Thomas Imonikhe
Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s road to success no doubt was strewn with stones and a classic case of grass to grace.
Though he is keeping details of his tortuous journey to the top a secret for now, he stunned his Etsako kinsmen last Saturday at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, where he declared that his father, now late, could not afford to pay school fees after securing admission to the Secondary Modern School, Jattu Uzairue in Etsako West Local Government Area of the State. The occasion was the 30th anniversary of Etsako Club 81 where Oshiomhole bagged Development Oriented Leadership Award. Donning his trademark brown Kaki dress an elated Oshiomhole said his education could have terminated at primary level but for the swift intervention of his town union which offered him scholarship.
He said; “May be for the first time, let me reveal here and it is something I intend to reflect when I am writing my memoirs, my biography. I couldn’t have been able to go to Blessed Martins Secondary Model School but for a group like yours.
Because in those days, I believe it is still the case, our most privileged people used to go to Ibadan and now I know they were working in the University of Ibadan but all we know they don go abroad.
Ibadan was to my villagers abroad and they usually have this development association or progressive union – Iyamho Progressive Union, Ibadan, I am sure you have Weppa Wanno Progressive Union, Ibadan. Some of the members were carpenters as we now know, some were even managing the laundry and some were just gardeners, few who were deemed sound were able to rise a little faster.
But rich or poor they all invariably, have these progressive unions they call them. And they decided that they will support children who have passed through primary school to a secondary school and I used to take the first position in my primary school days and so I was readily available and one other guy.
These people decided to award us scholarship, without that, my father was not in a position to pay, I don’t remember now whether it is four pounds a year or so. The man worked so hard, everybody celebrates him as the hardest working person in our village but because of the contradiction in our economic system and the problem of rural life, he didn’t have enough.
So it is those of our elite who are still what they were, I now know some of them were actually struggling, if they hadn’t raise money under the auspices of Iyamho Progressive Union, set aside a part of it to pay for my secondary school education, I won’t have the foundation upon which I can benefit from training and retraining or even self-development.
And that is why whatever kobo you are putting on scholarship, you never know one of those beneficiaries may become the president of our great country.
So you must continue to encourage this and whatever I can do in my personal capacity to support that we will. As a government, we are already focusing on ensuring quality public schools so that the child of the poor can have access to quality primary and post primary education.
I believe that everybody will never be a graduate, all of us can have sufficient education to enable us develop ourselves. But there is something I want to recommend to Etsako Club 81. There is no sin in learning from people who are doing something right. When I assumed office, it was clear that Lagos is working. And I said I need to go to do some apprenticeship. I took all my Executive Council (EXCO) members to Lagos, I invited Governor Babatunde Fashola, to come and tell me how you de take do am for Lagos because, I live here before. I saw the challenges when we were organizing protests, it is even easier to protest on a smooth road than on a bad road and then the only problem is that we have enough Area Boys under the bridge, they were a bit easier to mobilize but now it is a bit more difficult because the Area Boys have disappeared.
And I said to him, “how are you able to make the difference?” We spent a couple of days; bring one or two ideas, of course Lagos and Edo are not exactly the same. But the principle of leadership, managing resources, is to identify your priorities and organizing your finances to deal with those priorities, looking inward to generate revenue is something that requires some clear thinking. And today I don’t need to go to Lagos now to know how to collect, Oseni Elamah is a good tax collector and we are moving on.
But what I want to say on a serious note is that twice now; I have had opportunity to attend the Esan Professionals events. I think they are like Etsako Club 81 made up of elite people who have made it in the private sector and who can afford not to bother about home but they realize that their personal comfort is not enough for them to turn their back and every now and then they organize themselves under the platform of Esan Professionals to focus on specific aspect and in particular, education. They succeeded to give blank scholarship for people to read medicine but you know what? That poor man’s son in an abandoned public school cannot make it in Mathematics and English Language to be available for you to sponsor to read medicine in the university.
So you must focus on the quality of primary education and secondary. If we get it wrong at that level, you won’t find them available, for sponsorship in the university.
During the last edition (session) of Esan Professionals, they brought in a cross section of pupils from various schools, teachers, various stakeholders, parents and themselves, they sat together in the same hall. I was there to ask the question: What can we begin to do differently to improve on the quality of public schools so that the average child can have good education?
As for me, throwing money at a problem is one thing, identifying with it is even more important for me.
So I ask you to reflect on what we can learn from the Esan Professionals, focus on education in the manner than you are doing but a little more than that, go out there and see what is happening in our public schools.
Government will try to put all the usual structures in place but they are not insensitive to direct efforts by elite from various communities.
I took some professors from the United States of America working in the same hospital with my daughter to Imiegba in Etsako East Local Government Area to show a rural life and to probably show them the school, because I have been to the US and seen the quality of their schools. I thought that school compared favourably well, a public primary school. When I got there I saw the pupils all of them outside, because I was driving myself no siren, but once I come out. When people see somebody usually polished they are attracted to find out the other details and said oh! It is Adams and then they all gathered. I asked, “why should you be outside at this point?” You are supposed to be in the classroom. Somebody said, well our teacher has travelled. Then, I saw some women, three of them carrying kids on their back, I said who are you? What are you doing here? Is this visiting time? They said no, we are teachers. Ah! Is it a day care centre? No sir. And they were in school with little kids in their back. You can’t carry a baby to a work place.
Then one young lady answered, na me be their teacher. For God sake, even if we put air conditioner in that school, in that classroom with the latest furniture with that na me be their teacher, that village will not produce a candidate for medical school, never, he said amidst laughter from the audience..
According to him, “We are paying the salaries of teachers but we are not getting commensurate service.

(Source: www.allafrica.com )