TEACHERS: THE REAL HEROES!
A Tribute to all teachers on World teacher’s day!
From ”uncle Friday” in my Primary School days to the one we called ”Stone cold” because of his strictness and zero tolerance for indiscipline down or up to (depending on the position you are viewing this from. Lmao) the one people call: ”Ike man” during my days at Department of Architecture in the University, my experience with good teachers are always the same. You always tend to hate but love them, you never want to miss the drama in their classes, you don’t want to fail their courses or subjects, they don’t deceive their wards/students and they all have zero tolerance for indiscipline.
As a kid, I was once told by one of my big uncles; Prof. Joseph Obi of how his father discouraged him from going to the then prestigious college of Education in Rivers state, My curiosity to know why ended up making me dismayed at the answer his father gave him. I am sure you can guess correctly what the answer was but in case you are not one for guessing, I will tell you. His father told him that teachers are the ones who teach people how to make millions yet are always poor, he argued with my uncle that he will live a miserable life trying to make a teaching career because the government never releases their peanuts until after several strike actions. All these discouraged uncle Joe and after several years of looking for that “life changing job” with his now late late father described, Uncle Joe ended up in the states where he still followed his dreams. He started as a college teacher whilst continuing his education. Today, he is a professor of English at one of the biggest universities in America. Apart from been the financial backbone of his family, Prof Obi has encouraged his siblings and others into this wonderful profession of teaching. I was also privileged to have him write a forward to one of my books: ”Swinging Emotions”.
As Uncle Obi will rightly say, in Nigeria we always forget the basis. People always neglect the fact most of the problems Nigeria has today as a nation originated from poor values and norms. Our youths who should have been our greatest asset as banners and torch carriers of both economical and political continuity have had their ship of education completely wreaked by disillusionment, strike actions and the rather disturbing quality of education they now depend on.
Now, imagine if the ”Uncle Fridays” of my primary school,, the ”stone colds” of my secondary school and the ”ike man” of my university days were at a point in time in their short careers encouraged and given beffiting awards and rewards for their outstanding works like Gov. Fayose of Ekiti will be doing today, this would certainly have spurred others in their era to do more. Until we learn that ”Teachers” are our real heroes, the ship of education in this country will continue to sink further in the ship of nothingness and moral bankruptcy.
So guys its world teacher’s day! Who was your favorite teacher and why?
ONYEKABA N. Charles (arc)
Architect & creative writer.
Author of “Swinging Emotions: The poetry of my youth”
& ”Shadow of Truth”
Email: onyekabaeme@yahoo.com
Charleyrosu 