2022 Maltina Teacher Of The Year Award At Oriental Hotel in Lagos On 21/10/2022

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SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE 2022 MALTINA TEACHER OF THE YEAR AWARD AT ORIENTAL HOTEL, LAGOS ON THE 21^ST OF OCTOBER, 2022

PROTOCOLS

Let me begin by congratulating the State award winners who have been up on the stage, we look forward to hearing who the Maltina Teacher of the Year would be.

My class teacher in primary school, a lady called Mrs. Oyegun, would on rainy days and when we couldn’t go out for break, organise debates. She would give us a topic and divide the class into two: for and against the topic. One day after one of the debates, she said to the class “I think Oluyemi  (my full name Oluyemi is what I was called then) is a very good debater.”

From then on I took an interest in debating. I went on to represent my secondary school for years in debates. And it certainly influenced my choice of the legal profession.

When I got into secondary school, I wasn’t particularly academically confident, there were high performers from primary schools everywhere.  But two weeks after we got into Form 1(JSS1 now) our English class teacher, Mrs Bola Elushade, of blessed memory, had in our English class asked us to write an essay about our first day in school. Days later, she announced the name of Dapo Alli as having written the best and the neatest essay and she said his essay would be posted up on the class notice board.

I wasn’t really paying attention as she spoke, and then she said but there was one other essay, the handwriting wasn’t good, but it was very imaginative. When she read it out, my classmates clapped and it turned out that it was my essay.

Mrs Elushade decided that my essay would also be put on the notice board alongside the best essay. Since then, overnight, I became much more confident of my academic skills.  From then on I knew I had to impress not just my teacher, but I also could not let myself down.

Fast forward to University, I was in my final year at the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos in 1978,  when a certain lecturer walked into our classroom, to take a class in jurisprudence. It was Dr. Akin Oyebode, who had studied both at Harvard in the US and Kiev in Russia.

He had only a bunch of keys in his hands, no notes, and he spoke with such eloquence and authority for one hour on the Sociological School of Jurisprudence without notes. It was that evening that I decided that whatever else I would do as a lawyer, I would certainly teach law and that I also would master my material so well that I would teach so well as not to need notes to teach.

I went on to join the Faculty of Law at the University of Lagos in 1981 and I did exactly that. A word from a teacher to a student can make such a difference in the life of a student. That is the nature and power that teachers have.

People often say with a great deal of sarcasm that a teacher’s reward is in heaven. The saying is meant to suggest that teaching is neither financially nor materially lucrative. That’s true, but the saying misses an important point about most committed teachers. For such teachers, their greatest joy and satisfaction come from seeing their pupils and students do well and become successes in life. For most successful teachers, teaching is a vocation, it is just something they are called to do.

I was pleasantly surprised last year when my former students did a video celebration of my 40th year anniversary as a university teacher. My students include Judges and Justices, including a Justice of the Supreme Court, Hon. Justice John Inyang Okoro, and many Judges including former Chief judge of Sokoto State, Aisha Sanni Dahiru.

There are also Senior Advocates of Nigeria, including the first Nigerian to be a Professor, a Queens Counsel and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria at the same time, Prof. Fidelis Oditah. They also include several politicians, and former Governors, including Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State, and former Governor of the then Western State, General David Jemibewon Rtd.  And even royalty, the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu.

You’d notice that some of these people are probably older than me, I started teaching very early, as you’ve heard, I taught for so many years.

I have also taught many professors and SANs. I will mention only the female SANs because they are fewer, Mrs. Dorothy Udeme Ufot, SAN, and Prof. Yemi Bamgbose SAN (now deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Ibadan).

As you must have noticed, I speak with much pride about my former students. The successes of our students are such an immense source of pride and satisfaction, the type of reward money cannot buy. But the teacher must be appreciated, everyone needs affirmation and encouragement. It can only lead to greater achievements. This is why the Maltina Teacher of the Year Award is an incredible boost for teachers and the teaching profession.

I had the pleasure of receiving the 2020 winner of the Maltina Teacher of the Year Award last year in my office, Ms Bunmi Awani, who started her career in teaching when after her National Youth Service year in Adamawa State, she decided to stay on and teach in a secondary school in Yola.

After the Maltina Award, she still teaches at the same school, Concordia College, but has now established an NGO with part of her prize money. She has continued to work on her passion for girl-child education and education for the poor and vulnerable. She has since been nominated for the Teacher Award of the Cambridge University Press, and the 2022 Array Global Teacher of the Year Award.

Then in March 2022, she was one of the 100 women recognised worldwide by the International Renaissance Centre in Kenya, during Women’s History month.

A few days ago, I sent an inquiry to her about how the award had impacted her life and career and she said, “it has given more resources to impact more lives. Now, I can teach more students for free. I don’t experience financial stress anymore because being the Maltina Teacher of the Year has opened up a larger platform for me so people and organizations are now supporting my efforts in educating the rural community.

“My children in the classroom now want to teach after seeing the recognition I got from being the Teacher of the Year. They find value in me being the Maltina Teacher of the Year.”

This is what giving an award to a deserving teacher can do for the teacher, for their students, their communities and indeed our nations.

So I think the Nigerian Breweries Limited ought to be commended for this thoughtful and impactful annual award and for saying so well what we all ought to be saying to our teachers every day, “thank you, thank you and thank you!”

Thank you all very much.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.