Awo’s free education brought more women into the education system —Professor Ogunseye

Professor Adetowun Ogunseye served in various committees established by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, which were aimed at setting the country, and particularly the Western region, on a sound footing. In this interview with Yemisi Aofolaju, she speaks on Chief Awolowo’s contributions to the nation’s development, and how much he valued women. EXCERPTS:    

 

What was Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s disposition to women’s development?

Before I answer your question, I will like to go back to the era of the introduction of the idea of independence for the country.  Chief Obafemi Awolowo carried women along. I think they were the first group to have a strong Action Group with a women section. Not only this, we had a core team of academics because I was in academia then and so was my husband. I was on all the major committees which I was relevant to. He set up the Banjo Commission and I was a member. The committee was mandated to look at the education system in the Western Region, now made up of Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Lagos and Ondo states. We travelled from Ibadan through the whole of the Western Region to Warri to find out the state of education system before Free Education Scheme was introduced. Papa Awolowo and his team wanted to know what was involved, what the financial implication would be, by asking if the region would be able to finance it, and the strategy to be used in achieving the feat. I was the only woman member of the committee. The committee set up on the founding of the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo, equally had me with the likes of late Professor Hezekiah Oluwasanmi and others. In other words, women were not left out, and we appreciated the fact that maybe that was because he was dealing with a fairly homogenous group —the Yoruba.

Whether we like it or not, in our traditional system, the Yoruba never denigrate women; they appreciated women and gave them their roles in the society. As we can see in the chieftaincy system, there is always an Iya-Oba, who is very powerful, or Iya Agbo, the woman priest without whom even a crowned person cannot stand. The whole idea of free education as championed by Papa Awolowo was to bring in more women into the education system. When he saw that there were not enough schools for women, he ensured that virtually all the schools were made co-educational, so as to create more room for women in education. By 1987 or thereabout, when you went to any of the markets in Ijebu Ode, you would discover that the woman selling fish spoke perfect English, and it is not the same today, though we now have graduates in the markets having shops because there are no jobs, or as second jobs because of money. Awolowo made education free for all, and in the process, many women became educated. In driving home our point, we started a pressure group known till date as National Council of Women Societies. The first thing we did was to have a national conference where we made a number of specific demands that included: equal pay for equal work, education for all women and also that women should get an equal pay of salaries as the men; that women should be appointed as customary judges, among other demands, which were acceded to by the Western region administration of Chief Awolowo. We asked for a women centre and we were given 20 hectares of land at Samonda. I remember when the centre’s foundation was laid, Chief Ladoke Akintola, Premier of the Western Region, a poet of the Yoruba Language, said in any Yoruba society, women are very important and very strong in any family. He said warriors went to war with their women who, in turn, sang their praises through panagerics and encouraged the men to be better warriors. He narrated this to show how important women are in the society and how they make considerable contribution to building up either a family or a society. It was a ferment of ideas of wanting the society to develop at that time, but that is not the case now. What has happened? Why is it that we are racing after money now? We have lost the essence of the soul of a true nation and we just have to recover it. We have to look first at what the quest for money has led us into as a nation. This is why I think the ongoing anti-corruption war has exposed the level and the depth of corruption in the society. I think we need the exposure going on to show the depth of unrighteousness in the country. I think the revelations will help in going back to rebuilding Nigeria again to know that no society built on corruption thrives.

 

How would you describe Papa Obafemi Awolowo?

Baba was a gift in his period because he had a vision which most of our present leaders, I guess, do not have. Politics has become a money-making venture; a way of amassing wealth and getting away with many vices.

What were the qualities and traits you admired most in Papa Awolowo?

What I admired most in him was his vision that education should be for all; his vision that the common man should have the same opportunity as the rich; that the children of the rich and those of the poor should get the same level of education and the doggedness and the courage he had. He did not borrow any money. All the money he got for development, he generated from inside, specifically from cocoa. He did not at any point in time enrich himself, and his ministers were not even allowed to get any special treatment. I remember some of them were close friends; they lived in their houses, while Chief Awolowo lived in his own house while serving the people.

 

Can you recall some of them?

Ayo Okusaga was the attorney-general. He also lived in his house. All the ministers went in their normal cars and they never had official cars and they lived simple lives. They did not go out with stream of convoys and they lived a Spartan lifestyle. When I was on the board of the commission on education, we stayed at government’s rest houses (chalets) even where there were big hotels around then. We did not even collect allowances and we were happy building a new Nigeria. The fervour for a new nation that is lost must be got back for the sake of our youths who are migrating on daily basis. All the brains that we could have used to better Nigeria are being enjoyed by those who are already developed.

 

Are you satisfied with the way the free education is being implemented today?

First and foremost, what shocked me was to find out that some of the schools that Papa built have not been expanded or rebuilt; meanwhile, the population has increased and the facilities used then are now decayed and outworn. When I see photographs of those schools now, I get sad seeing classrooms without roofs, crumbling walls with pupils sitting on bare floor. We are supposed to progress and not regress. There is something about educational environment that is no longer there. We are no more creating an educational environment for the generations now.

Our children now can hardly read whether English or Yoruba. They are not competent in any language. We are not backing up our services with research as we should, and we are not looking into our own problem to adopt the type of education that will solve our problems. I saw students between the ages of 10 and 16 roaming about the streets in Lagos and other urban cities of Nigeria when they should be in their classrooms, and I said to myself ‘I hope we are not grooming our own future terror group.’ Why is the government not organising them into clubs where they would be given skills that will turn them out as useful citizens with services? The government can make them self-employed through empowerment to earn a living.

We are just breeding future criminals.

 

Can you draw a comparison between when Baba Awolowo was the Premier of the Western Region and what obtains now?

We did not have the large population that we have now.  The population we had then was considered and planned for development. What we are finding now is that the government is just doing what they can keep pace with to meet demands. They are not really in charge. Part of the problem is relying too much on going to beg for funds in Abuja to develop the states. In those days, in the Western region, at least in the South, we were able to generate much from cocoa to develop our region. Awolowo built farm settlements, industrial centres and other infrastructure that aided our development from the grassroots. The farm settlements have now been taken over by the jungle. What has become of the paper mill at Iwopin? What of the rubber plantation? What has happened? What is happening? It distresses me, but I can see some signs now that we are doing some talking on how to get it right and mend our ways and really settle down for development in the South-West. When I see what is happening in Lagos, I have hope, same as in Ogun where we never thought could be what it is today. Ogun State has proved that it can generate funds to sustain its operations and I hope they will do more in the development of the youths.