The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Teacher

  • Teacher employed as clerk seeks upgrade

    A 32-year-OLD teacher, Mr Ojo Toefeek, has cried out to the Lagos State government to upgrade him to Grade Level 08 of the teaching service.

    Toefeek, who was employed in 2009, as a non-academic member of staff at the Islamic Model Primary School, Mushin, studied Economics Education at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

    The father of three said he started  teaching Economics at Bethel Private Secondary School,Mushin, but left because he felt he needed to reach out to pupils in public schools.

    “I have been teaching in the private school but I thought that my destiny is not going to be fulfilled there. Those that I actually wanted to reach out to are in the public school. I left when God told me to leave and I did,” he said.

    However, things did not work out as planned. In 2009, when he applied to the Lagos State Government to work as he teacher, the only opening was for a non-academic position far below his qualification.

    “They told me that there was no teaching job for me, except if I could be employed for a Grade 04 job with WASC result, which is a clerical job.  I made them realise I was a graduate but to no avail. Because I have so many responsibilities, I decided to start from somewhere. My hope was that if I am in the system I would monitor it,” he said.

    Sadly, about six years later, the upgrade to the teacher scale has not happened for Taofeek – despite being given classes to teach as an acting teacher. He received a letter to be an acting teacher.

    Having scrounged to educate himself at UNILAG after his father’s death and with his passion and determination, Taofeek expects more out of his career.

    Though discouraged about his situation, Taofeek said it had not dampened his love for teaching and helping the less privileged.

    He said: “My desire is to teach. I cannot just be in the office sitting down. I have to be in the classroom. They have not increased my salary; they have not increased my level; what I am earning is nothing to write home about. But I keep on doing what I love to do believing that one day, things would turn out for good. I am just waiting for the time that the government would rise to my aid and convert me to Level 08. I am begging the government. I know it is possible.

    “The teachers still see me as a non- academic staff but I am one of them; I am active in the classroom but the sentiments are still there.  Some understand that the clerical employment is a demotion but I don’t allow that to bother me. I have taught in primary six and they all passed their common entrance exams.”

    Taofeek’s passion to see young children succeed prompted his founding the Children Education Development Awareness (CEDAR) Foundation in 2012 to promote reading culture and moral values.

     

  • The bibliophile and the exegete as exemplary teacher: for Modupe Oduyoye @ 80

    The bibliophile and the exegete as exemplary teacher: for Modupe Oduyoye @ 80

    Ko si ede ti Olorun ko gbo [There is no language that is incomprehensible to God]
    A Yoruba adage on the philosophy of language

    When word came to me just this week that a symposium is to be held at the University of Ibadan next week to mark the 80th birthday anniversary of Mr. Modupe Oduyoye, my initial thought was one of profound regret that because the notice came so late, it will not be possible for me to be at the event. Then in the manner in which after night comes daylight, my feelings of regret turned to the deep feelings of reverence that I had always had for my old teacher ever since, for about three years, he taught me at Ibadan Boys High School (IBHS) in the 1960s. I am of course not the only old boy of that school that holds Mr. Oduyoye in reverence for the impact he had in the school when he taught there between 1959 and 1963. I have never met a single old boy of the school from that period who does not regard our old teacher’s impact on us as anything less than legendary. Moreover, the circle of Mr. Oduyoye’s fervent admirers is nothing short of astonishing in its breadth and reach, in Nigeria, in Africa and in other parts of the world. This is all the more remarkable given the fact that, shunning all attractions and seductions of intellectual glamour, Mr. Oduyoye has consistently been far more devoted to carrying on his monumental work on historical and comparative linguistics as a basis for unraveling some of the thorniest problems of the African past in relation to the past of the entirety of the human race. In this tribute to my old and revered teacher, I will follow the path of almost everyone I know when they talk about Mr. Oduyoye which is to tell the story from the vantage point of their own particular encounter with the teacher, the man, the intellectual.

    Of course I did not know that Mr. Oduyoye was a “bibliophile” and an “exegete” of the highest order when I first encountered him as my teacher in Forms Two, Three and Four. In fact, at that time, these words, these terms did not exist in the achieved vocabulary of my studentship at that stage of my education. All I knew was the fact that from the very first time that I sat in his English Language and English Literature classes, I felt an instant, greatly empowering validation of my love of books, reading and writing. The love of books and of reading had started in primary school days and had been greatly facilitated by my membership of the old Western Region Library close to the Gbagi commercial district of Ibadan. As I have said in a tribute to the late Professor Dapo Adelugba when he turned 70 in 2009, he and a friend of his, one Nelson Olawaye, had greatly encouraged my reading habits while I was still in primary school.

    But what Adelugba and Olawaye did not know was the fact that at home, in a very large polygamous family setting in which, at any one time, there were close to twenty children, I did not exactly have auspicious conditions for the fulfillment of my passion for reading books. Indeed, my father took the position that my “escape” into books was a way of avoiding my share of household chores – which was perhaps partly true. Thus, without being in the least aware of it at the time, by the time I entered secondary school I was in a great, almost consuming need for both the space and the validation for my passion for reading. Since Mr. Oduyoye was not the only teacher of English Language and English Literature that I had in my five years at IBHS, the thing that needs explaining is why it was he and not any of the other teachers that had such a deeply formative influence on me and most of my classmates.

    Founded in 1938, ten years before the founding of University College, Ibadan (UCI), IBHS used to have many fresh graduates from UCI as either permanent or temporary members of its teaching staff. In my recollection, none of these graduates of UCI had anything remotely close to the impact that Mr. Oduyoye had on us. He not only taught Language and Literature better than anyone else, he was in charge of virtually all the cultural and intellectual extra-curricular life of the students. He was in charge of the school library, the school’s literary and debating society, the school’s literary magazine, “Triumph”, and the school’s Students’ Christian Movement. On top of this, he dressed simply and for the five years when he was our teacher he followed the same invariant dress code of white short-sleeved shirt over white shorts. Perhaps above all else, Mr. Oduyoye was about the only teacher who, though he never used the cane, yet had the greatest moral and psychological authority with us. Certainly speaking for myself, it mattered a great deal to me that he made me one of the school’s librarians, a member of the editorial board of the school magazine, and the leading representative of the school’s literary and debating society in our contests against the other secondary schools in Ibadan. As incredible as this may sound now, none of this made me feel that I was a favorite of our beloved and respected teacher; in fact, we all knew that nobody was Mr. Oduyoye’s favorite since we all knew that he gave equal attention, equal recognition to each and every student. Rather, the positions to which he appointed me made me feel vindicated in intimations that I was then gradually and imperceptibly feeling that my future career lay in English Language and Literature in particular and more generally, the profession of an exegete, an interpreter of literary and cultural texts.

    In 1964, the year after Mr. Oduyoye left IBHS for Yale University for studies toward a Bachelor of Divinity degree which was also my last year in secondary school, I was expelled from IBHS for leading a student revolt against the school authorities. Luckily for me, my name had already been sent as one of the school’s West African School Certificate Examinations registrants, although the school authorities tried to have my name withdrawn, fortunately unsuccessfully. Although I was fairly sure I would pass the exams even though I would be taking them as an expelled student, I was in utter despair about the future. I mention this fact in this tribute to Mr. Oduyoye because his response to the letter of despair that I wrote to him at Yale about my expulsion did a lot to assure me that beyond my expulsion, in the final analysis what mattered was my belief in my abilities and my determination; as long as those were intact, he wrote to me, I could go as far as my talent and will could take me.

    The Young Shall Grow: so goes the well-known name and inscription on the buses of one of the leading transport enterprises in our country. In time, as I grew older intellectually and professionally, I began to have a clearer and deeper understanding of what Mr. Oduyoye had meant to me and my schoolmates in that most formative period of our intellectual development. This was in no small measure aided by encountering the nearly endless string of the published works of our old master himself in the fields of Biblical studies, Yoruba language, names and culture, African antiquity and historical and comparative linguistics. As author and publisher, Mr. Oduyoye is almost unparalleled in his distinctiveness among our country’s intelligentsia. At one time he was the Literature Secretary of the Christian Council of Nigeria and the publisher in charge of Daystar Press, the Council’s publishing outfit. When he retired from that position, he moved to Lagos and became the publisher of Sefer Books. In these two positions in which Mr. Oduyoye’s work as publisher and author achieved full flowering, it at last became clear to me how bibliophilia and exegesis – respectively the love or veneration of books and the interpretation of texts, especially scriptural texts – had been so central both to Mr. Oduyoye’s legitimation of my passion for books and reading at IBHS and to my eventual career as an academic. Let me explain what I mean by this, even if in a rather roundabout manner.

    Every time that I speak to a new class of graduate students, I tell them that for my doctoral dissertation at New York University, I read over five hundred plays on and by African Americans, all produced in a period of over two centuries. In addition to these plays, I read hundreds of secondary critical books and thousands of essays and articles. I then ask the almost always astonished freshmen grad students how in the world I could have managed to read so many plays, books, essays and articles in order to write just that one “book” that was my doctoral dissertation. To this question, my students typically do not know what to say. But lo and behold, the mystery, the astonishment is lifted when I tell them that the only way in the world that this seemingly incredible feat was possible was the simple fact that I loved reading so much that far from being a burdensome task, reading hundreds of books and thousands of articles was actually for me a multiplication of reading pleasure, again and again and again. This view goes to the heart of what Mr. Oduyoye contributed to my intellectual development at a very formative time in my life. It also goes to the heart of the rich legacy of his published books and monographs that will be the subject of the symposium to be held in his honor next week.

    Working in modern languages of Africa and the wider world like Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Arabic, English and French together with ancient languages like Greek, Latin Aramaic and Hebrew, Mr. Oduyoye has for decades now been challenging seemingly settled orthodoxies on the peopling of our continent and the role of language inter- and comingling in that history. The number of texts that he traverses in this vast project are literally uncountable. More staggering are the intricacies of transformations that he uncovers between what he calls cognate forms in languages ancient and modern, African and non-African. If there is one grand theme in this vast and endlessly varied work, it is Mr. Oduyoye’s strong thesis that our languages prove that we are all far more related than we know or care to admit. This is why, for the epigraph for this tribute I have chosen the Yoruba adage that states that there is no language that is incomprehensible to God. This is, surely, a utopian philosophical proposition. But it is also something that Mr. Oduyoye takes great pains to demonstrate through the vastness of his work as one of our country’s greatest bibliophiles and exegetes. I was immensely fortunate to have been his pupil and to have very early in my studentship been bitten by the bugs of his bibliophilia and exegesis. In my time, I have proudly but diligently infected others with these bugs. Long life and health to you, old master!

     

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Borno teacher needs N8m for kidney transplant

    Borno teacher needs N8m for kidney transplant

    Faced with a life-threatening renal condition, Rahila Jiboyewa, a Maiduguri-based school teacher, in company with her daughter, Bisola makes an urgent appeal for assistance to enable her access timely treatment. She shared her emotional story with Sunday Oguntola.

    At 53, and after two decades in service, Mrs. Rahila Jiboyewa, an economic teacher at University of Maiduguri staff school, should be looking forward to a well-deserved retirement. But the last three years seems to have rubbished all that, as she battles a life-threatenening health condition. It all started when she noticed that her sights were becoming blurred. Surgeries after surgeries didn’t offer the needed relief.

    When she became tired, she decided to leave Maiduguri to seek medical help at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), where she was put on admission for almost nine months. From there, she proceeded to the Eye Foundation, also in Lagos. Yet, all her efforts proved abortive.

    Though she had been managing diabetes for over twenty years, her sight trouble became a nightmare. When nothing was working, Jiboyewa heard she could get better treatment in India through a friend, and off she went to Chennai for medical treatment last month. It took a loan facility from her place of work and the goodwill of relations to raise the hefty travelling fare.

    If she left Nigeria with hope, everything came crashing when she got to India. For one, her sight deficiencies were rectified. The Indian opticians succeeded in improving her vision. She, and Bisola, her first child, who travelled with her were overjoyed.

    But it was a short-lived joy.

    Doctors told her it was only a matter of time before the sights went bad again; and that if it ever does, it would be Jiboyewa’s kidneys.  In fact, they were emphatic that the kidneys were functioning at less than ten percent. That, they explained, was what affected her sights and created other medical complications.

    “I couldn’t believe what I heard,” the mother of four stated. “I knew I have diabetes, not renal failure.”

    But medical science dispels all doubts and reservations. According to tests carried out at Global Hospitals and Healthy City, her kidneys are at the brink of a total shutdown.

    The test result signed by Dr K. Ezhilarasan of the hospital’s department of clinical biochemistry shows that Jiboyewa’s Serum Creatinine is hovering at 7.6, a ridiculously high level for a normal human being. Medical experts believe a healthy kidney should stand at 0.5-1.0. Her Serum Uric acid stands at 6.4 as against the 2.6-6.0 normal level.

    The rapid deterioration of her kidneys is quite alarming. According to a test result from the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital dated 21th of January, 2015, Jiboyewa’s Creatinine was still at 3.61. Her uric acid stood at 4.25. But despite the notoriously high levels, the alarm bells did not ring.

    “The doctors explained that her kidneys are virtually gone; she is more or less on her way out,” Bisola, her daughter cried out. “My mother is dying practically and the thought is depressing and distressing,” the graduate of Business Administration from the University of Maiduguri, lamented.

    While dialysis remains an option for Jiboyewa, the Indian doctors recommended that an outright kidney transplant would be most preferable. Once started, dialysis will be costly and killing without any stop until she dies. But a transplant will offer her at least a functional kidney, with which she could lead a healthy life for many foreseeable years. The snag, however, is that a transplant is an expensive procedure that a teacher like Jiboyewa cannot afford.

    Confirmation from India

    When our correspondent contacted Global Hospitals and Healthy City, the International Patience Assistance Centre confirmed that Jiboyewa was there in a series of emails. In a letter signed by Dr Rajal Saxena, the hospital stated that she would need to cough out almost $20,000 approximately N4million to undergo renal transplantation.

    To get a donor will cost another $10,000 or N2million. This is excluding cost of staying in the hospital for three months with the donor for observation and post-transplantation treatment estimated at $800 by the hospital.

    In all, the Borno-born teacher, who is married to a teacher from Otikipupa in Ondo will require N8million to get her life back to normal. She believes Nigerians are born with milk of human kindness and will come to her rescue. “I have heard of many cases and I believe Nigerians will not let me die now,” she stated. “Even if it is a loan, I need help. I need Nigerians to help me stay alive,” she pleaded.

    Bisola seems more desperate: “Nigerians should please help my mum. I and my siblings need her alive now. I am pleading that everything should be done to save her life.”

    To support Mrs. Jiboyewa, please send donation to Rahila Mshelia Jiboyewa 2001498026 First Bank, Maiduguri Borno State.

  • World’s best teacher to get $1m in Dubai

    Teacher deemed as the best in the world will receive the sum of $1 million at the Global Education and Skills Forum on March 16 this year in Dubai.

    The forum holds a day before the 5th Annual Gulf Education Conference & Exhibition opens in the same city.

    The Global Teacher Prize, sponsored by the Varkey Foundation, is aimed at improving the status of teachers, recognising them, and celebrating their role in the society.

    The teacher that would emerge would have been adjudged to have been outstanding in opening pupils’ minds, contributing to their communities, and encouraging others to enter the profession.

    Fifty teachers that made the shortlist from 5,000 nominations from 127 countries will be pruned down to 10 by next month.  The 10 would attend the awards ceremony.

    Among the 50 are six African teachers namely: Jacque Kahura (Bofa Primary School, Kilifi, Kenya); Andrews Nchessie (Kasungu Demonstration School & Kasungu Teacher Training College in Kasungu, Malawi); Souad Belcaid (American School of Tangier, Tangier, Morocco); Malima Chisumo (Nsumba Secondary School, Mwanza, Tanzania); Ronald Ddungu (Gayaza High School, Kampala, Uganda); and Rafieferana Faly (Madagascar).

    Winner of the prize could also enjoy support from organisations to implement projects they submitted in the course of their application.

    The prize, according to Sunny Varkey, founder of the Varkey GEMS Foundation, said he nursed the hope that the teaching profession would be well respected through the award.

    “We introduced the prize this year in order to return teachers to their rightful position as one of the most respected professions in society.  The prize is not only about money; it’s also about unearthing thousands of stories of inspiration as the many applications prove,” he said.

    Meanwhile at the two-day Gulf Conference and Exhibition opening a day after the teachers’ prize, educationists and participants would benefit from exchanging ideas about education programmes, curriculum development, blended learning, internationalisation, and research going on in various parts of the world.

    The conference would also facilitate partnerships and students’ recruitment between international institutions, schools and universities and Ministries of Education within the MENA (Middle East and African region) and Asian regions.

    The conference is being supported by Sultan Abu-Orabi, Secretary General of the Association of the Arab Universities; Prof Tawfiq Al Khoja, Director General Executive Board, Health Ministers Council for Cooperation Council, and Mr. David Lock, Director of International Projects, Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

    Awards to be presented at the conference include: The Most Effective International Partnership (Education/Education); The Most Effective Partnership(Educational/Commercial); The Most Outstanding Entrepreneurial Project; The Most Innovative Advance in Teaching Employability Skills; The Most Effective Scheme in Motivating Academic Staff to Engage with the Employability Agenda; Innovation in Education for the Special Needs Sector and Lifetime Achievement Award.

  • Funeral for teacher

    Funeral for teacher

    The funeral service for Pa Momoh Mathew Enejiyo comes up on Saturday at ECWA, Alhaji Adamu Atta Road, Kuroko, Okene in Kogi State.

    Pa Enejiyo, who died on August 24 at 82, was a teacher, a communicty leader and a philanthropist. He is survived by children and grandchildren, including David Onimisi, Janet Mathew and Joseph Mathew.

  • Yoruba teacher wins N500,000

    Hakeem Opadijo did not expect that by the end of last Sunday, he would be N500,000 richer courtesy of a Teachers Award programme organised by Hope gate  Education Support Foundation.

    He attended the event in his Sunday’s best hoping to enjoy a nice outing at the event held at the Youth Centre of Oshodi Local Government Area.  But he was in for a pleasant surprise when he was named the most outstanding teacher in Education District IV.

    The event was to honour outstanding teachers who have contributed immensely to the development of the education sector.

    Nineteen public primary and secondary teachers out of 48 schools in Education District VI applied for the competition. They were asked to write an essay on why they should win the award.

    They were nominated by principals of their schools, judged on how creative they are, participated in any volunteer work and records on their previous awards.

    Opadijo has been teaching Yoruba Language for eight years. He  teaches at Ewututu Senior Grammar School, Oshodi, where he passed out many years ago.

    But Opadijo is no ordinary Yoruba teacher. The father of four is groomed in 20 vocational skills. Out of his salary, he established a Yoruba art gallery in his school. Aside teaching, he engages his pupils in selfless services, including: visiting destitute homes, psychiatric hospitals, homes of the blind – all at his expense. He is also creating awareness on Hepartis, which cost about N50,000 to treat per week.

    He said teaching has been his passion as he loves imparting knowledge in pupils. He has also won several awards to his credit

    Expressing his joy at the award, he said: “I am extremely delighted. I never thought I would win. I was even the last person that submitted my form. I am only doing what I love to do, which is imparting knowledge. Because I believe that failure to impact the community means that you are destroying the lives of your children,” he said.

    He lamented that the education sector is getting less attention than the entertainment.

    “Education nowadays is given very low attention.  All attention has drifted to the entertainment industry. Students are hardly awarded for their excellent performances.  A professor for many years is hardly recognised compared to a footballer or even a musician,” he said.

    He urged the government to invest in teachers and pupils.

    The first runner up went home with N100,000 while the second runner-up got N50,000. Teachers who merited long term service were given plaques, and 19 teachers billed to retire this year went home with gifts

    One of them, Mrs Fasunloye Taiwo, said: “I express my profound gratitude first to God Almighty then to the Founders of HopeGate Foundations, Mr and Mrs Akinyemi, the Trustees and other members of their organisation. I say a very big thank you to you all for appreciating the effort of teachers which nobody has thought of in this country.  May God bless you.”

    Mrs Ojulape Akinyemi, founder of Hopegate Foundation, said the awards was instituted to motivate teachers by acknowledging their efforts.

    “We are honouring our teachers in Oshodi. We want to give back to the society by capacity building of the teachers and pupils.

    “According to WAEC, 31.2 percent is the pass mark which is not even up to average. We really need to do more. It was a wakeup call for me. For the past seven years, the result has been going down. The government can not do it alone, the private sector needs to support and that’s why we are here,” she said.

     

  • A ‘diligent’ teacher bows out at 60

    A ‘diligent’ teacher bows out at 60

    Mr Ajayi Ayokunle, who has just turned 60, has retired from teaching after 35 years of meritorious service, reports MUSA ODOSHIMOKHE. 

    It was a moment to give gratitude to God. A day colleagues, council workers and associates of Mr. Ajayi Ayokunle bade him farewell at a colourful ceremony, after spending 35 years in the service of the Lagos State government.

    The event took place at the council hall of the Oshodi Local Government Area, Lagos State.

    Beaming with smiles, the retired teacher acknowledged cheers from guests, who came to felicitate with him. Dressed in a black suit on the high table with his wife, Mojisola, one could see fulfillment on his face. He wouldn’t have wished for a better outing.

    Guests sat in circles, responding rhythmically to the music coming from the loud speakers. Intermittently, the master of ceremony would interrupt the music to announce the presence of guests as they entered the hall.

    The event began with a prayer from one of the Pastors in attendance. It was followed by opening remarks by a close associate.

    The man of the moment was ushered onto the dance floor, amid traditional Ekiti songs rendered by a group. Ayokunle danced to the rhythm in such a skilful way and he was greeted with standing ovation.  Ayokunle challenged Ekiti indigenes who are cut off from culture to retrace their steps.

    As the event progressed, the profile of the erudite teacher was read.

    The profile said Ayokunle started his career as an auxiliary teacher in 1975-1976 at the Community Primary School, Are Ekiti. He later served as a clerk at the Student Account Section, Bursary Department, Obafemi Awolowo University in 1976.

    He had a stint with Briscoe Motors, Apapa; New Era Girls Secondary School, Surulere and AUD Grammar School, Apapa.

    He was transferred to Ajao Estate Grammar School, Oshodi/Isolo before he was redeployed to another department as an Investigating Officer.

    With the creation of Education District in Lagos State, he was moved to the Inspectorate Department where he served and retired as Deputy Director on  September 23.

    In a chat, Ayokunle said he would remain grateful to God for enabling him to serve his fatherland as a teacher.

    He said: “Teachers build the society; they build leaders and give those they taught a direction to follow. I give the glory to the Almighty God to witness this event.

    “I will miss the spirit of camaraderie, the togetherness we often shared as colleagues. But I must say, we are still going to be in touch, we are still going to see one another either in private capacity or in public places.”

    He prayed for long life, saying over 90 per cent of his objectives have been fulfilled whilst he was a teacher.

    ‘’I thank God I have my own accommodation; I give glory to God so I don’t have anything to worry about.” He advised his colleagues left behind to be hardworking. “I want them to work as expected of them,” he added.

    His wife described him as a gentleman who is caring and loving.

    “He likes people around him, a very jovial person and warm. Now, that he has retired I am full of praise to the Almighty because he will always be around for the family.

    “Those things we could not do in his active service days, the retirement will now afford us the opportunities to look at them.”

    His friend, Ajakaye Olusola, described him as a committed public servant who gave his best to humanity. “We grew up together in Ado-Ekiti, so I have known him for a long time.

    ‘’Much as I know him, when he joined the teaching profession, he grew through the ranks and had his promotion regularly. He passed through the body of knowledge as a professional. He was at the college of education; he went to university and did other teaching courses.

    ‘’He is a diligent person and very committed; he did everything to impart knowledge to those who passed through him. Obviously, his colleagues and students alike will miss him. He has produced great minds who are now occupying key positions in the society. There was never a dull moment for him. He is a man of integrity,’’ he said.

    Another colleague, with whom Ayokunle started work the same day, Mr. Olalekan Ojo, described the ex-teacher as a good listener and adviser.

    He said: “I know him far back in 1980 when we were at the College of Education. He has been a very good friend. Ever since, we have been together. He is a very understanding person. He is humble and diligent.

    ‘’He assists people to resolve their problems immediately. When I am troubled, he knows. He will call me immediately and assist me to get over the challenge. I have worked on his pieces of advice and they have been very rewarding. He is a very punctual person when it comes to his duty.

    ‘’The students, who passed through him before he moved to the office, have good stories to tell about him. We started our teaching career the same year that was in 1984 after our service year. I thank God we retired the same year, just that my own retirement came in May and his in September,’’ he added.

    Ayokunle later changed to a flowing white Agbada and cap to match when it was time to be formally pulled out of service. He was ushered into a black Honda CRV, which was laced with flowery ribbons. His colleagues pulled the ribbons as the car moved, to signify his formal exit from service.

    He later returned to the hall to cut the cake to mark his 60th birthday and got lots of gifts from his friends and well-wishers.

  • Exit of the teacher’s teacher

    Exit of the teacher’s teacher

    The late Prof Jacob Festus Ade Ajayi bestrode the academia like a colossus. At a young age, he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) where he made a mark after a six-year stint. The renowned historian died last Saturday, about three months after his 85th birthday, reports KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE .

    Forty-two years ago when the late Prof Jacob Festus Ajayi became Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), he was 43.

    At that age, the late Prof Ade Ajayi was one of the youngest VCs in the country then.

    But his age did not stop him from proving his mettle as an administrator and a taecher.

    Under him, UNILAG grew. Many of his students remember him today for what he did at UNILAG and the University of Ibadan (UI), where he started as a lecturer and returned after his tenure at UNILAG.

    His many students, including Emeritus Professor Akinjide Osuntokun, Pro-Chancellor, Ekiti State University (EKSU); Prof Ayodeji Olukoju, Vice Chancellor, Caleb University; Prof Ade Adefuye, Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States; and his protégé, Dr Toyin Falola, will not forget how he laid the foundation for their success in life, and put African History on the world map.  They will not also forget the many innovations he introduced as an administrator.

    A Teacher/historian

    Teaching had always been in the late Prof Ade Ajayi’s blood.  Even before he completed his bachelors and masters degrees in English, Latin and History as a foundation student of the University College, Ibadan (now UI), he taught at the Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, and Ibadan Boys’ High School between 1948 and 1951.  He continued his teaching and research activities in far away United Kingdom where he went for further studies at the University of London and University College, Leicester (1952-1958).

    Returning home in 1958, he became a lecturer at UI, rising to become a professor of history in 1963.  His mission was clear to his students – he wanted them to study, research into the various areas of history and return to teach others.

    Prof Adefuye testified of the late Ade Ajayi’s influence on his studying Ugandan History for his Ph.D research.  Dr Austin Nwagbara of the English Department, UNILAG, added that the late Prof Ade Ajayi helped many of his students to secure scholarships abroad.

    Prof Osuntokun was one of those privileged to study abroad, courtesy of the late Prof Ade Ajayi.  He credits his late teacher, whom he calls his academic father, as a builder of men.

    “He was a great known figure; a great teacher; quiet worker and meticulous researcher.  He also built people.  He was largely responsible for the younger crop of historians like me.   He organised postgraduate training for those who wanted to pursue academic careers.  He made sure we researched into the various areas of history because he wanted us to replace all the expatriates at that time,” he said.

    Prof Abayomi Akinyeye, Dean, Faculty of Arts, UNILAG, said he found support in Ajayi for his postgraduate research in the 80s.

    “I had one-on-one talk with him when I was just starting my post graduate studies. I was writing on the History of Post and Telegraphs in Nigeria then, that was way back 1982.  After my proposal here, I went down to Ibadan and I went to his office to show him what I was writing and he encouraged me,” he said.

    Another student of his, Prof Ayodeji Olukoju, who he taught as a postgraduate student in 1981, said Ajayi was held in high esteem as an authority in all areas of history.

    “He was a teacher.   Before asking us to present our seminar papers as postgraduate students back then, he would take time to teach us.  By the time we knew him, he was already a living legend. We held him in awe.  Baba Ajayi was a deep man – he had breath of knowledge of history.  He could write.  He had a way of writing that was interesting.”

    In his days, the late Prof Ade Ajayi worked hard to establish a place for African History, which was then not reckoned with on the international scene.    According to Prof Adefuye,  through research in which he engaged his students, the late Prof Ade Ajayi proved that Africa had a history before colonialism.   His essay titled: “Colonial: An Episode in African History”, is noted for settling the matter.  In a tribute to the historian on his 85th birthday on May 26, Adefuye wrote: “The response of Ajayi and the Ibadan History School was the undertaking of rigorous research of the study of pre-colonial African societies: the kingdoms, the institutions and their constitutions. The study and publication of scholarly works on such kingdoms of Oyo, Benin, Ife, the Niger Delta societies, the Sokoto Caliphate, Segu Tukulo Empire, blew the top of euro-centric philosophy of African History. It established a theoretical foundation and justification for African nationalism leading to independence.

    “Ajayi pointed out that the partition of Africa and the impact of colonial rule and even post-independence environment cannot be properly understood without the knowledge of pre-colonial African History. African history existed before colonialism. Colonialism was no more than an episode in African history. Like the history of all humanities, the history of Africa is a continuum. Colonialism was merely an episode but not the totality of African experience. African values, culture and biases though dynamic, continue to be enduring and shaped events even in contemporary times.”

    Ajayi also contributed to academic discourse through his textbooks, which the UNILAG Vice Chancellor, Prof Rahamon Bello, said were widely read in secondary schools.  The books include: A History of West Africa (1971); The Planting of Baptist Mission Work Among the Yoruba, 1850-1960: A Study in Religio-Cultural Conflict, Yoruba Warfare in the 19th century (1964), and Christian Missions in Nigeria, 1841-1891: The Making of a New Elite, among many other publications.

    A professor of History at the University of Ibadan, Charles Adesina, said the late academic giant helped Africans to understand and appreciate their own identity.

    “He placed Africa squarely at the centre of their own history.  So that constituted the basis for the field that subsequently became known as African History. This inevitably also led to the development of African Historiography,” he said.

    Prof Adeyeye said the late Prof Ajayi’s shoes in the academic circles would be difficult to fill.

    “His reputation is phenomenal worldwide.  He was among the generation of historians that opened another perspective to the study of African History and he made enormous contribution at different forums.  He was a member of the UNESCO General History for Africa – he was an Editor of the volume; and his intellectual spanned a broad spectrum of history.  And the void he has left would be difficult to fill,” he said.

     

    An administrator

    Ajayi’s administrative skills were evident in his grooming of the UI History Department to a place of reckoning in international circles.

    Vice Chancellor, Prof Isaac Adewole, said in a statement that it was under the deceased that the Ibadan School of History, based in UI’s Department of History, became the dominant school in the study of African and Nigerian History.

    As the UNILAG’s third VC between 1972 and 1978, Ajayi is credited with building most of the enduring infrastructure dotting the university today.

    A well celebrated man before he became VC, the late Prof Ade Ajayi could be described as the father of modern UNILAG.  He constructed the Faculty of Arts block, guest houses, staff club, main auditorium, council chambers/library building, Faculty of Engineering, Sciences, and residential quarters.

    Prof Bello, said Ajayi not only developed infrastructure but introduced programmes that earned UNILAG respect in international circles.

    He said: “As an administrator at the University of Lagos, his regime shaped this institution. And you could move around and see the effect of his administration on this campus.   He conceptualised and built the New Hall, where we have the greatest number of students housed; he also built the three high rise buildings for the university; and he went on to develop quite a large number of programmes.  I remember Chemical Engineering was his baby; and many other programmes in the institution which have really created a name for the university.  As far as development is concerned, he was the interregnum between the old era and the new era in this university.”

    Prof Osuntokun, who moved to UNILAG while Ajayi was VC, praised his late teacher for establishing an academic tradition at the university.

    “He elevated UNILAG to what it is today because a university without a great academic tradition cannot excel,” he said.

    Dr Nwagbara added that the late Prof Ade Ajayi played a great role in preparing the present crop of university administrators for their careers.

    “The crop of professors running this university now was trained during his time.  Many of them had their scholarships; which showed that he had vision – not just for that time, but for the future as the vice chancellor.   And he provided them with funding, and some of them studied abroad,” he said, adding:

    “In his time, many of them had their scholarship, which showed that he had vision.  He really prepared the university, not just for the time being but for the future.  Because a whole lot of them were trained.  They did their postgraduate studies during his time and he sponsored it.”

    As activities to give Prof Ade Ajayi a befitting funeral kicks off, Prof Bello promised that UNILAG would play a prominent part to honour the man who brought so much development to the university.

    “University of Lagos will forever be grateful to him and will remember him, and it is our hope that his name will be immortalised in one way or the other at the University of Lagos,” he said.

     

     

     

  • Rape…A Fine Arts teacher’s road to Warri Prisons

    Rape…A Fine Arts teacher’s road to Warri Prisons

    Six years after he committed the crime, a teacher at the Delta Career College, Warri  is sentenced by an Effurun High Court to 14 years’ jail term for a minor’s rape, reports SHOLA O’NEIL 

    On Tuesday September 23, 2008, Grace Ese (not her complete names), a single mother, kissed her daughter goodbye as she left home for Delta Career College, Warri, Delta State, one of the pioneer private schools in the Southsouth. The school has a reputation built over three decades as a trailblazer in its field. The founder and principal of the school, a seasoned educationist, Mr Emmanuel Ukeredi, takes pride in the school, whose motto is “Purposeful Education is only the best”.

    It was because of that status that Ms Ese sent her daughter to the school. The child is a bright and promising girl. Her steady progress in her education made her mother hopeful that by the time she clocks 15, she would graduate and probably go on to become one of Nigeria’s youngest doctorate degree holder.

    It was a dream mother and daughter shared. Having being forced to abandon her own pursuit of higher education when she got pregnant with the child, Ms Ese was hoping to achieve, through her daughter, her quest for higher education and a better future.

    She confided in our reporter that she conceived the child after her man she thought was her ‘Christian brother’ took advantage of her and then abandoned her when she got pregnant.

    She said: “I was doing my higher education when I got pregnant and I had to stop school because of her. I couldn’t take care of myself, the pregnancy and then the child. I had to stop because the father did not support me. When I went to my family, they did not support me because they felt the child’s father should help me. I sold akara (bean cake) to cater for her and I begged on the streets to sustain my child.”

    Ten years after her own ordeal – on September 23, 2008 – Ms Ese was forced to relive the horror all over again when a 35-year-old school teacher at the famous college, Mr Godwin Onoyiwai was accused of raping the child she loves and sacrifices so much for. Onoyiwai is a Fine Arts teacher of the school; he was employed to teach young children like the nine-year-old victim to appreciate and recreate the beauty of nature and everything around them.  Instead he reportedly etched lines of pain, trauma and stigma that might have scarred the child and her mother for the rest of their lives.

    Reconstructing the event that took place in the school’s premises six years ago, Ms Ese said the teacher lured her daughter into his office in a secluded part of the expansive school premises located on Airport Road in the Oil City and repeatedly violated her child until got released from his satanic urge.

    “He locked the door, asked her to open her legs. He said he wanted to show her something (in between her legs). She (the child) said, ‘no, tell me; when I get home I will look at it.’ He said ‘No’.

    “Then he forced her, pulled her dress, her boxers – because being a girl I ensure she wears boxers in case she opens her legs – her pant. He put her on the floor and when she was screaming he held her mouth. She was telling him, ‘My mummy said nobody should play this kind of play with me o. If my mummy finds out she will beat me oo’.

    “He said, ‘No, your mummy will not find out’.  He forced himself on her, continuously until he released.

    “After he raped her, she was bleeding and there was blood on the floor. When he saw that she was bleeding, he asked her to put on her pant, clothes and gave her bucket to go and get water. He gave her mop (stick) and asked her to mop the floor and put the blood into the bucket. That she did. Her pant was already stained; she was wearing it like that. She went to another student, a boarding student, who gave her peg and soap to wash her pant and hang it to dry in the school,” her eyes filled with tears as she replayed the scene from her daughter’s account. The report of the indecent act shocked the city, not even the medical staff who examined the child could hold back the jolt. One of the two doctors, who examined the child at the Warri General Hospital, described the rapist as “a very wicked and heartless person.”

    However, Mr Ukeredi and other members of staff of Delta Career College took the allegation with a pinch of salt and even strongly debunked it. Shortly after The Nation broke the news on September 29, 2008, the management of the school accused the mother of blackmail and attempt to extort money from the school. It was gathered that the authority of the college stormed the “A” Division Police Station, where the suspect was being held, claiming the he was a victim of the child’s mothers ploy to extort money from the school. The school’s proprietor stood by his employee, insisting that he is innocent. Police detective handling the investigation were also tainted by the brush of scandal. First, sources close to the suspect claimed that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) and some policemen at the station demanded for gratification to “kill” the case.

    Similarly, the child’s mother told our reporter that a Commissioner of Police in the state was forced to transfer one of the investigating officers after he demanded N5,000 from her to facilitate the movement of the file to the state headquarters in Asaba.

    Independent investigations by Niger Delta Report revealed that prior to the unfortunate incident, the relationship between Ms Ese and the management of the private school had deteriorated. It was gathered that the latter was unhappy about what they perceived as the woman’s meddlesomeness.

    “The woman was always complaining about one thing or the other, especially with the running of the school. At a point, some of us were already saying that she should take her daughter away if she was not satisfied with the way the school was being run and that was when this matter started,” a staff of the college told this reporter on condition of anonymity.

    When Niger Delta Report asked Ms Ese about this dimension to the incident, she confirmed that she had been forced to demand better performance from some teachers and other staff of the school when she noticed perceived failing.

    “That is no reason why they should pay me back by raping my daughter,” she said.

    As the case dragged on, the relationship between the parent and school degenerated further. Ms Ese accused the school of throwing everything at her in a desperate bid to force her to give up on her quest for justice. She disclosed that the case file got missing twice at the Police Headquarters in Asaba and the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP’s) office.

    “There was a time I was so afraid that the power of the school would supersede me – their power, money and influence. The man told me to my face that he has kept N20m to fight me. Can I produce one per cent of that N20m?”

    In court, the teacher denied the charge against him. He said he went outside the gate to eat with his colleague, Edafe. He claimed they had invigilated the GCE exams and he was heading towards the boys’ hostel when he saw the girl in front of the boys’ hostel. She was in the midst of other students playing, he said.  He claimed they later saw her wandering around the boys’ hotel. He said they called her to ask what she was looking for around the boys’ hostel and she told them that she lost her bag.

    He said he was forced to confess committing the crime, adding that he told the DPO that he didn’t commit the crime. He said he spent 16 days at the police station and was kept in the cell.

    He accused the child’s mother of threatening to close the school if she was not paid N16 million.

    The judge did not believe him. The highly respected Justice P. O. Onajite-Kuejubola of the Effurun High Court mid last month ruled that the evidence before the court was overwhelming and proved the Fine Arts teacher was guilty of raping the nine-year old child. The teacher was senenced to 14 years in jail.

    Justice Onajite-Kuejubola said: “The defence put up by the accused is merely a shame defence; which is incapable of belief by any stretch of imagination in the face of cogent, credible evidence led by the PW1, the victim, supported by that of IPO, PW4, PW3, the medical doctor and PW2, the mother of the victim.

    “…The offence of rape, where the commission of the crime is proved beyond reasonable doubt, is no doubt a wicked, callous and dastardly act. Particularly in this case where a teacher like the accused person who is expected to be a guide, over a child like the victim herein, takes advantage of her. I want to condemn the act of the accused person very strongly and urge teachers whom parents look up to take care of their wards, who are sent to learn and by so doing repose some amount of confidence in such teachers, not to betray that trust and hope.

    “The entire circumstance of this case has been carefully considered in arriving at this decision so as to ensure that the innocent are not punished and the guilty set free. The accused is found guilty as charged.

    “The accused is hereby sentenced to 14 years imprisonment with hard labour.”

    Ms Ese, who said she was not totally satisfied with the sentence, praised the DPP and Justice Onajite-Kuejubola.  She was expecting a life sentence. She expressed the hope that it would serve as deterrent to randy school teachers who plan to take advantage of young pupil and student in their care.

     ‘We are shocked; we will appeal’

    The school’s principal, did not want to speak about the ruling when our reporter called him. He said an official statement would be issued by the school. At the time of this report, the official statement he promised was yet to be released.

    He, however, gave a hint of the feeling of the management of the institution about the development. When he was informed that Ms Ese had made certain serious allegations that the school made attempts to sweep the matter under the carpet, Ukeredi said the allegations were unfounded, adding that the school’s statement would say its side of the story.

    An interesting part of the story, however, is the fact that the school still maintains its stance on Onoyiwai’s innocence. According to the principal, the judgment shocked the school and the management had instructed its counsel to file an appeal.

    “We have instructed our lawyers to appeal. You can have interview with her (mother of the victim). Whatever porous allegations she made notwithstanding, I’m telling you that we were dumbfounded by the judgment and we have given instructions to our lawyers to appeal. If you see our press release, you will see the school’s own part of the story,” Ukeredi said.

    The last certainly has not been heard of this matter.

     

  • Staff School fetes head teacher

    As Mrs Dorcas Akinduro bowed out as Head-teacher of the AAUA Staff Primary School, members of staff, Parent-Teacher Association, (PTA), and pupils of the school organised a befitting sendoff party for her last Wednesday.

    Those who spoke at the event described Mrs. Akinduro as an exemplary teacher, mother, God-fearing and administrator par excellence.

    The Acting Head-teacher, Mr. J.O. Ehineni, said her huge contributions to the development of the school would remain indelible.

    Mrs. Akinduro joined the then Ondo State University Staff School, Ado-Ekiti, in 1985 as a teacher.

    She acted as Head Teacher from 2000 to 2008 when she was confirmed as the substantive head.  She retired at 60 July last year after 28 years of meritorious service.

    In her response, Mrs. Akinduro, thanked God for seeing her through her service years. She appreciated the university management for giving her the necessary support.