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Oba Adedokun Omoniyi Abolarin: Advancing Sustainable Education in Nigeria Through the Royal Stool

Nigeria has the highest rate of out-of-school children, low literacy rates, and high inequalities between and within groups in terms of education access and learning outcomes. The country’s government acknowledged that the country has the highest number of children out of school in the world. It says there are 10.5 million children not being educated. Research at UNESCO has shown that world poverty would be more than halved if all adults completed secondary school. And if all students in low-income countries had just basic reading skills, almost 171 million people could escape extreme poverty. 

Literacy is an all-inclusive activity that engages community, schools and children for sustainable development. Parental and community involvement in various aspects of schooling – ensuring that children go to school, contributing cash or labour to construct classrooms, and participating in school management – is part of a more general trend towards educational decentralisation in Nigeria. But, in practice, full community engagement is particularly difficult in areas where people are poor (so are short of time and money) and have often not gone to school themselves. The education workforce was affected by low morale and income shocks induced by COVID-19. Experts has noted that education sector recovery should include targeted social protection for the education workforce and parents. For parents, this includes maintaining the school feeding programme, providing subsidies for school materials such as uniforms and textbooks, and providing income shields for low-income households by expanding access to credit markets.

Education is the key that will allow many other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved. Just as stated in the first paragraph above, when people are able to get quality education they can break from the cycle of poverty. Nevertheless, there is an educational transformation going on in Òkè-Ìlá. Òkè-Ìlá is a city in Ọṣun State, Nigeria. It is situated in the northeastern part of Yorubaland in southwestern Nigeria. Òkè-Ìlá Òràngún’s sister city (and sister kingdom) Ìlá Òràngún is located about 12 kilometres to the northeast, separated by the north-trending ridges and gorges of the Oke-Ila Quartzites.

Read Also: Nigeria: Enhancing Osun State’s Digital Economy Growth through Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Abolarin College: Improving Indigenous Communities with Free, High-Quality Education

During the colonial era, the British met an organised and law-abiding society in Nigeria. The traditional rulers were on ground administering the affairs of their various communities as the custodians of the people’s culture, tradition and the society. When the indirect rule system was introduced by the British colonialists it worked well in some areas and failed in others. The recorded successes shows that the traditional fathers were official agents of the people wherever the political space formed a link between traditional political system and the modern government. Hence, the root of modern local government administration in Nigeria, at the grassroots, close to the people. Pre-independent Constitutions of Nigeria recognized the traditional political institutions as agents of their people through the House of Chiefs, which later devolved as local authorities with executive powers over issues such as community policing, immigration, prison services as well as tax administration. The 1960 and 1963 constitutions also created Council of Chiefs for traditional rulers at regional level, though the 1979 gave them membership of Council of Chiefs and specific representation in the National Council of States at the federal level to play advisory role on customary matters, cultural affairs, chieftaincy matters and to give advice on the maintenance of public order.

Similarly, the erroneous belief that the traditional institutions have no place or roles in modern democratic governance and development strides has let to its relegation to the background. But this belief system is not only erroneous but is also misleading, baseless, deceptive and counter-productive. But the question can then be asked again: What roles could an Oba play in the modern democratic government and general development of the society? The answers to this question are not far-fetched. The roles of the Oba in the welfare and development of his subjects have not changed from what it used to be in the past. It is only that it has diminished over the years due to the relegation of the Oba to the backgrounds, their non-acknowledgement by the political class and the dishonourable acts of some people who bought their ways onto the throne without the basic credentials identified above.

The Yoruba are known for various cultural practices that are communal ranging from cooperation in helping others to build houses, cultivating each others’ farmlands, training each others’ children as one’s own, and creating employment as a means of discouraging social vices among many others. While the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria describes children as the heritage of the society because children occupy a special place in societal survival and continuity. Children are esteemed and appreciated. Thus, the embedded culture propagates the essentiality of children, the need for proper socialisation and internalisation to make a responsible being (Omoluabi). Also, children are prioritised above material wealth, and the essentiality of child wellbeing and education is emphasised in aspects of popular culture such as oral poetry, proverbs, local songs and popular music among others.

Oba Adedokun Omoniyi Abolarin, Òràngún of Òkè-Ìlá (Aroyinkeye 1), the paramount ruler of Òkè-Ìlá. He was a lawyer before his installation as the traditional ruler of the town. Abolarin College, one of the prominent schools in the town. Oba Abolarin is the founder of the Abolarin College. With more than a hundred students, the Abolarin Model College welcomes those who live at the margin of Nigeria’s society-the children of the poor, the destitute, the disenfranchised, the unlucky and unfortunate, the orphans, and many more. According to reports, Oba Adedokun Abolarin, has wormed his way into the hearts of his subjects and residents of the community.

The traditional ruler built a school, Abolarin College in his hometown, Òkè-Ìlá Orangun, Osun State through his NGO, the Abolarin Aroyinkeye Foundation. Although it was founded in 2014, its impact on the community, in terms of capacity building and empowerment of the less privileged, cannot be over emphasised. The unique feature of the college is that the monarch designed it mainly for the sons of poor people in the society and has vowed not to bring in the children of the wealthy people because he observed that the children of the rich would destroy the legacy in all ramifications. Away from the motor parks and streets where they previously hawked pepper, sachet water, fruits etc. and from the farms where the young minds toiled under the hot sun weeding, planting and making mounds. Orphans, hawkers, child labourers, delinquents, sons of farmers, petty traders, and the homeless sit side by side in averagely equipped classrooms of Abolarin College in their neat uniforms and clean environment listening, and learning.

Abolarin College indicated that the school is to empower the young ones of the rural communities in Nigeria through qualitative education that can favourably compete with what obtains in other advanced educational centres of the world. Currently, the population of the college is now ninety-five (95), forty-six boys (46) and forty-nine (49), all indigent students. The school presently operates on its temporary site, mainly funded from gifts of public-spirited people, and from the large heartedness of the founder. Today, the school now has well equipped science laboratories (Physics, Chemistry and Biology) through, The Lanre Laose Foundation. An account by the Nigerian Tribune about the college noted that admission is not automatic but regulated under a strict process in alignment with the core objectives of the founding father reputed for his adherence to standard and transparency right from his teaching days at the former Oyo State College of Arts and Science (OSCAS), Ile-Ife and St Andrew College of Education, Oyo.

Furthermore, the school boasts state-of-the-art boarding facilities. Set up to fight poverty through education. Abolarin College admits only indigent students who are socially disadvantaged and downtrodden. They are offered free education and free accommodation provided by the traditional ruler who sponsors hundreds of students till they complete their Senior Secondary School education. Additionally, apart from being its founder, Oba Abolarin teaches Government and History in the school. He also offers mentorship, counselling, leadership, fatherhood and friendship to the pupils who are in dire need of care and guidance.

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