In 2018, as a Catholic I attended 9.45 a.m. Mass with a colleague of mine at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Maitama, Abuja. Shortly before the Mass started, my friend spotted his School Principal of 45 years ago in the congregation. He was moved to walk up to him for respectful pleasantries after so many years. But before he could stand up, the Priestly procession commenced, and so he couldn’t go as the procession marks the beginning of the Service. After the Mass, you could imagine my friend’s impatience to rush to his principal, literally dragging me along. “Good morning, Sir’ he respectfully greeted him, beaming with smiles and lots of unspoken gratitude.
‘Linus, have you obtained your Ph.D.?’ his principal asked him with his eyes firmly gazed at his face. ‘Yes, Sir’ Linus replied with excitement and reverence, but a bit surprised at his principal’s clairvoyance about his academic status. His principal then turned to me and said, ‘If he had not, I would be surprised because we laid a solid foundation for him to do so and we knew he was going to fulfil it’. I was thinking about two things about my friends encounter with his principal; first, how can such a solid confidence be reposed in a child’s future career by his mentor even at his young age. Second, what character threats did Linus exhibit then that his principal knew he was going to pursue a Ph.D. and correctly predicted it 45 years after. Linus obtained a Ph.D. in Statistics from University of Lagos at age 35.
This brings me to the context of my anecdotal story. Just imagine for a while if Mazi Dr. Alvan Ikoku were alive today and saw the monumental progress his proteges such as Mazi (Prof.) Okoro Ijoma, Mazi (Prof,) Mike Oti, Bar. Gab Igboko, Engr. Goddy Ijeomah, Mazi Chikwe Udensi, and thousands of other successful personalities that were products of his timeless vision of the establishment of Aggrey Memorial College- the first private secondary school in Nigeria. Do you think his response to them would’ve been different from what my friend experienced with his principal? The answer would obviously be No!
Education is such a powerful tool for molding the character, personality and career of children and even adults that it has become the most portent instrument of development globally. Little wonder, J. B Watson, a German educational psychologist once boasted, ‘Give me ten children and I would produce from among them whatever I wanted them to be- a lawyer, a sociologist, a medical doctor, an outlaw or even a Thief’. This buttresses Dr. Akanu Ibiam’s; s admonition to graduating students of John Bosco Secondary School Ishiagu in Ebonyi State some decades ago. “ Some of you will be lawyers and pilots, others will be successful businessmen and politicians, while some will end up as barrow pushers, 419ners, cultists and robbers. When the students applauded the positive remarks and shouted in disapproval of the negative predictions, he said, ‘Well, we have played our part in your lives by giving you the best of education, the choice is yours either to make it work for your or work against you.’ Vision is like little icons that produce giant oaks. They come as a flash of intuition and if you don’t catch them, they fly away like little Robbins, unaccomplished. Perhaps, those that were around when Mazi Dr. Alvan Ikoku was incubating the vision that produced Aggrey Memorial College may not have considered him serious-minded, especially when such an idea was almost considered untenable at the time. They may have written him off as a pipe dreamer or thought he was simply acting out a short script of a Tortoise-inspired fairy tale. Almost a century after, we now know how lucky we are he was none of the above.
In his visionary mind he was convinced he was beginning a project that will outlive him and perhaps several other generations after him. What inspired him, which may not be very obvious to many at the time was the power of his mission and the strength of his conviction that education holds the key to every facet of human or community development. He clearly foresaw that education would be the game changer for Aro community in the future. He therefore bravely faced challenges, fought detractors, confronted government frustrations that put all sorts of obstacles on his way and overcame financial constraints by being a principal, a teacher, a bursar, a clerk and a disciplinarian, all rolled into one before he convinced such wonderful patriots like Mazi Dr. Igboko to came on- board his timeless vision.
It is difficult to read the mind of an Icon like Mazi Dr. Alvan Ikoku on the motivations of his timeless vision, but an informed guess may suffice here. He probably was sold to the idea that education was certainly needed to liberate the individual and the community from shackles of ignorance, underdevelopment and poverty. He may also would have been convinced that the diplomacy-filled and vibrant natural wisdom of the Aro man, if not moderated with sound education, might actually turn into a burden for community peace and progress. Education was needed to sharpen the traditional intellect of the Aro man to make it a transformational tool for community development. He probably would have been aware of the circumstances of our geography and realized that education might become the tool to extract respect from our neighbors in the absence of demographic advantage or kinetic endowments. Arguably, our neighbors respect us today not for the strength of our demography or military strength, but for the power of our wisdom and relative educational advantage made possible by Dr. Alvan’s vision which is available for us to harness to pool other resources together to defend ourselves.
However, any dispassionate observer of what has become of education in Aro since the government took over schools, especially Aggrey Memorial College and other missionary schools in Aro will agree that there has been a progressive dimming of the spark of Dr. Alvan’s timeless vision in educational development in Aro. Inadequate basic infrastructure, lack of motivated teachers, total neglect of the welfare of pupils and students, weak curriculum and lack of vocational training have all combined to put at risk the vision of Dr. Alvan Ikoku on education, not only in Aro but in Nigeria. The question is Who will be the next Dr. Alvan Ikoku among our us today? How do we begin to rekindle Dr. Alvan’s vision to serve the next generation going into the next century?
Therefore, on Saturday 10 th September 2022, Nzuko Aro in conjunction with Aro Education Committee will showcase the 1 st Dr. Alvan Ikoku Education Colloquium Titled ‘Education in Aro: Sustaining the legacy of Quality and Accessibility’. The Colloquium will be Chaired by Prof. Mike Oti- an Erudite Professor of Petroleum Geology who is an Aggrey Alumnus and directly mentored by Dr. Alvan himself. Resource persons include Prof. Joe Nwankwo, Prof, ( Mrs) Nnennaya Kanno, Rev. Dr. U.C.C Elekwa, Dr. Chima Dike, Barr. Mrs Carol Okorafor and Barr. Oscar Chukwuma Okoro. Prof. Rock Okezie Ezes on will lead a team of Rapporteurs that includes Dr. Mike Dike, Lady Eucharia Oti, Dr. Nkechi Nwafor, Dr. Ogbonnaya Udo to articulate the message and recommendations of the Colloquium.
These professionals will interrogate several issues constraining the restoration of Dr. Alvan Ikoku’s Vision in Education development in Aro. They will also explore the challenges and proffer solution on such topical issues as education infrastructure development; gender sensitivity and entrepreneurial skills acquisition at the basic education level; financing education in Aro in the absence of government investment; how to actualize a functional literacy and life-long skills acquisition among Aro pupils and students and the role of Alumni Associations in improving education in Aro Kingdom. The plenary will feature interactive question-and-answer sessions that will offer Umu Aro opportunity to proffer solutions on how to keep the flame of Dr. Alvan Ikoku’s vision burning into the next century and beyond.
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