ThisDAY honours exceptional retired teachers

Abiodun Onafuye/ Abeokuta

Nigeria’s Thisday newspaper has recognised some prominent retired teachers and administrators for their past services to Nigeria.

At an award ceremony in Abeokuta, Ogun state, attended by the former US President Bill Clinton, the honored teachers were also presented with a N2m cheque each.

Some of the awardees are the former teacher of the state governor, Chief Dotun Oyewole, a Caribbean Catholic father who said he has been in the country since 1961, Revd.Ft. Angus Fraser,Chief Reuben Majekodunmi, Mrs Dorothy Ugwu, Hadiza Thani Muhammed, Mr Yakub Dimka, Mrs Christie Ade- Ajayi, Hameed Bawa Faskari, Mrs Victoria Jolayemi, Chief D.B.E Ossai and four dons from Nigerian Universities. They are Professor Iya Abubakar,Prof.Michael Obadan, Prof.Frank Ugiomoh and Prof.Eunice Nkiruka Uzodike.

Nduka Obaigbena, publisher of the newspaper said his organisation will not relent in celebrating excellence in the country, a reason it decided to honor teachers.

“Teachers are the moulders of the future leaders. They have played a vital roles in the emergence of all of us here and gone are the days when people will be saying the teachers rewards is in heaven. We need to celebrate them and let them appreciate the job more by ensuring that their rewards are being given to them right here on earth”, he submitted.

He disclosed that 750 nominees were collected and a joint panel headed by the the former Vice President of the World Bank, Oby Ezekwesili and the Vice Presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN during the last Presidential election, Mr Fola Adeola screened them.

In his address, the former American President, Bill Clinton who stepped in into the hall at exactly 12:25pm urged Nigeria’s political leaders to evolve ideas to tap the country’s numerous potentials.

Clinton described Nigeria as one of the most important countries to watch in the 21st century.

According to Clinton,” when I became president, my Secretary of Commerce,did a lot of work in Africa before he was tragically killed in a plane crash in 1995 and I said he should made the list of the 10 most important countries in the world for the 21st century and Nigeria was in the list. Imagine the future of the entire continent, if Nigeria fails, South Africa fails. So, you are a country of potential”.

The former President highlighted three factors that are militating
against the economic growth of this country.

”I would say you have about three big challenges. First of all, like 90 percent of the countries who have one big resource, you have not done well with your oil money. You should have reinvested it in different ways; now you are at least not wasting the natural gas, you are developing it in pipelines. You don’t do a better job of managing natural resources.

“Secondly, you have to somehow bring economic opportunity to the people who don’t have. This is not a problem specific for Nigeria. Almost every place in the world, prosperity is heavily concentrated in and around urban areas. So you have all these political problems and now violence problems, religious differences, and all the rhetoric of Boko Haram, but the truth is the poverty rate in the north is three times greater than what it is in the Lagos area and to deal with that, you
have to have both powerful stake in the local governments and a national policy that work together. If you just keep trying to divide the power, if you will, into using strategy, you have to figure out a way to have a strategy that will help in sharing prosperity”.

”The third thing is there has to be a way to take the staggering intellectual and organisational ability that Nigerians exhibit in every country in the world in which they are immigrant and bring it to bear here so that the country as a whole can rise. One of the people on my trip with me today who unfortunately could not come up here because he had to go visit his family is young Nigerian-American named Nnamdi. He is an all pro-quarter back footballer for the Philadelphia Eagles. He is a wonderful man; he does great work in America for poor kids in Arkansas City and he became a
friend of mine. Both his parents have PhDs, his sister has a PhD; he often says ‘I am the failure in my family and I only have a university degree and I play football.

“My point is there are Nigerians who are like this all over the world. What you have to figure out is how to keep those people in Nigeria and how to ensure their success leads on into the rest of the country. So, I think solving the economic divide that is in your country will help the political divide; making better use of your resources. Nigeria is
trying to set up an investment fund where the federal government will set it up and the governors are being consulted so that they can concentrate the capital. That is the problem in India, they have unbelievable entrepreneurs but they are not very good at collecting capital and investing it in infrastructure so that they can unite the poor part of the country with the rich part. That is what you have to do. And then, you have to empower people with education so they can
succeed at home as well as around the world”, Clinton advised.

Governor Ibikunle Amosun thanked ThisDay for bringing the programme to the state which it described as the gateway to education and industries in the country.

Amosun posited that the state will harp on the opportunity to promote the two key sectors, education and agriculture, which according to him, are the focus of the state.

Both Governor Amosun and Delta State governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan were also honoured for supporting education in their states.