For residents of Ebute-Ero, Oke Arin, Iga Iduganran, in Isale-Eko, penultimate Friday offered an opportunity to re-connect with history, as one of the earliest missionary schools on Lagos Island, the Ansar-Ud-Deen Primary School, Alakoro, rebuilt by the Lagos Island Local Government, was handed over to the community and the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) by the Senator representing Lagos Central, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE was there
It was one moment even the Oba of Lagos, more popularly called the Olowo Eko, Oba Riliwan Akiolu could not resist. Despite his very busy schedule, he came, mingled and danced with the people of Alakoro, congratulating them as they bore witness to history.
His visit to Alakoro last Friday, was a return to the cradle. Here at the Ansar-Ud-Deen Primary School, Alakoro, founded by Ansar-Ud-Deen Movement on December 21, 1923, was where the journey of his life all began over 60 years ago. Moved with emotion at what now stand on the same spot where his former school used to be, the monarch embraced the council chairman Hon. Wasiu Esinlokun Sanni, and invoking his ancestors, heaped on him solemn prayers. He soon left, but left behind some white cap chiefs as representatives.
It was not only Oba Akiolu that was moved to shed tears of joy as they beheld their transformed alma mater. Former Federal Commissioner for Works and President of the Ansar-Ud-Deen Movement, Alhaji Femi Okunnu, is another old boy of the school. When he spoke, it was a journey on time track, as he recalled with nostalgia, his school days.
Okunnu who enrolled in the school in 1943 was arguably one of the old boys still living. He spoke glowingly of his days, and the seasoned teachers who laboured to lay the foundation of what he made of his life.
“From this school have risen men and women who have become distinguished in their chosen professions. It has produced judges, ministers, an inspector general of police and indeed a king,” Okunnu, an eminent Nigerian who is respected for his forthrightness said.
“We were trained by teachers who were dedicated to their work. They gave us sound training on morals, industry and good citizenship. I remembered that this place was not as choked and as developed as this then. The market was some distance away and it was only the meat market that was close by, near the Iga Olusi. As an Islamic school, we were given sound Islamic and Quaranic training and every Friday we would be taken to the mosque for prayers,” he said.
Okunnu remembered the pranks they played as school children. He remembered those places they went to catch fun. He remembered his former colleagues and some of the elders who left a lasting impression on his young mind.
For him, his return to the same soil that nurtured him transcends happiness to pure ecstasy. “I am very ecstatic to be back on the same soil where everything all began some 70 years ago, and I am very grateful to Allah that I am still alive to witness this new phase in the life of my alma mater. When I saw those school boys and girls that came out to commemorate the day with cultural dance, I was transported back to those days when we used to do same thing and I went and prayed for them, that just as we made a success of our lives and we are proud to return to this school, they too would become successful men and women in life.”
Attending the Ansar-Ud-Deen Primary School according to Okunnu, who is now the President of the Ansar-Ud-Deen Movement of Nigeria, was a privilege as it was one of the earliest, in fact, the second primary school to be founded on Lagos Island (Anwar-ul-Isam Primary School, Elegbata, in Olowogbowo, being the first).
Two of his juniors, former Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Musiliu Smith and Lagos Central Senatorial District Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Tajudeen Olusi who attended the ceremony also spoke of their days at the school.
Smith recalled that the present Alafin of Oyo, His Majesty Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, was a product of the school. According to him, the Oba, who had followed his deposed father, Oba Adeniran Adeyemi II, to Ofin, in Isale Eko, where he had lived the rest of his life after being deposed by the defunct Action Group (AG) government for his support for the National Council of Nigeria Citizens (NCNC), was his classmates with whom he used to play football and run the streets of Alakoro and its neighbourhood.
Smith, who praised the Ansar-Ud-Deen movement for thinking of setting up such a school, said like the motto of the school, education has brought light to so many homes that would have hitherto been wallowing in poverty and swimming in ignorance. He said the school in his days competed favourably with other missionary schools in and outside the state.
Smith, who said he was proud to be an Ansar-Ud-Deen product have gone to primary and secondary school owned by the movement. He said the seed planted 90 years ago at Alakoro has germinated and brought forth great seeds as its products have grown to become successful sons and daughters of the state who have gone to make the country proud.
He commended the Chairman of the Lagos Island Local Government Area, Hon. Wasiu Esinlokun Sanni for deeming it fit to reconstruct the school which he described as one of the memorable landmarks of the old Lagos.
Olusi recalled all the fun he had going to the school. “Those of us living at Iga Olusi maximised the multi doors of the school in those days to avoid classes, “he said. “I recall that when we hear the school bell and ran inside from the Iga (palace) which is just across here, we would run out through another door to Oko-Awo which used to be a playground to play football. We would be there till closing time when we would run back to the school pick our bags and head for the palace. My best subject then was Islamic Religious Knowledge.”
He recalled that Isale Eko had not been overtaken then by commercial activities and people still knew each other’s children intimately unlike nowadays. He said the Ansar-Ud-Deen has been able to level the gulf between the children of the rich and the poor by providing quality education which has provided the needed bridge for children of the poor to aspire to become successful in life.
Beholding the edifice which now replaced his former alma mater, Olusi praised the achievements of the council chairman, whom he described as a worthy younger brother and one that hadn’t disappointed the confidence reposed in him by the party leadership by adding value to the party before the electorate.
Summing everything up with the trail blazing achievements of former Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Olusi in a rare show of candour revealed that it was indeed the party that demanded that the Asiwaju as the captain picks anyone he deemed fit, as his successor rather than allowing the party to do the picking.
“I recall that Asiwaju had brought to us four names and asked us to pick his successor from any of them. I was the only one who opposed the move then, and my argument was that we as outsiders wouldn’t know these people as much as he would, having worked with all of them. So, I urged him to pick his successor and we thanked God that the man he picked, Babatunde Raji Fashola was a God-sent not only for Lagos State, but to our party because the successes we have recorded as a state and as a party was as a result of the achievements of this great son of ours.
Wasiu, our younger brother couldn’t have performed less because he, like all his other colleagues are always challenged to replicate Fashola’s achievements in their different domains. He added that the council chairman who was almost frustrated out of the party has done so well in the last two terms he had used in the council and his people-centred policies have become a landmark in the state.
The council chairman, Esinlokun Sanni in his speech said the school has become the fulfillment of a dream. Sanni who singled out Architect Agbaje, who carried out the engineering design and architectural drawings of the edifice said for those conversant with the old structure “on this same piece of land, they couldn’t but be imagining the sharp contrast between what used to be here and what they are now witnessing.”
He said when he took over the council chairman in 2008, he was at a cross road what to do with the school as the preliminary assessment carried out on all the 11 primary schools within the council area showed that outright reconstruction and not palliative measure was the surest way out to get the place functional.
“Two such schools were adjudged unfit for educational purpose they are Anwar-ul-Islam Primary School, Elegbata, in Olowogbowo and Ansar-Ud-Deen Primary School, Alakoro. We decided to rebuild the two schools. Consequent upon completing the Anwar-ur-Islam, it was converted to Elegbata Junior Secondary School and taken over by the state government to serve the Olowogbowo area who hitherto never had a secondary school.
“The Ansar-Ud-Deen Primary School, Alakoro as at 2008 was a dingy place with structures that are visibly falling apart. The classrooms posed serious dangers to pupils and indeed everyone in the area was afraid it could collapse any moment. This was why we thought of pulling it down and rebuilding it.”
He said in rebuilding the structure, his administration took cognisance of the swampy nature of the land, which had contributed to its dilapidation and had ensured that the new structure that was built can sustain and withstand the muddy and swampy terrain.
“This point must be stressed,” he said, “not only to appreciate the resources committed to the construction of the school, but to assure all pupils, parents and the entire residents of the area that the school is structurally safe and sound for educational purposes.”
Sanni, who enunciated his administration’s commitment to continue with the ‘my complete student project’ said the council would continue to kit every public primary school pupil in its domain. “This project is to relieve parents of the heavy expenses of kitting their children, leaving them with no excuse to give their children this fundamental head start in life,” he added.
The council chairman said it gave him great pleasure to have brought great joy to the hearts of eminent sons and daughters of the state who were alumni of the school recalled that he took the entrance examination into the Ansar-Ud-Deen Secondary School, Offa in Kwara State at the school.
He said the new school which boasts of facilities such as air-conditioned classrooms with tables and chairs as well as computers, among other learning aides, could soon become the model for public schools in the state.
Describing the school as the latest pride of his administration, Sanni said the council would be proposing a renaming of the school from Ansar-Ud-Deen Primary School, to Ansar-Ud-Deen/ Local Government Model Primary School, Alakoro.
Also speaking, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Ademorin Kuye described Sanni as one of the prides of the party and one whose strings of achievements have added value to the state.
He said from the ashes of the past, a new modern school has evolved for the people of the Alakoro community and the Ansar-Ud-Deen movement.
He said he is proud of his association with the chairman who has always left him awed by his capacity to embark on landmark and historic monuments and turn them round for the greater advantage of the state and the party.
In his own speech, the Commissioner for Special Duties, Dr Wale Ahmed with whom the chairman had once been in the State House of Assembly praised Sanni for making the APC marketable before the people with his strings of achievements.
He said contributions of people like Wasiu Esinlokun Sanni would continue to make the opposition jittery because what gets celebrated by a state Governors in other states across the country, is what a council chairman is doing without much fanfare in Lagos State. “That a council chairman would be building a primary school with full air-conditioned classrooms and multi-media instructional aids, etc is worth celebrating because this is what other state governors would take pages of newspapers to advertise as their achievements,” Ahmed said.
Senator Mrs Oluremi Tinubu who praised Sanni for yet another achievement said she has lost count of the number of times the c hairman had called her and requested her to commission projects aimed at uplifting the lives of residents.
“It is no exaggeration to say that I have lost count of the number of occasions I have been invited by Hon. Wasiu Esinlokun Sanni, the Chairman of Lagos Island Local Government to grace one event or the other, all landmarks and historic and I must admit that I have left wondering what next this chairman will do.
“I have always been left with wonderful feelings that truly the dividends of democracy is being delivered in Lagos Island Local Government by a chairman who has accepted the responsibility to change things for the better and have performed creditably well enough to be truly called a man of the people,” she said.
Senator Tinubu said she is proud of the giant strides of the council especially to have remodeled the Ansar-ur-Deen Primary School, a school she said had produced several eminent Lagosians, even as she prayed that God should continue to guide the chairman aright in giving back to the society that has nurtured him.
She charged the community and especially the Ansar-ur-Deen Movement, to take possession of the school and maintain the facilities provided by the council as the school has become their pride.
Sanator Tinubu was to later lead other dignitaries among them the President of the Ansar-ur-Deen Movement, Alhaji Okunnu, the Ansar-ur-Deen’s State Missioner, Commissioners for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Mr. Ademorin Kuye, his Special Duties colleague Dr Ahmed, former Speaker of the House of Assembly Hon. Jokotola Pelumi, Prince Olusi, Alhaji Smith, Alhaji Adekunle Ali, (also an old student), Hon Alawiye King, the Lagos white cap chiefs and other dignitaries to cut the tape to open the structure, and the commemorative plaque, and a tour of the facilities inside the school.
One beautiful thing observed at the school was that apart from a handful of pupils, both boys and girls selected to entertain guests with cultural dances at the event, other pupils were busy with their studies as teachers where seen teaching in all the classrooms with no one loitering about the expansive premises.
