Living Visions of the Light Bearers: Why Alimosho Streets Map (ASM) Works with the Government to Project Information on Quality Education

PAH Team with Founder and Management of Cornerstone Schools

IN writing the history of Alimosho under the Project Alimosho Heritage (PAH), the implementation team did not fail to marvel at the living visions of The Light Bearers – a term literally applied to mean those who brazed the odds to bring education to expose the sleepy ancient setting of Alimosho to the light of civilization in the project. The marvelous factor that fascinated the team was the envious growing of the visions in a seemingly manner that bespeaks the renewal of their mission to re-invent and restore the past glory and values of education in the Alimosho sub-city of Lagos State.

                2018 seemed to be onset year for the restoration, as they all began to showcase developmental infrastructure aimed at consistency with the demands of Lagos State’s Quality Education Assurance (QEA) factors.

                From the Agodo extremities with Mama Awodoyin’s Bufetola Group of Schools (BGS) and Cornerstone Schools and College, the renewal of their visions have been distinctive. Only recently towards the terminal time of the last academic session, there were indications that Cornerstone Schools undertook excursions to the off-shore territory of Nigeria. And for resumption in this new session, there were glaring touches of face-lifting to the college building as now being managed by the scion of the founder – an indication of the founder’s success in the leadership succession planning.

               

PAH Team at Bufetola School, Agodo

Bufetola may not have upgraded its infrastructure with additional buildings, the constant renewal of its modest existential with sustained testimony to the teaching quality content and Mama’s uncompromising disciplinary instinct by parents are indicators of strong commitment to keeping her vision alive.
      Moving northwards to Idimu, Nikky Bee Schools opened its new edifice for the Nursery & Primary Schools. Observers of trending issues on schools in Alimosho – including parents of the school – were quick to conclude that the need to upgrade the primary school from its modest origin at Buraimoh Close at Gbeleyi was long overdue though, they were nevertheless happy that the Founder, Mrs. Buraimoh, did not disappoint them after all. Some described the new multi-storey giant structure as befitting compensation for the delay. Ape ko to jeun ko ni je’baje, so concluded a parent of the school.  

               

Founder, Nikky Bee Schools, Mrs. Buraimoh

         After several decades of contentment with just a block of about six classrooms and an office, Aunty May School impressively opened this 2019/2020 Academic Session with additional L-shape two-storey building of many more classrooms without compromising the need for adequate space for recreational activity. It must be confessed as report gathered by the PAH team that many have concluded on the school as just passing through a phase of winding up, given particularly the eventual death of its Aunty May College at Alake. But those who knew explained to PAH, the hidden fact of the tangential difference in the founder origin of Aunty May Nursery & Primary School and the dead Aunty May College.

                It may however be stress that Mama Aunty May, the original owner of the name may have returned home from abroad to re-invent Aunty May College with the new building. We shall keep the public posted on this.      

Konsol Schools, Alpha Rehoboth Schools and Racy & Sturdy Group of Schools would seem to have set the pace in this growing vision earlier in 2014 and 2018/2019 academic sessions respectively with new sites and edifices.

In 2014 thereabout, Konsol Schools made a proactive action to halt the threat to its vision with the declining growth of the Konsol College. It was a daring and bold move ever made by any private school proprietor. The founder abandoned its purpose built U-shape two-storey building at Abule-odu extremity, built a new solid edifice in Unity Estate – at the origin of the vision – and relocated the College arm there. That bold move made a significant stride in launching the School back on the trajectory of growth.

With the College established over a decade back at Coker Estate, Shasha, the sustained growth of the vision was already marked. But to say that Alpha Rehoboth Schools is yet a vision on sustained path of growth became more significant with the new prototype and purposeful L-Shape structure raised for its new Nursery and Primary Schools’ site directly opposite its origin.

The Racy & Sturdy is no doubt a success story told in the language of oblivious expansion that gives the College a new site with befitting edifice that separates it from shared premises with the Nursery & Primary Schools. This new session, the School added a brand new bus to its fleet of school runs vehicles.

Racy & Sturdy tells his gistory

The PAH implementation is particularly happy to see Tadey International Schools repositioned for the continuum of its vision set many years back as indicated by school building structure put up from the start.

Redeemed Glory and Pavic International Schools stand at the boundary of this First Generation and the Second generation defined by middle 90s entry. However, one significant thing about Pavic International School was its elitist positioning with which it entered the yet remote community of Idimu.

Of course, in journey from Agodo to Idimu, we take note of the Bishop’s Schools at Alhaja Bus stop, Idimu, for the Nursery & Primary School and the College edifice at Prince’s Abiola area. So we do for one at Egbe that our historical findings point to as the likely premier private school in the whole of Alimosho Constituency 02, comprising the entire Southern part of Alimosho from its divide by the link stretch of Abesan River from Ipaja with Aboru River at Oki community in Iyana-Ipaja.

However, the core assignment in view for the PAH’s mission is to establish the comparism of the respective dates of establishment between this school in question at Egbe and that of Elias International School at Oke-Odo in order to know which truly deserves the Laurel of the Light Bearers’ Eldership.

In Ikotun, to talk about Igando-Ikotun LCDA axis, are Al-Miyzan Group of Schools as the Pioneer Islamic school and Queen Maris that has exhibited continuous growth with sustained expansions into Egan and Ejigbo from its base of origin in Ikotun.

The Question and Answer About Projecting Quality Education

What then is the significance of this brief historical evolution of Private Schools in Alimosho to the collaboration of ASM with the Ministry of Education in prosecuting and promoting Quality education in Alimosho? By way of introduction here only, the answer will be more discernible in the recent move of the education Ministry to combat the problem of external candidate enrollment for May/June Senior Secondary School Examinations with bold confrontation. The clarity of this as that by formal recognition of the “Living Visions” above, it should literally imply that in the course of PAH’s work, “Dead Visions” may have been collated too.

That is the truth! And that, indeed, informed the Poser raised by PAH thus: What is the actual progression history of education in Lagos State in the context of quality growth? The answer as collated from experts’ views pointed to a seemingly loose regulatory supervision of the private schools that rise to invidious and ubiquitous spread of examination malpractices. Curiously, the factor of enrolment of external candidates for the May/June SSCE that opened room for all that never saw the four walls of schools to sit for the exams seemed to be the fundamental part among the many causes of the malpractices.

Therefore, in its formal letter to request for the list of formally approved schools in Alimosho, Barlade Image Communications, the implementer of the PAH wrote:

“This request is intended for guide to the Private school’s premises that worth enlistment in our book of Alimosho Streets Map (ASM) and Directory Corporate Organisations and Social Institutions existing in Alimosho.

“It may interest you to know that we are resorting to this vital process in line with our resolve to use the book channel for a campaign of public enlightenment that Government’s Public School should be the only alternative parents’ choice to Government Approved Private Schools. It is about our prescience of education taking its pride of place in the nearest future, given the reformative surgery being undertaking by the Joint Admission Matriculations Boaord (JAMB).

“Curiously, we saw a recent move by the Ministry (of Education) that appears to connect well in principle with this ongoing reform by JAMB – as being executed by way of examination standardisation. We refer to your war against the ubiquitous schools’ registration of external candidates for the April/May Senior Secondary Schools Certificate Examinations diet of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), which by convention are meant for the internal students of the schools.

               “We particularly refer to the case of Jubril Martins College made as the scape goat of your resolve to end this menace in the last SSCE exams (see attached)"… To be continued.

Area ‘M’ Commander to get official vehicle as the Police highlight areas of Police/Community collaborations; -- Language problem identified as the bane of Ruga project

Story by Toyo C. Ngem

Agnis James, representative of the Area 'M' Commander

THE Area Commander, Area ‘M’ Police Command, was on Wednesday promised to get official operational vehicle by the Executive Chairman of Egbe-Idimu Local Council Development Area, Honourable Kunle Sanyaolu Olowoopejo. But there were indications that the promise may as well had been made on behalf of the Chairperson of Igando-Ikotun LCDA too, Honourable Williams, given that the two LCDAs are jointly covered by the operations of the Command.

                Also emanating along this line of security issue was the explanation that the proposed Ruga project by the Federal Government was one of the best things that could happen to Nigeria in terms of food and social security if it had not being widely misunderstood to be a proposed widespread “Fulani Settlements”.

                These were the developments that came out of the 5^th Constituency Stakeholders’ Meeting of the Lagos State House of Assembly for Alimosho (Constituency 02), held at the Multipurpose Hall of the Igando-Ikotun LCDA Secretariat, Ikotun, Lagos.

The event is an annual forum that brings the members of legislative arm to a compulsory engagement of the people of their respective constituencies in the acts of governance in Lagos State. The constituents (the people) are expected to identify and highlight their areas of challenges, problems and perhaps proffer their thoughtful solutions with the sole aim that the government could find a means to capture them in the Budget Appropriation for a peoples’ oriented governance system.

The promise of official vehicle to Area Commander followed a revelation by the Area Crime Officer, Mr. Agnis James, that as much it was desirable for the Area Commander’s operational efficiency, he had no official vehicle directly attached to him.

James, who represented the Area Commander, ACP Ifeayin Oporozo, at the event made the statement while highlighting the areas of collaborations that exist for the community to explore with the Police and other security agencies in order to reduce crime to the barest minimum.

Identifying logistics matter as one area of collaboration, he said: “The government is highly challenged in providing all the contingencies the security agents would need. If we begin to wait for the government to provide everything, then this issue of security for everyone would no longer be working.

“You will discover that in the whole of the Area Command, Area ‘M’, the Area Commander as head of the security for this Area has no patrol vehicle of its own. He doesn’t have official vehicle. If Area Commander is to come here today, he is going to come in his own personal vehicle and we are saying if he is called upon that there is crime in a particular area, how does he respond to it swiftly?

“So we are asking for more collaboration from the public. If you have an estate for instance, members of the estate can say let us refurbish a vehicle or buy a vehicle for the Police and that vehicle will be stationed in your estate for the policing of the area. If all of us could do that, I’m very sure that we would have security all over the place. But by waiting for government, I can tell you that we may not get the kind of result that we are expecting”.

James thus stated how the people were expected to get involved by listing what he identified as the areas of collaborations the communities could explore with the Police. He mentioned attitudinal changes on the part of people, prompt supply of useful information and logistic supports as parts of the anticipated actions from the side of communities.

Giving the operational principle of the Police as aiming to be proactive to prevent crime rather than confronting crime that may have done its damage, he said everybody would have to get involved by way of cooperation of the people with the Police. He said it was this campaign the Inspector General of Police had been taking round the country to enlighten the people that the effectiveness of their security could not be limited to the uniform men alone.   

He said: “The IG, who is the Head of Nigeria Police Force, is moving around to solicit the cooperation of everybody. Everybody must accept and take it as a responsibility that security is not just for the uniform per se… What is most needed now in our security arrangement in this country is pro-activeness: we want to be more proactive than reactive. And because we want to be proactive, we want everybody to get involved”.

He said: “You get involved in the areas of first of all yourself; changing your own attitudes. There is a programme of government that says ‘Change Begins with Me’. So if in your own area, you allow this change to begin with you, you will realise that one problem has been solved.

“We have been talking about blocking of High Ways –vehicles standing on the main road, picking passengers; people throwing refuse into drainages. If we change our attitudes in these directions, I’m sure that aspects would have been solved half-way and the government will come in to perfect whatever is left.

He added that the area of attitudinal change goes a long way to include how much of morals we integrate into our immediate family unit.

He said: “Changing our attitudes involves when you see your child going astray, you as a father, do your own part to change him. In this constituency, we have a lot of children that are roaming about without doing anything and they constitute nuisance to everybody around. You might think you are pampering your own child, but you have forgotten that he constitutes security risk to the community and it will turn round to affect you. What goes around comes around, so it is definitely going to affect you. If we all can take care of our homes very well, I’m very sure that whatever measure the government would take in terms of Policing would just complement that and we would discover that crime will reduce to the barest minimum”.

        James however said in spite of the challenges the Police are facing, they we were not sleeping over it. He said the personnel were duly conscious of it and they were making the best use of the little they had. He added that the area the Police needed the people more was in getting prompt information about suspected movements around us.

He said this includes taking courage to expose the criminal elements amongst us in spite of they being our loved ones: “There is no crime that is committed by animals. Crimes are committed by human beings and these human beings live in the communities with us. They are not ghosts; as a matter of facts, they are our children, brothers, sisters and friends… Prompt reporting will help us. You don’t wait until it happens.

Alhaji Abdullahi Enilolobo explaining Ruga Project

In making his own contribution, Alhaji Abdullahi Enilolobo, the Apex Leader of the Alimosho All Progressives Congress (APC) said he took note of the absence of ram sellers on the list of all trade and artisans’ associations invited to the event. He wondered if that was not due to the contempt being widely given to the Federal Government’s Ruga project.

He said: “Were it not the way Ruga was publicized by Federal Government, it would have been embraced by all the 36 states. People felt scared because Ruga is not an English Language, it is a Fulani Language. People now felt, Aah, there is Boko Haram coming to everywhere.

“But what is the meaning of Rug? It is a means by which the Federal Government wants to assist Nigerians whereby the cattle and rearers will not be roaming about. They will be settled in a place where there will be school for the children, hospital will be there and all necessary amenities they will also need for good life”.

                Enilolobo suggested that the name ‘Ruga’ should be changed. “There are techniques for us to get out of this Ruga issue” if Nigerians are expected to get the full benefits of Ruga. “It is unfortunate! How I wish the name should be changed and give it another name”.