I Was Scared When I Was Appointed Deputy Governor –Prof Adelabu, Ekiti State Deputy Governor

Professor  Modupe Adelabu is the deputy governor of Ekiti State and also the chairperson of the State Universal Basic Education Board. She shares her life experiences in this interview with ADEOLA BALOGUN

How demanding is the office of the deputy governor?

It is very demanding but very interesting because it is a commitment. Once you see it as a ministry, you have to also work within that. First of all, you have to see it as a ministry to serve your people, even at a very first notice. Once I am here, I know that I can be called upon at any time to serve the people and that is why you witnessed the kind of functions here this morning. Some are unplanned and at a very short notice. I am able to cope because I have taken it as a ministry.

The office of deputy governor is said to be an idle one. What is your own experience?

This office of the deputy governor of Ekiti State is very busy. Apart from the fact that I am the deputy governor to assist the governor to make sure that his 8-point agenda is fulfilled and his mission is accomplished, I also have oversight function for local government and for the ministry of education. I am also chairman, State Universal Basic Education Board which on its own is demanding. Being the chairman of SUBEB is demanding; overseeing local governments is demanding and education too is demanding. The governor distributes functions and distributes roles and he defines roles. He has entrusted me with a lot of things to do and I hope I will be able to do them at the speed he expects.

It is hoped no aspect will suffer?

Well, I have never had any report like that. If you know my background, I am from the academics. We have lectures, we do consultancy, we do research. At times, we could be out for consultancy and research for days and weeks, so I am used to this type of work. None of my assignments is suffering; if you look at SUBEB and the ministry of education, they are interlinked. Even the local government, the totality of everything, there must be synergy and connectivity among MDAs; you don’t take each one in isolation. That is why I think that I am able to work within my role definition. You asked whether any of them is suffering, what of the governor who oversees all the MDAs? If he can do that, I think I should be able to do the bit he has given me to do.

Some people thought probably you should be left minding SUBEB.

Maybe that is their thinking. Polarisation of ideas, multiplicity of ideas, people have their own opinions and views and so you can not please everybody. I was brought into this position based on certain reasons which are known only to those who brought me. Some people may also feel that I should be left with SUBEB, however if the authorities that brought me there feel that I can do the two together, I don’t think they are wrong.

Now that you have to combine politics…

I am not combining. You see, any work you do, you should be able to mobilise your people, even as a teacher. In the class, you should be able to mobilise your pupils and their parents and the community where the people are situated. As the chairman of SUBEB, I have been able to move the grassroots a lot; I have been able to move from village to village. At SUBEB, even up till now, we still do village meetings, village mobilisation and village sensitisation. We do sensitisation of community members, sensitisation of parents, telling them their roles towards their wards; their roles towards education; sensitisation of community-based organisations, sensitisation of traditional rulers and faith-based organisations. Since I have come to SUBEB, I have been doing that and I think that is what I am doing here now. It’s just that I am using one stone to kill two birds.

With what you have been doing in SUBEB, would you say that the old times are here again in the public schools?

Well, I would say that I leave that to posterity to judge. But if you put your ears to the ground, you can hear the footstep of ants. If you listen to what people are saying, then that will answer your question. All I know is that by the grace of the Almighty God, I have been able to rebrand basic education in this state. When I came in, as you said, I was nostalgic of the past about how it used to be, I knew that bringing the past to the present, we could have a better future. And I have tried to do that and I have introduced a lot of innovation into basic education in this state. Apart from what they used to do before, I have introduced more and as far as I am concerned, and I know without fear of contradiction, that I have rebranded basic education along the line the governor would want it to be in this state. Because the governor himself has passion for education and being an educationist, I think I have been able to perform my job beyond theory. I have been able to practicalise what I have read in books and my experiences in and outside the country.

Some academics wouldn’t want to leave their comfort zone to come and get involved with any programme  in villages and rural areas.

Is academic comfortable? It is not a comfort zone. I was born here in Ado Ekiti and I schooled here. At least, I had my primary school here, my secondary school here. So, this is my community, this is my state and country, there is nothing rural about the state anymore. When I came in, I discovered that I am in a comfort zone, my own zone where I grew up. You can even call me a rural person then because I love my town and my state. I lectured in Ife and if you look at it, Ife is not that cosmopolitan. And apart from that, we stayed within our campus. To me, it’s almost the same thing here and again I can work anywhere. It depends on the mind set, I am comfortable and as I told you earlier, I had worked tremendously with rural communities in the past during my research and consultancy. And when I go to rural communities, I automatically become part of them and to tell you the truth, Ekiti is no more rural.

With your experience too, what would you point out as challenges of public schools since everybody prefers to send their children to private schools?

Exactly, that is what you can say. It is the mindset of parents; to get parents to understand that basically, education is free in the state. Sending your children to private school does not mean that you are going to get the best despite the money you are going to spend. The Ekiti State public schools can compare with anyone anywhere; if you go round, you will see all our schools are renovated. And there is no primary school out of the 830 we have in the state that has not been touched, either by renovation or new buildings and we are just beginning. I don’t think any other government has done that in the past 14 years in this state. But the challenge is to be able to convince parents that they don’t have to waste their money by sending their children to private schools. Another thing which we discovered from research is that one reason parents send their children to private schools is that they can speak English which is contrary to the national policy on education in this country. It is important to note that one of the major policies of education is that children should be taught in their mother tongue during the first three years of schooling. But even parents who themselves cannot speak English want to send their children to where they believe they will be able to speak English and such parents will speak corrupted English to the children. A child can develop very well in his natural milieu where his mother tongue is used. Now in a situation where a child comes from a background where the mother tongue is used freely and now gets to school and English is introduced; already there is a disconnect from what the child knew and what is being taught. In secondary school now, pupils are given laptops.

But we learnt that the pupils use the laptops wrongly.

The government is trying to block that but we need the cooperation of the parents. The training of the children starts from home but when some parents get their children to schools, they hands off. That is one of the basic challenges we have. And from research, parents take their children to private schools so that they can stay there up to 5pm so that their parents have time to do all their shopping. But in Ekiti State, things are changing and there is hardly any primary school where we don’t have nursery and we have a model early child care centre in each senatorial district. And plans are there to have them in all local governments in the state.

Are the teachers in tune with what you said about the use of mother tongue during the pupils’ formative years?

Of course yes but they too have a dilemma, basic textbooks are written in English and we are trying to correct that. Without the books, it will be difficult for teachers to translate. Another dilemma they have is that some parents come to school and threaten to take their children away if they are taught in mother tongue. And that is why I said the bulk is on the desk of the parents; this is one of the things we do at the village meetings: sensitising the parents. We tell them the importance of the mother tongue and I think all Nigerians should be informed so that our mother tongue does not go extinct.

Were you drawn into the state probably because you had your education here?

No, it is because I believe in the progressive programme and disposition of the government in the state. I also believe in the governor of the state as a very cerebral and very committed person and I believe I can key in into his programmes; that is why I came. I am here too because this is where God wants me to be to serve my state.

Some professors often keep politics at arm’s length…

But if we continue to do that, then Nigeria will not move forward. I used to tell my colleagues that you cannot remain there criticising government all the time without doing something. Such stand is just like people who watch football, they criticise all moves players and the coach make but the story is different when they get on the field. I think basically, every human being is a political animal; politics is in everybody. And thank God, I had been prepared for this job which is very interesting; my PhD thesis was on politics of education and now I am here; I have to practise what I theorised and to me I was prepared for the job innocently without knowing. But I always advise that before you go into politics, you should have achieved something so that you don’t come into it with the aim of looting and playing a do or die politics.

When you were asked to be the deputy governor, didn’t you feel awkward that a professor should serve under a PhD holder?

Even if you are a mechanic or a cleaner, if you are egoistic, you will still feel awkward. If by nature you are humane, you can socialise. It doesn’t have anything to do with your title as a professor or anything. Title has nothing to do with you as a person; I see myself as a person first of all before being a professor. Professorship is just a title anyone can earn with a dint of hard work and don’t forget that the governor as a PhD holder is by far brilliant more than many professors anywhere. His records are there for anyone to see even before he became a governor. Again, in some countries, doctors are called professors, don’t forget. To me, I am working with someone who is highly cerebral and who moves with the speed of light. It is for me now to be able to catch up with the way he works.

Hope there is no too much grammar with two of you working together?

Since we started this interview, have I spoken too much grammar? Anyway, I think I am working with somebody I am comfortable working with; I quite respect his intelligence.

How did you get admitted into Christ Girls School of the old with its strict admission policy?

At that time, we did exams and the interview took place. At that time, the interview took about two weeks in what could be described as an inductive programme. People who were able to make it were actually very good students. Not all of us who were there for the induction got admitted eventually because it was a very tough exercise.

How would you describe your time there?

I went there with the sole aim of doing well and I thank God I performed very well. I came out with Grade 2 which my father was not very happy about despite the fact that I had all my credits. That was the standard  of the Christ School then. If you had Grade 3, no one would reckon with you; in fact the teachers always advised us that anyone that passed out with Grade 3 should come back to resit. The standard was quite hard, the discipline was good and the parents were committed because it was 100 per cent boarding school.

Were all the teachers Nigerians?

You know it was a missionary school and the teachers were a mixture of Nigerians and Europeans especially from the Anglican mission mainly British. I could remember our house masters who were white and Nigerians. It took us some time to understand the whites but it was an added effort on our part to be able to settle down, listen and understand them.

What was your dream then?

My dream was to go to school, come out with good grades and then proceed to higher school. At that time, there was no JAMB and it was compulsory to go to higher school for A levels which I did. From Christ School, I transited to Olivet Baptist School, Oyo for my HSC. At Olivet, the admission process was also very tough and discipline very thorough. For me, moving to Olivet from Christ School was like operating in the same milieu and I thank God for the experiences that I passed through in the schools. It is also significant for me to say that I was glad that the two schools were faith-based; Christ School was Anglican while Olivet was Baptist and so, both academic and moral discipline were of the highest standard. And from there of course, I went to the University of Ife where I graduated and taught and rose to become a professor.

Why did you stay so long at Ife?

I met my husband there, so I got married there. My husband rose up to be university librarian while I did my first job there as a graduate assistant. I rose from there to become a professor, so you can see why I stayed so long there. Thank God, I had all my children there and trained them there as well.

That was why we earlier asked why you left your comfort zone for a place like Ekiti.

Life experience should not localise you to a spot; that is stagnancy. Thank God, even while I was at Ife, I was always moving, travelling because education is not complete if you are stagnant in one place. Even by the time I came to Ado Ekiti, I was working in Ife but residing in Ibadan. Because I thought I had stayed too long at a spot, we moved to our house in Ibadan and I was shuttling between Ibadan and Ife. I think moving here is an added value because it is good to tap knowledge here and there and bring everything together in a pot and that is an experience I value.

How was life in Ife as an undergraduate?

At my own time, you went to Ife to study and it’s like you must have a permanent seat in the school library, nobody took your place because you were glued to your seat. Until I left Ife, we were not used to having handouts, so you must go to the library and do your work. You must do extra work apart from what your teacher taught in class. We had one of the best libraries in the country then and so there was no excuse for failure.

Was it books, books books for you then?

No, we also had time for socials and sports which is normal. Whatever you wanted to do, you could do it within the university system because the university was so big and we had everything. It was a good place for socialisation where you meet friends and most of my very friends now, we met either at Christ School, Olivet or at Ife. So, it was a very good experience for me.

What then did you combine with academics?

I tried sports but I found out that I could neither jump nor run but we had this Oduduwa Hall where you could go in and watch films unlike nowadays when everybody has access to videos and DVD. There was no video clubs then and I liked drama a lot. Even when I was at Christ Schol and Olivet, I was very much involved in drama club and literary and debating clubs. I had passion for that and I love reading and watching films.

For someone that went to faith-based schools, how were you able to socialise with the opposite sex later in life?

Discipline does not mean that you cannot move with people. When I was at Olivet, that was the first time for me that boys and girls were allowed to sit in the same class. When I was at Christ School, we could go to the boys section for particular subjects but at Olivet, I was already mature and at higher school, not nowadays that students of 16 go to university. At that time, it was compulsory that you could not enter Christ School if you were not 12 years old and you had to spend five years. It was a British model school and most of our teachers were British. So, 12 plus five is 17 plus another two years at Olivet which is 19. So, one was mature and capable of taking care of oneself and as we were studying at faith-based school, you were told what to do and what was not desirable. In fact, among my friends that we used to study together at Olivet were boys because most of the girls there were tomboyish in nature. So, we studied together, did games together but much disciplined.

What struck your mind the day you were approached to be deputy governor?

What I thought was, ‘would I be able to do it and do it well?’ but God said ‘Go ahead, you can do it I will support you’. If anything happens to me either planned, pre-planned or unplanned, I always listen to the inner voice that speaks to me. Immediately I was approached, that inner voice spoke to me because I was a bit afraid for so many reasons because I was not prepared for it but God said I should go ahead and take it and when I looked at the people that I was going to work with and  that I am working with now, I felt comfortable.

Did you want to become a professor because they say Ekiti is a land of professors?

In Ekiti, an average parent would like to train their children and once you are trained and you come up tops, the next thing is to go to the next level and on and on like that. If you have a good degree, you would want to go further and if you are in the academics, you are not after money because your salary could hardly take you home. Academics are not after money but keep on because of the passion and acquisition of knowledge. At that time after graduation, many companies would come and be begging you with offers but the university would also tell you that you are an academic material, you stay in the university. It was very automatic if you had good grades. That was why I stayed back and chose academics.

Was the day you were pronounced a professor the happiest day of your life?

No, how can it be the happiest day of my life? The happiest day of my life was the day I had my first child. That was the day I held that bundle of joy. To me, I don’t have sad day though the day I lost my husband, I was sad but then if you look up to God, He would comfort you. As a person, I always look at the brighter side of life and that makes me happy.

Do you have a professor as a child?

No, I don’t have a professor as a child but all my children are master’s degree holders. They don’t like to be professors; one is a medical doctor, one is an accountant, one is a lawyer and one is an economist; they just want to develop themselves. They don’t want to be professors, maybe they think professors are poor and you know children of nowadays are very smart. But I thank almighty God for the wonderful gifts from God.

PUNCH