Comrade Fakolade Oluwafemi Oluwaseun was elected through popular votes as the chairman of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Ikorodu branch, in May 2017. Before his election as Chairman, he was the immediate past General Secretary of the union for four years. He had previously served as the Deputy Chairman to the immediate past NUT Chairman, Asiwaju Lateef Oduguwa during his first tenure. In this interview with Kunle ADELABU, the Publisher/Reporter-in-Chief, THE IMPACT newspaper, he bore his mind on many issues ranging from the achievements of his administration, welfare of teachers, state of schools, presence of market in educational environment, the need for new schools and decongestion of existing ones in Ikorodu division. Excerpts:
IMPACT: For the purpose of this interview, can you please introduce yourself?
NUT Chairman: I’m Comrade Fakolade Oluwafemi Oluwaseun, Jpil, the chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Ikorodu branch.
IMPACT: It’s almost a year that you were popularly elected by hundreds of teachers in Ikorodu division to steer the ship of union, can you please tell us your experience as someone coming in as Chairman from the Secretary position of the union?
NUT Chairman: We came on board on the 28 of May 2017, to the glory of God and mankind. My election as chairman has been eventful, challenging and as at today, I’m the happiest person in the sense that the experiences in the last 10 months have made us better, stronger and have also repositioned us to serve the teachers better. The teachers are happy with us; happy with the developments and also proud of the Ikorodu branch of the Nigerian Union of Teachers.
IMPACT: Before your election, teachers in Ikorodu division thought they had seen it all and that the Oduguwa led exco, which you were part of, had done it all and there is nothing any cabinet coming after him could do. Let me ask you, in what way has your administration impacted on the teachers in Ikorodu division?
NUT Chairman: To the glory of God, I have been serving the Nigeria Union of Teachers since 2001. I have been an Examiner of Account in Surulere NUT and then I moved to Ikorodu where I was privileged to be elected as the first deputy chairman and later as Secretary under the Oduguwa administration. To everyone, it looked as if we have seen it all, but governance is a continuum. Therefore, for a serious minded administration, there are always new things to be done. When we came in on the 26th of May last year and barely 24 hours of the existence of our administration, I made overtures to the person that contested against me. Through that, we have been able to achieve peace which allowed us to focus on further developments. We extended our hands of fellowship to them and were able to form a common front as one united family. Our first major programme was the 2017 World Teachers’ Day which was unprecedented in the annal of NUT in Ikorodu. Though, we have been having a week-long teachers’ day celebration before but last year’s edition was exceptional. On the first day of the celebration, we embarked on empowerment training for teachers where they were taught how to make shoes, headgears (gele) and how to perform as ‘Alaga Iduro’ (traditional wedding anchorage) among others. Reason for organizing the empowerment programme was to create an alternative means of income for our teachers so as not to basically depend on their salary because there is no amount of money the government can give that can be enough to take care of their needs. On the second day, it was basically for health awareness day and we partnered with Ajayi hospital. We brought experts from the hospital and another health organization that we are still trying to partner further with. Tests were conducted for teachers for high blood pressure, sugar level test and eyes test. Concerning the eyes tests, we were able to conduct tests on glaucoma and catarrh. As fallout of that exercise, we have so far given out over 100 eye glasses to our teachers. Also, we have given out over 300 eyes drops. Some were also provided with drugs to take care of the eyes defects.
After the programme, we have been able to looked after the welfare of our teachers. Around December last year, we purchased bags for our people which was given to them for the festive period and they were asked to pay on instalmental basis. They were extremely happy about this. Their aspiration is that they want a union that they can run to in time of needs. All that we are trying to do is to make sure that the union is brought close to our teachers. We also conducted internal training for our excos, where they were trained in the production of liquid soap.
Since we came in, we have also distributed households items to our teachers like television sets, generators, freezers, fridge, UPS and stabilizers among others on 6 month instalment payment plans.
We have also secured loans for our teachers. As at today, many of them have benefitted from a loan package that was negotiated by the State NUT. They got the best loan package you can think of anywhere. Many of the teachers that have been able to access the loan are very happy and grateful to our union.
We have been able to partnered with an APCON HMO to design an health insurance plan for our teachers at very minimum amount of about N1,840 per month amounting to about N22, 000 a year. What this means is that we have 17 specific hospitals. Our vision is to see that the era when teachers would be sick and would be unable to get money to treat themselves becomes a thing of the past. But it has been put on hold for now because we were notified that the Lagos State Government is trying to do something on health insurance for teachers. We are carefully watching the government in this regard. Our aim is that with little amount, our teachers can attend any of the 17 hospitals in Ikorodu division for treatments. Some of the hospitals are New Gate, Oak Hospital St. Raphel among others.
In January 2018, we achieved a long time dream of the union. Through the feedback from the teachers, we are able to detect that they have been yearning for an establishment of a cooperative society to take care of their interests and needs and as a union which is conscious of this, we set out and we have been able to achieve the establishment of a cooperative society. This feat is also part of our administration’s nine – point agenda. We assured the teachers that we are going to create a virile multi-purpose cooperative society for them. In terms of number, Ikorodu teachers are the second largest in Lagos State after Alimosho and during our findings, we discovered that a high number of our teachers are members of cooperative society outside Ikorodu division in places like Somolu, Lagos Island, Oshodi-Isolo and other places. This is part of this reasons we said that the depletion of our strength must be stopped. Ikorodu must remain in Ikorodu, thereby boosting the economy of the division. To achieve this, we embarked on a mobilization tour to 125 schools in the division to sensitize our teachers on the need for them to join the NUT Ikorodu Cooperative Multi-Purpose Society. We went round in January this year and within a month, we were able to garner over 1000 financial members and between January and March, the membership rose to 1,161, thereby making us the fastest growing cooperative society in Lagos State. We have been able to register the society with the Lagos State Government. I want to sincerely appreciate the officials of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives in the State for ensuring prompt registeration of our cooperatives society. We received our certificate on the March 16, 2018. Other teachers are still coming on daily basis to join.
IMPACT: Is the cooperatives open to members of the public?
NUT Chairman: No, it’s only for the teachers in Ikorodu and other civil servants that are receiving payment from the Lagos State Government with an Oracle number. Because, when we are giving out loans, we are mindful of the recovery to sustain us in the business.
As part of what we have achieved since we came in, we started the construction of the Cooperative building and a gymnastic centre. We discovered that the difference between those in the private sector and we in the public is the access to facilities like this. As part of our promises during the electioneering campaign, it is part of our health programmes for our members. The gym centre would be fully equipped for our teachers to make use of after completion. We are planning to form an aerobic club which would be open to outsiders to join. The aerobic centre would be named after an illustrious son of Ikorodu,late Solaja Alagago,the former principal of Teachers’ College, Ikorodu, a man who has contributed greatly to the educational development and empowerment of the youths while alive. I don’t know him, but I learned that he died in 1985. We are trying to make sure that the name of this great man does not die, this is why we are naming the aerobic centre after him. It’s a two-building in one. All these achievements that I have mentioned can be verified.
IMPACT: Laudable programmes so far in about 10 months of the existence of the NUT exco under your able leadership. Let us look at issue of lack of educational facilities in many newly developing areas in Ikorodu division which is prompting many children to attend schools miles away from their homes. There are also issues of overcrowded classroom, deteriorating state of the existing facilities and many more. What is your administration doing in this regard?
NUT Chairman: That is a basic responsibility of the State Chapter of the NUT. We are a branch, more or less surrogate. It is their responsibility to engage the government on state of our educational facilities and ensure that they are adequate and conducive for learning. I can confidently state that the leadership of State NUT under the able leadership of Comrade Adesegun Raheem has been engaging the government on the need to establish more schools and the recruitment of more teachers because teachers are disengaging the service on a daily basis. I also know that the state government under the able leadership of our amiable governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, is also doing everything possible to make children in rural areas have access to education. One is just been established in Isiu which is a suburb of Ikorodu. But it is always good if such establishment is partnership between the government, community development associations and private bodies. It is also imperative that land owners (Omo-Onile) ensure that lands earmarked for developmental purposes like schools are not tampered with. A nation without education is dead and it is only a matter of time before such nation is wipe out from the surface of the earth. We shall continue to appeal to the government to do something about the poor condition of educational facilities and decongest our schools by building new ones because of population explosion which Ikorodu division is experiencing on daily basis.
IMPACT: What is the NUT doing regarding the presence of market activities from morning till night on Allison Street which houses about 10 schools and two other educational facilities including NUT Secretariat and LGEA?
NUT Chairman: I think the basic work lies with the media and the public to help call the attention of those in authorities to this situation. We all know what an academic environment should look like. The fact is that the environment is not conducive at all and we call on the local government to do the needful by rescuing the situation. Though, the people engaging in market activities are also trying to earn a living, which is the more reason why the government needs to find a way they can engage the leadership of the market to find them an alternative location. Government should be about the people. It is wrong to jeopardize the future of our children in the course of making money and trying to earn a living. The media should continue to help us engage the government by bringing their attention to this situation in order to bring sanity to our academic environment.
IMPACT: What should the thousands of teachers in Ikorodu division and the teeming populace be expecting from you for the celebration of your one year in office?
NUT Chairman: One year in office is all about the people. It’s to celebrate our teachers. It’s not about me being in office because I was voted into office by the teachers and not my family members. So, if there is anybody that deserves accolades and celebration, they are the understanding, cooperating and committed teachers in Ikorodu division. However, we are planning a programme for the widows which are part of our future programmes. We are planning health awareness initiative for them and we intend bringing in psychologist and other experts in crisis and post-trauma management to deal with the effects of losing loved ones. Since our basic objective is to cater for the welfare of the teachers, we are not only concerned avout the physical things that they are going to benefit from but also emotional feelings. We need to show them love and care. We also hope to organize empowerment programme for our new teachers where we shall be teaching them about the production of paints and other things. We are also planning to have a far better celebration this year than the one we had in 2017. On yearly basis, we should be seen to be improving on the celebration and our programmes. Let me quickly add that as at today, the Nigerian Union of Teachers, Ikorodu branch, is adjudged as one of the best performing branch. We cannot say we are the best because we have not been conferred with the honour yet. The State NUT has severally attested to our achievements. We plan to achieve everything listed in our 7 point agenda within two years. We are setting a template for the future.
IMPACT: Thank you sir.
NUT Chairman: Thank you.
