I Will Continue To Organise Pre-Waec Lectures Even In Death —Omisore

The Chairman, Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on House Services, Ipoola Omisore, has promised to continue with the sponsorship of the annual pre-WAEC lectures held around his Ifako-Ijaiye Constituency 2 in the state, even after his death.

Omisore who spoke with beneficiaries of this year’s lectures, said he has made it a vital point in his will that his children must continue to touch the lives of the people of the constituency so that the constituency would become the envy of other areas of the state.

The lawmaker said he began the lecture after discovering that most of the students these days do not pass vital subjects in the examinations.

“This gesture is going to continue as I have promised God that I will continue with it whether I am in the House of Assembly or not.

“It will continue even when I’m long gone, even though I may not die now, because while writing my will, I put it down for my children to continue forever.

“A lot of politicians and chairmen of Local Government councils donate WAEC and JAMB forms, yet the children hardly pass, so I reckoned that instead of giving them forms, I should teach them to confront examinations.

“Some of them are even well taught in school, but during the examinations, they do not know how to answer questions. They ignore the vital ones and face the ones with lower marks.

“Since three years ago, it has been a thing of joy and inspiration for me because some of those who started it then are now medical, engineering, and architecture students and they call me all the time. They are now my extended family,” Omisore later told P.M.Assembly Matters.

The lawmaker said when he started the lecture in Ojokoro, the students’ turn up was just 23 per cent, two years ago, it was 50 per cent, but last year, it rose to 75 per cent.

He, however, said one of the challenges he had faced in organising the lecture is that most parents do not release their children but ask them to go and hawk.

“I had to go the extra mile by going to the Community Development Associations and meeting places to ask parents to release their children for the lectures.

“Secondly, some of them have zero background and when you are coaching, it is to teach them more of what they know rather than what they don’t even know.

“As a result of this, I have further gone to schools to introduce awards for subjects like English Language so that they would struggle in class to be successful,” he added.

He said the lecture is free and there is no selection criteria.

“I print posters and make them available to all schools, both public and private ones. I also visit meeting places for associations within the constituency to sensitise them.

“Some of the children complained that their parents do not give them money for transportation to the lecture centres.

“So what I did was to create three centres for the lectures in the constituency. This is why this year, we have 510 students against the 320 students we had last year,” Omisore enthused.

He advised them to shun cultism or cheating during examinations, but to study hard for their examinations.

He also secured the promise of the students that they would all pass the examination.

The lawmaker was commended by Amuzat Azeez, the Community Development Committee chairman for Ojokoro Local Development Council Area, who called on well-meaning people of the constituency to support the education of the youths of the area.

The co-ordinator of the scheme, Ugo Oraemeka, also tasked politicians to think of better ways of empowering the people through education.

He complained that most of the politicians in the country do not put into consideration the fact that education is the best empowerment one can give to a child.

One of the students, Sholabi Rukayat, said she had really benefited from the lecture. She described the scheme as interesting and that it had exposed them to better ways to defeat WAEC in the examination.

She said she wanted to read Accounting at the university so she could contribute to normalising the Nigerian economy which she said was not satisfactory.