not like to become a burden to anybody at his old age.
“He said he would not like to see himself being carried up and down. He even threatened that if it came to that level, he would commit suicide,” Eye said.
According to him, the late Emeritus Principal, who had been battling old age ailment, “suddenly took ill on Saturday and on Tuesday he was gone”.
In a statement announcing Garguilo’s death on Monday, President of the Ajuwa Grammar School Old Students Association (AOSA), Mr. Funso Akinseye and Secretary Titus Aribisala, said: “With gratitude to God Almighty, we, the old students of Ajuwa Grammar School, Okeagbe Akoko, announce the passage of our father, mentor and principal emeritus, Dr. Guy Garguilo, to greater glory. He breathed his last yesterday (Monday) afternoon.
“Burial rites to be announced soon.”
Garguilo, who was recently conferred with the honourary doctorate of the Federal University of Oye Ekiti, dedicated his life to the school and the students. He willed his Estate to the old students association and gave a word that he should be buried anywhere he died whether in Nigeria or in Britain as he shuttled the two countries in his later years on earth.
Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, one of Garguilo’s former students, expressed sadness that his former principal passed on at a time his (Omotoso’s) work on his biography was nearing completion.
Omotoso, a former Editor of The Nation, spoke last night on the influence of the late Garguilo in his life.
He said: “His death came as a huge surprise to me. I was writing his biography and I was hoping to release it soon, but I did not know that he will not have the opportunity to read it. He meant a lot to me. Without him, I would not have gone to school. He paid my school fees up to secondary school certificate before he left for London, stayed for a while and came back to Nigeria.
“He told me early in life that I will be a journalist. He even planned to enrol me in the London School of Journalism, but I told him not to bother because by that time, I had got admission to study English and Literature at the University of Benin (UNIBEN).
“He was a rare human being. He had no biological children but had thousands of children whom he sent to school. He had nothing; even his father’s inheritance he spent it on the school and the students.
“He lived in a beautiful house on a rock; he lived a life of giving. Every time, you always find people around him, children whom he catered for.
“It is a sad occurrence, but at the same time, we thank God for his life. He did not die young. He was a great man who spent all his life impacting positively on the lives of others.
“He taught us not to fear anything and anyone in life. The only thing he feared was a snake, and that was because he was bitten by a snake and he took out time to study about snakes and afterwards he did not fear any snake again. He transferred that courage to us.
“We were at some point running after green snakes around the school to kill. He taught us how to swim, and most of the things he taught us he exemplified in his character and teachings. He was everything to us and most of us who went to his school are today successful men and technocrats. He deserves to be celebrated. He was good to me; a very rare gem in the world.
“He has passed on, but his story needs to be told so that others can learn some lessons about life. His investment in education in Nigeria is noble because when his peers were busy chasing after money, he was working hard at providing quality education and knowledge to many children around him.
“Investment in education, to me, is the greatest gift of life. When you are educated, you have light. To us, he brought life to us. He taught us morality. He told us everything that was bad and warned us to desist from them. That is why you will not hear of anything untoward from students who passed through his tutelage.
“In his school, agriculture was compulsory and it was also compulsory for every student to learn a trade. We had creative club, electronic club, tailoring club, printing press club and other crafts that were necessary. He never gave room for mediocrity. He taught us how to speak and write good English.”
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