Educators From Nigeria

"Not that it wasn't possible-not that people never knew that education is the necessary thing-but before, people they tended to believe that to get to the people in charge then, that it was not easy. Unlike now, that they can access people like me. They can access officers that are in charge, so that's a big difference. The openness of how we do things now has been a great change from what used to happen before. Even at the offices, there has been a sort of restructuring. That means that departments that are in charge as well, you reassess people."

"Thank you very much and I hope it will be useful for your studies."

"Of course, I did. You know men would want to do that husband thing. He would say ‘Please, can you cook that my vegetable for me?’ He loves it so much. And I would cook it because the difference is in his wife’s hand. I did that once in a while, not all the time."

"My husband supported me which made life easy for me while in office. My children were also grown up: My last child was already in the secondary school while the first two were in the university. We had a family meeting to agree on how we are going to balance it. I was in touch with my family all through. I was able to keep my home and was stable in the office as well."

"I will continue like my father did it till he breathed his last. Politics is not something you can quit once you get involved. I will continue to be of service to my people because I come from the riverine rural area that is always marginalised. It is only through political participation that their plight can be addressed and their voice heard."

"I have a small consultancy firm where I deal with educational issues. Once in a while, I go on speaking engagements. I attend a lot of seminars in and outside the country. I attend development programmes as well because as you age you still have to constantly renew yourself. I still do a lot of reading and writing."

"Well we came in, like I said, there were a lot of challenges, especially having to do with infrastructure of the schools. We knew what we wanted immediately. We felt to do this the funding in previous years was increased. In previous years a ratio about 50%."

"I am from Badagry in Ojo Division of Lagos State, which gave me the opportunity to serve my people as a politician.I studied English Education. I am a teacher by profession. Ironically, going into education was accidental. I never intended to be a teacher. I went to collect a form for a cousin of mine, and from there, my passion was fired and I just said why not try it out. I found out it was my calling especially when it comes to improving the lives of young people."

"Sure. You mean, when we were going around to say "vote us in, you will not be disappointed?" Yes. You know, even before you come in, like a democratic government there are things you want to tell your people that we're going to do or we're going to improve on, and these are the areas-. We continue to have free education and we even provide the quality, not just education. We make roads for you. We provide water for you. You will access free healthcare and you now see all these things that we said. We said it and we are doing it. After four years-within two years, you've seen all these things manifested."

"You see people, you tell them "I'm doing this." They want to see it. That way we have been able to prove in this state, that "we want to do this." This is our budget. This is what we spend the budget on. So, you go around and you see the manifestation. You want to see a lot of roads that have been completed. You want to see a lot of changes that are taking place. You see schools that are being rebuilt, that are being rehabilitated. You see the books, you see the physical things."

"It was not convenient especially when I had to work late into the night. Oftentimes, he came to my official residence and I visited my home regularly. My husband didn’t live with me in the government house because it wasn’t convenient for him."

"The retinue of aides was for protocol sake and it is for a certain period of time. I still have my aides but on more humble and quiet side. It is natural for everybody to enjoy the glamour of office. Outside it, you still attract that respect; you still get honour from a lot of people. Remember that life and power are transient and the only thing that is stable and constant is change."

"I feel really good because I never thought that I will make eighty judging from all the troubles I caused in my youth. I was a fighter. Am still a fighter. But for God to keep me alive till the end, I don't know how far gone I will be, but I pray He will keep me longer."

"The award is convened in partnership with the British High Commission, the European Union, delegation and the Embassies of France, Germany, and the United States of America."

"In recognition of your efforts in advancing this mandate, the Steering Committee of the awards gala have selected you as a finalist in the category for Civil Society."

"UNN, said “in fact, the way they did it, I didn’t even know that I won. I was just invited and was announced the winner at the event."

"Feminism is misconceived. It is about placing equal value on both gender; if you have a girl child, you value the girl child as you value your boy child. You don’t bring in the preference ideology. You give equal opportunities educationally and otherwise; you don’t say you go and cook because she is a girl; you train them equally as humans with equal right."

"I am not saying men are not victims of sexual violence, men are trafficked too, but women and girls are disproportionately affected. This is because of their already weak position in the society and family. The prevailing social norms, patriarchal structures, the power relations, the dichotomy between public and private space; if you look at all these, you will see they are the ones in worse positions. When you want to help, you start with helping the most oppressed. The idea and the ideal is that nobody should suffer any violence or human right violation, but then you have to start from the ones that are least protected or most vulnerable."

"human trafficking is adding shame to humanity."

"I think it is a very big thing which should be captured in our media reports because it has not been reported in any media platform."

"Nigeria is part of UDHR of 1948 which states that all humans are born free and equal in dignity and rights regardless of gender, national or social origin and property."

"The principle of equality and non-discrimination which Nigeria recognises and claims to uphold are a combination of both international and regional human rights instruments."

"The instruments also include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and a host of others."

"These instruments are from bodies such as Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), Convention on Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)."

"Despite all these and the entrenchment of human rights in the constitution, Nigeria leads when it comes to denying women of equality, justice and opportunities."

"It was quite unique; different from all the scholarships."

"The ideas are gone by the time you come back. It's difficult — you have to start all over again."

"I’d been trying for, which was more concerned with the academic performance."

"The Yoruba culture has many similarities with the ancient Greek culture; for example, the idea of paying back care to one’s parents when they are old."

"If I have to teach 400 level students Latin for a class of one hour, I might need to prepare for two or three hours before hand because my competence in Latin is not so high. I do not use the language every day, so I forget sometimes."

"Think! You are concentrating and the power goes off! You try to use the battery, and the battery starts beeping. Then you have to close it and leave."

"This one wanted to know how much you have put into the community, which has shown your concern."

"That was what stirred my interest in literature. I got into UI through direct entry in 1983 and by the time I graduated in 1986, I did not want to study Law anymore."

"While studying the course, I realised that some of the things I had come across as a child were actually classical literature."

"My father was very vast. He taught both English and Mathematics. However, my mum took some time off teaching to nurture us (children)."

"My husband passed on three years ago. He was older than me, and he wanted me to succeed at all cost. He believed I was very brilliant, and that I could do anything intellectual."

"I realised that African culture was more similar to the classical cultures, than even the western ones. Many classical creative works can fit in the context of many African cultures because of their similar sociological and mythological backgrounds."

"So the first thing is to be part of the process. The second thing is to vote wisely. I think for most Nigerians that is the little we can do. Once they get to government they don’t ask us of anything. They go ahead to run policies that are sometimes anti-people. That is why the person we choose must be the right person."

"The decision not to vote is a decision to allow others to lead one in a direction one may not want."

"Let us now look for candidates who have a clear vision, candidates we know that we can hold accountable. The roles of the citizens are to institute the leadership that we work for."

"Electorate are always boxed into a corner by making fixated choice of who to vote for only between two major dominant political parties irrespective of their performance or what they could do to better the lives of the generality of the people."

"So, throughout my life, I have been on scholarship. My parents did not pay any school fees on me and they really thanked God for that."

"Nigeria had both human and material potentials, especially as regards its huge population for greatness but for people at the corridors of political power and politicians using census for political gains."

"A key area of our system where Mathematics education will prove useful is in the strengthening of the electoral process. An example is the reduction of voting time and improvement on voting experience."

"A strong correlation exists between the understanding of Mathematics and its pursuit to research level, on one hand and economic prosperity on the other."

"Census is not only about number but the totality of people as regards all that concern them in their geographical locations and this must be carried out in honesty."

"Research has shown that some people will spend up to seven and a half minutes in the voting booth because they have no knowledge of pattern recognition. As such, they have trouble understanding the patterns on display in the ballot papers."

"So, one year ahead of time, my parent took me to the headmaster and appealed to him to create a small separate space for me to put my chair at the rear back of the class. That was how I was for a whole year. I would listen to them as if I were part of the class."

"She lived and fought for gender equality not women empowerment."

"Oluwole’s agility was something that was phenomenal. For somebody of that age, it was as if she got better with her energy, her intellectual energy grew with age and for us, it was very remarkable."