By Bolanle Bolawole – NG Tribune
Two weeks ago, circumstances compelled me to spend a night at Ilesa; I am not sure I had done so before that day since 1978 when I left Ilesa Grammar School as a Sixth Form or ‘A Level’ student for the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) for undergraduate studies. Understanding where I was and finding my way around in Ilesa was not difficult. As a student at Ilegrams, as we called it, I had lived at the two extreme ends of the town – Oke Omiru (with my old secondary school mate and friend, Samson Ajiferuke, while he worked at the Oyo State Broadcasting Service, Idominasi station) and later in an off-campus students’ hostel at the Imo area of the town, not far from the school.
So, finding a hotel around the Imo – Brewery axis posed no problem. That night I visited the city centre to use the ATM at Skye Bank, an itinerary I repeated the next morning and which took me past Ilegrams. Side-by-side my alma mater was another imposing structure which needed no introduction; I knew straightaway it must be one of those Aregbemega schools. I had been at the one at Osogbo, which sharesfences with Osogbo Grammar School where I was an Auxiliary Teacher between 1976 and 1978 before proceeding to Ilegrams for my ‘A Levels”. Truth be told, the one that I saw at Osogbo was magnificent; the principal, an amiable lady, took me round. Students and teachers cannot ask for a better learning and work environment. Everyone in town was aware of the presence of the Aregbe ‘wonder’ school nesting side-by-side Ilegrams; the Okada man who ferried me to the Bank even told me the date of its commissioning. I made up my mind to attend as an uninvited guest but as the days went by, I forgot. I was, however, rudely awakened to the fact of the commissioning on the stated date by a half-page advert in a national newspaper by the “Ilesa Grammar School Old Students’ Association”, signed by the Secretary General, Jide Abiola.
The advert, in a nutshell, rejected an invitation by the Osun State Government extended to the Old Students’ Association to attend the commissioning of Ilesa Government High School as “Guests of Honour.” The Association’s grouse is the name-change; it wants the name to remain Ilesa Grammar School instead of the new Ilesa Government High School and said it had engaged the government over the issue for upward of four years but its efforts, it would now appear, have been futile. After the initial niceties of appreciating the government for deeming it fit to honour the Association with “an invite” as they now say, ILEGSOSA (that is the acronym of the Association) regretted that it could not attend as, from my own reading of the situation; it would amount to legalising what it considers an illegality.
I was shocked to read in the advertorial that the matter had even gone as far as the law courtand that Suit No. HIL/72/17 was pending and a motion for injunction had been served on Gov. RaufAregbesola and the state Attorney-General. From my lay man’s understanding, the Association was saying the case was “sub judice”, as lawyers would say, and that the Osun State Government, in stillgoing ahead with the name-change and commissioning, was acting in contempt of the court. While it is trite to say that government ought to obey court orders, I am sure the Osun State Government would have a defence and a different story to tell on this matter. The law, always, is an ass and government especially will ride this willing horse to death in Nigeria if care is not taken.I must add, however, that I find the whole issue distasteful. It should not have gone to the extent of court action. Bothsides should not have stuck to their gun but should have found a meeting point. ILEGSOSA should not have boycotted the commissioning; by doing so, it has thrown the baby away with the bath water.
Name-change is an ego trip on both sides of the divide and should have been the least of anyone’s worries.There are many more germane issues confronting Osun State and its educational system. To be sure, Aregbe loves names – highfalutin names – beginning with the name of the state itself, which he changed from Osun State to “The State of Osun.” On my first meeting with him as governor, he regaled me with American and other examples of why it must be “State of Osun” and not Osun State. His eyes glowed and, oh mine, you need to witness his swagger and gait as he possibly considered he had won the argument! But personal foibles and individual idiosyncrasies are not necessarily crimes. We all have them aplenty! Just having read “The only authorised biography” of a child of God I hold in high esteem, Kathryn Kuhlman, as it has been also with other idols and role models, there is none that is perfect – no one, according to the Word of God. So then did William Shakespeare admonish us in Othello, I think, to excuse that which we cannot possibly change. I am not sure anyone can change Aregbe’s penchant for names – O’Rice, O’Beans, O’Yams, O’Vegetables, O’Iru, O’Ogiri; ad nauseam! I consider it an integral part of the man and his brand or style of politics.
Yes, I am opposed to needless name-change and have argued that on this page in the past. I have also opposed the demolition of schools, especially that of Fakunle Comprehensive High School.Aregbe could have avoided some controversy if he had taken his mega schools elsewhere and called them whatever he likes, rather than cite them side-by-side old schools with pedigree and tradition and then try to impose his will. The alumni will kick; it is natural. I don’t want my old schools’ name changed. I want Owo High School Owo to forever remain Owo High School and Ilegrams to remain Ilegrams. Osogbo Grammar School shouldremain so and the mega schools sited in the precincts of those age-old schools, which have become a brand, must take after the name of the older school. When the University of Ife was changed to OAU, we grieved but because of the personality involved, we kept our peace and suffered in silence. Learning from the Ife experience and better prepared, UNILAG resisted the attempt to obliterate its name not necessarily because it had anything against MKO Abiola but because it saw through the shenanigans of those rooting for that name-change. Respecting people’s sensibilities is a mark of greatness; riding roughshod over themin a show of strength as the “duly constituted authority” (apologies, Gov. Isiaka Ajimobi of Oyo state!) is a farce and shadow-chasing.
Be that as itmay, ILEGSOSA should not have boycotted the commissioning of Ilesa Government High School; it should have attended under protest. The way we play our politics in Yoruba land is bad. We fight to finish; we fail to allow for meeting points again; we cut our nose to spite our face; and, in the end, we become all-round losers. I commend Aregbe for completing and commissioning that school; my prayer always is that he will find the zeal and wherewithal to also complete and commission all the other on-going projects in Osun state. Each time I drive along the Ibadan – Ife road and I come to the Gbongan junction, I grieve at the snail speed of work on the overhead bridge there. I imagine that the problem is paucity of funds but my prayer is that the project, which appeared to have been named after a past governor of the state, respected Baba Bisi Akande, will be completed and commissioned in his life time. Baba recently lost his wife and seeing his photographs in the newspapers, there is no denying the fact that the sad incident shook him to his very foundations. May the good God uphold and strengthen him and may the overhead bridge on which his name has been inscribed – and the road from there to Osogbo – be completed and commissioned in his life time. This is one of the more germane issues that should attract their attention in Osun State, not name-change. How a cash-strapped state like Osun will complete all on-going projects before Aregbe’s tenure elapses in a year or so is a tall order. He must not only be encouraged but must also be pressured to do so. Our experience has been that when governments leave abandoned projects, such projects are hardly completed by succeeding governments. The cliché that government is a continuum exists only in the realm of the humongous debts they amass for succeeding governments and coming generations and nothing more. Leaders who corruptly enrich themselves; those who are not corrupt but only steal us blind (apologies to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s hare-brain, fraudulent, and nebulous differentiation between corruption and stealing) or those who misapply (as different frommisappropriate!) our resources, to quote the late Augustus Aikhomu, always walk away scot-free. After office, none is brought to book. Getting them to clean up much of the mess while they are still in office is a worthwhile venture.
For sure, Osun is not alone in this. If the records flaunted by Aregbe are anything to go by, he is even miles ahead of many of his peers on the indexes of positive contributions to the state under his watch. But can Osun in these austere times afford a mega school costing N1.3 billion, which was the figure released by Aregbe himself at the commissioning of Ilesa Government High School? How many of such mega schools will Osun need and how many can Aregbe build? What is the ease of access of students to such mega schools? What is the federal allocation that comes to Osun together with its IGR? Can Osun afford the profligacy of mega schools in the face of dwindling resources, workers’ salary arrears, unpaid pensioners’ entitlements, and other areas crying for urgent attention? How can Osun’s debt overhang be mitigated to give the next government a breather? These, I think, are more germane issues, not the distraction and diversion called name-change. For a rose, whatever name called, smells just as sweet!