How Solarin picked Igbo kids from warfront and trained them —Omole

Twenty-three years after his demise, friends and admirers of the late educationist and critic, Dr Tai Solarin, still speak about him glowingly. One of his staunch apostles and former student, Dr Wale Omole, tells part of the untold story of the life of the activist, in this interview by KUNLE ODEREMI.

WHAT is so remarkable about the life of Dr Tai Solarin, who died 23 years ago?

Tai Solarin lived and died for the Nigerian child, the poor, the uninformed and the downtrodden as a whole. His life was remarkable in words, actions and deeds.He gave Mayflower School to Nigeria with education for self-reliance. The school has produced more scientists in various disciplines than most of its contemporaries as there has been no second Mayflower since 1956. He educated several Biafrans, South Africans and Liberians free in their days of crises without discrimination. During the Biafran Civil War, Dr Solarin went on a hunger strike for weeks to protest against the malnourished children of Biafra, who were dying in their thousands. He starved himself so much that he looked like one of those children. He went to the East several times with lorry loads of food. He took some children out of the war front to educate them from primary school till they became university graduates. Many of them are professionals. Today, these people are blessings to Nigeria. He gave scholarships to indigent but brilliant students.

He wore his battle dress of khaki shirt and a pair of shorts till death and he was buried in his battle dress.

He fought  a lost battle on free education for all Nigerian children. Who is fighting for them now? No one. As the Acting Principal of Molusi College Ijebu Igbo in 1955 he promoted himself to the post of full Principal and the Ministry of Education, Western Region approved it. He was the only Nigerian leader who had the gut to resign as a commissioner after being found guilty of driving a car without carrying his licence with him. He resigned his appointment in order to remain honourable. He also resigned his appointment as the Peoples Bank Chairman because of uncontrollable corruption. Only few Nigerians could resign from these exalted offices.

Today, dead bodies litter our streets. In his days, he was the only one picking corpses from the streets to avoid epidemics. No one is being arrested today for drinking or being in possession of locally produced gin called ogogoro. He had to surrender himself to police for arrest and prosecution to prove a point. Today, it is legal to produce or drink ogogoro.

Tai Solarin would also be remembered for his literary work. He maintained columns in Nigerian Tribune and Daily Times for well over 40 years.  His work on agriculture, if copied, maintained and sustained by other leaders, would have, by now, bailed Nigerians completely out of hunger. Today, how many social critics have the guts to challenge the civilian government when they misrule? In his days, he challenged the most treacherous military juntas and spit fire to their faces while waiting for the consequences. He was courageous, dogged and rugged. He was arrested and locked up in prisons several times not for crimes but for saying his mind.

 What would you consider as the major the missing link in the nation’s education sector today, with the hindsight of the ideas and ideals he propagated on education?

Honest Nigerians know that the quality of education in Nigeria has grossly declined when compared with what we had in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s Nigeria had one of the best educational systems in the world.  Foreign students were found in our universities like Ibadan, Lagos, Ife (OAU), Benin and Zaria. Only those candidates, who were not qualified for university admission into Nigerian universities were the ones going to foreign universities. Certificates from Nigerian universities then were highly respected. The were gold! Today, our certificates do not qualify for the worth of bronze. Tai Solarin’s preaching on education for self-reliance; education to use hand and brain, education for all, free education for all Nigerian youths at all levels, government grants and scholarships for indigent students in higher institutions, educating parents to bear fewer number of children, and so on, are completely lost. What is the nation’s budgetary vote on education now? Who cares whether or not a Nigerian child goes to school or hawks groundnuts on the streets? Who is going to wear his battle dress to protest that there must be free education at all levels? Who is going to fight the corruption in the education sector and other areas?  For a long time to come, Tai Solarin’s crusade on education will be missed.

He wrote the article, The beginning of the end in 1974. Given the subject matter, corruption among public officials, he sounded like a Prophet.  What could have been his response now that corruption has almost destroyed the fabrics of Nigeria?

Blaming the present-day corrupt officers without blaming their ‘fathers’ is partiality. The corrupt officers are practising what they inherited. Unless something is done today, the level of corruption tomorrow would be worse. The aim of every Nigerian is to be rich. Unfortunately many people do not believe that they can be rich without being corrupt. In July, 1974, exactly 20years before he died, (he died on July 27 1994), Tai Solarin wrote the article. He believed that the level of corruption in the government then was enormous to crash the country into pieces.  The article was prompted by the action of the military regime that it would no longer hand over power to the civilians. That nation infuriated Tai Solarin and other honest Nigerians. They alleged that the military regime was very corrupt. But when events started to unfold after the change of guard, he realised that in comparison, the then administration was more angelic than Satanic they all thought it was.  Then he wrote another article The Beginning of the Beginning, meaning that the worst corruption was just beginning.  He predicted the current level of corruption in the country. This is what Nigeria is facing today as corruption is now a way of life in Nigeria. Youths see it as normal and they are already warming up for their turn. The whole world acknowledges this fact. In all his years till death, Tai Solarin’s blood pressure never rose above normal.  I am sure if he were to be alive today,  Solarin would be nursing high blood pressure for the present level of corruption in the country.  The quest for money coupled with insatiable wealth is bedeviling the nation.  If corruption has to stop in Nigeria, the first place to start the battle is in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

As one of those that were very close to him and his family, why do you think Dr Tai Solarin chose to be an atheist?

Dr Tai Solarin was born into a good Christian home. He attended Christian schools in Iperu, Ilesa and Ibadan. He lived with his uncle, an Anglican priest, Rev A.S. Solarin, who also trained him.  He was trained and partially sponsored by Rev  W.F. Mellor, an English missionary, who lived, died and was buried in Sagamu, Nigeria. Tai Solarin was a regular church goer. In fact he was a worker in the church. He studied the Bible.  He did some Bible courses and became a qualified Lay Reader. He read the Holy Bible from Genesis to Revelation several times. He knew and quoted the Bible passages. He was prayerful. He loved Christian hymns. He was always happy singing Christmas carol with his students in December. I think his atheism began when he started to read books on other religions like Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Grail messages, and so on, and especially when he thought that his  prayers were not being answered. He admired natural forces as they control things. He studied books written by great authors on religions. He visited all the  continents of the world. He was versatile. He offered prayers for certain things and he believed the prayers were not answered and came to a conclusion that there was no God. But he believed in nature. He noted that there were some forces controlling certain things.  He appreciated the chronological sequences of things.  He studied animal and plant behaviours.  He studied how a grain of corn germinates and gradually grows to fruition. He studied behaviors of termites, bees and ants and gave kudos to the nature for the organized lives these insects live.

When asked if that nature was God, he said people always give different names to nature depending on where they are born in the world. He said all religions are based also on faith; not on what we see or experience alone, but on what we hear, see, experience and believe.  He compared the level of development in irreligious nations with religious nations and arrived at the conclusion that many of the irreligious nations were even doing better. He prayed to God to make him pass his Mathematics examination several times but he failed each time. Finally, he prayed to God to abstain from his next Mathematics exam. He said he practised with several past question papers and he passed without God’s involvement. Since then, he regularly prayed to God to remove His hand from whatever he wanted to do, and most of the time, he said he recorded success.  All these experiences culminated into his atheism and declaration that “there is no God.” He said in practice, there are many atheists, who go to church not because they are convinced that there is God but to avoid alienation by the people.