Osun is home to a number of appealing projects that were offsprings of strategic desires to address certain challenges that have plagued the people over a long period. But one intervention that stands tall in the league of thought-provoking projects is Abolarin College in Oke-Ila, Ifedayo Local Government Area of Osun State, a school where secondary education is totally free but the criteria for admission is poverty. Despite being situated deep in the extreme of Osun northeast, Abolarin College is a breeding ground for national integration, among other nation-building values, hosting children from other zones of the country within its walls in a non-discriminatory fashion. The visioner and founder, the Orangun of Oke-Ila, Oba (Dr.) Adedokun Abolarin, in an interview with the Osun Newsroom crew led by the Editor-in-Chief, Funke Egbemode, spoke passionately about critical issues that have strengthened the foundation and the establishment, ranging from the importance of social capital to selflessness in leaders, from value for human lives to building the nation from the grassroot. He also shared with delight some of the impactful strides of Abolarin College in eight years of its establishment. Excerpts:
• Osun Newsroom:
What informed this kind of project?
Orangun of Oke-Ila:
We established the school in 2014, I became a king in 2006 against my own wish because I was always saying to myself that I didn’t go to school to become a king. Until I became the king, I had never stayed in Oke’la for seven days at a go. But in the first four years of my reign, I saw the need for a school like what we presently have because I saw poverty around me. Luckily, around that time, I was in Tanzania and I visited a place very close to Arousia, a community that is rural-like just like Oke-Ila but quite flourishing. There’s a five-star hotel there, and so, you have visitors coming from all over the world. Some few meters from that place there is a school that is strictly for the poor. I was there,I saw the children in the school and I interfaced with them. They were determined to change Tanzania. Their ambition was to beat the record of Julius Nyerere. It appeared to me that these young, promising children were already thinking of a future in an environment like mine. It signalled to me that it was time to start a school that is going to be completely free. I shared the idea with my immediate elder brother who died that same year, and he shared the vision with me. It was unheard of to run a school that will be entirely free but I said I would start. Immediately, I got in touch with the management of Babcock University High School, and so we set the ball rolling with a crop of young, dynamic, resourceful and intelligent teachers who formed the team at the school’s inception. To the glory of God, we started the school in 2014, and this is the eighth year that it’s been running. We started with about 35 school children, to the glory of God we have about one hundred and sixty-one of them now. Among our first set of 35 pupils, 28 of them were presented for external examination, and to the glory of God, 21 of them are in higher institutions today.
• Osun Newsroom:
This must really give you deep joy
Orangun of Oke-Ila:
A special joy indeed. I tell my students I want them to comquer the world, and I guess I left all just because of these children. This, for me, is a ministry, a big one. This is my mission field and I became the King. I have no regret whatsoever picking these children and I dare to say that anywhere they are, they are the best. In fact, they are so competitive, and they accept their losses in good faith. But they know that they have to give their best always.
• Osun Newsroom:
How do you fund this kind of establishment?
Orangun of Oke-Ila
It’s been the grace of God. You can also do it. I am not a rich man, but my social capital has been of great help in this matter. To the glory of God, people believe in me, this is what I have been doing in the last 40 years. So, freewill donations have been very helpful in implementing this vision. People have given money, people have donated food items. Wale Babalakin has been supporting us on a monthly basis. With all these donations, we can plan. We pay the teachers, we feed the children, all by the grace of God. So, like I said, I am not a rich man, but Abolarin College is the people’s school; people who believe in what we are doing and people who know that we can do it. The funding is through the assistance of people.
• Osun Newsroom:
So, what is your definition of success?
Orangun of Oke-Ila:
I am a social scientist. So, what success means to me may be quite different from what it is to you, or to someone else from another discipline. But if you are happy doing what you are doing, and you see the results in what you are doing, that is success. For me, in terms of fulfilment, I thank the Lord Almighty for the satisfaction Abolarin College brings because I do not know these children from.anywhere, but they are my children. In terms of sacrifice, you have to sacrifice some things to attain success. For me, this has cost me even my family because it was unimaginable to leave Abuja and forsake all the lofty ambitions to come live in Oke-Ila. My first child, who is now fond of Oke-Ila, shed tears at the initial stage, but today, we are the only two members of the family in Nigeria. I sincerely miss my family, but there is nothing much I can do about it because this is an assignment given to me by the Lord Almighty. I always tell people that all my endowments, all what God has given me in life, is because of this people and this time.
• Osun Newsroom:
Is the school only for indigenes of Oke-Ila or it is open to people from other places?
Orangun of Oke-Ila:
Because I’m not clanish, because I’m cosmopolitan, you cannot have a school like that and not promote national integration. I am a federalist, and the catchment area of the school is the whole of Osun northeast consisting six local governments: Ifelodun, Odo-Otin, Boripe, Ila, Ifedayo, Boluwaduro; and within that catchment area is a school meant for all Nigerians. So, to the glory of God, the first headboy of our school, Gabriel Ironsi, is from Abraka in Delta State. And I have a number of them like that from other parts of the country, but the message is the same for all of them: they must conquer the world.
• Osun Newsroom:
How much time do you spend with the children?
Orangun of Oke-Ila:
I’m always there. I’ve been there this morning. I teach Government. I discuss practical life issues with them, issues around challenges of life, becoming successful in life, nation building, history of the world, political history of Nigeria, and a host of other issues.
• Osun Newsroom:
How do you select the students?
Orangun of Oke-Ila:
Basically from public schools. We make a call for application (we are discreet about it because we want to reach those who really need the help, the students apply and we conduct interviews for them.
• Osun Newsroom:
Male students have gained greater mention in your discussion. Does that mean Abolarin College is a single sex school?
Orangun of Oke-Ila:
No. In fact, there is almost gender parity. There is almost the same number of males and females
• Osun Newsroom:
Where do you see the school in ten years?
Orangun of Oke-Ila:
Because it is the people’s school, because it is these children’s property, I can say that in ten years, it is going to be a big thing, perhaps a university.
• Osun Newsroom:
And what is the sustainability plan?
Orangun of Oke-Ila:
Sustainability is key. I tell them that there is no free lunch anywhere. What we are doing is that we are giving them the opportunity to be successful, but they are definitely paying back to their different communities. They know this, they are paying back to their various communities, and we are changing the face of the entire Osun northeast in the foreseeable future. It may not be in my lifetime but I have a picture of what this area will look like in the next 40 years. I say it again, these children dare not neglect their communities. They dare not become selfish. I tell them that my ghost will visit them the moment they forsake the values of selflessness that they are learning today, because it was in the same fashion that I left all to be here for their sake. Already, those who have gained admission into higher institutions among them return occasionally to give back to the school, because they have also realised that it is their school. They know the school culture already.
• Osun Newsroom:
What about their parents?
Orangun of Oke-Ila:
Some of them have parents, but a number of them have either lost one or both of their parents.
• Osun Newsroom:
What’s your advise to inspire other leaders?
Orangun of Oke-Ila:
It is important for all of us to have what political scientists call ‘enlightened self-interest’. It is in our interest to do things like this. If we fail to do these things, or let me say that if I focus solely on my biological children at the expense of the poor, these are the same set of people that won’t allow my children to have a good life, and which is exactly what we are experiencing in Nigeria today. So, we must own up, and understand that government alone cannot do it. But again, if government supports this kind of initiative, of course we will be happy because we can do more than we are currently doing. We can change the face of Osun state totally, but bit-by-bit with everyone tidying his own corner.
