Quality education for young population is vital to drive development – Adeyeye

The Proprietor of Crown Heights College, Ibadan, Oyo State, Prince Gbadebo Adeyeye, said the provision of quality education for the young population is more important to the country in a time like this in the country.

The Proprietor, who said this in his welcome address during the 2024 Valedictory Service of the school and dedication of Oba David Opeyemi Adeyeye Hall, said there is no better moment than this to remind Nigerians that no matter what Nigeria’s situation is today, the future of our society is still bright.

The event started off with the commissioning of the new Hall, which he said was still a peanut in appreciating his late king-father, His Royal Majesty Oba David Opeyemi Adeyeye, Agunsoye II, the Arinjale of Ise-Ekiti, who reigned for 32 years between 1932-1976.

He said: “According to the United States-based educationist, James Madison, he said many years ago that, a popular government without popular information or a means of achieving it is a tragedy.

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance and people who want to be their own governors must arm themselves with power that knowledge is. This is the reason while Crown Heights College remains committed to its founding mission since 1997 to provide our young men and women in the society a conducive environment where they can be well educated without any compromise and without fabrication.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as we gathered here this afternoon to celebrate our Class of 2024, to rejoice with their parents and their guardians, there is no better moment than this to remind them that no matter what Nigeria’s situation is today, the future of our society is still bright. Don’t lose hope. And that bright future does not belong to the Yahoo leaders; the bright future belongs to you.”

Speaking earlier, during an interaction with journalists, the Proprietor, who disclosed why he swapped profession from marketing and advertising to become an educationist, said: “In our modern days, that is not really strange as it has been done many times,” and he listed names of great people in the world who were not educationists but became partakers in the sector. Adding that, “All we care about is to contribute to the future of the younger population of our society, which is very important and nothing is more important than that.

“On his achievement since he started Crown Heights College, Ibadan 27 years ago, Adeyeye said, “Money is not the only achievement that we are expecting, personally, that is not the motivation. The motivation for me is to see the students growing well, doing well in all areas. So, the major achievement so far is in the products that we have already released to the society; many of them are doctors, engineers and each time I see them, I feel much, much better than millions of naira in my bank.”

On the state of education in Nigeria, he said, “Everybody is worried, at least anybody that has good education, any progressive mind should be worried now because we are not in the right place. The country is not where we are supposed to be, not only in education, in all areas but we are talking of education here and I think we need to wake up and do what is right for our people and our great country.”

The guest speaker and former Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, appreciated his invitation to address the valedictorian, saying, “it is better to engage the future than to be invited to address political rallies. This is engaging the future of Yoruba Land, the future of Nigeria and the future of Africa. Let me associate myself with every word by the pastor because he simplified my job. He made prophetic statements concerning these young children of ours. The title of my speech is ‘The future is great, do not be afraid, only believe.”

He continued, “I have been in journalism, I have been in governance and I have the privilege of travelling round the nooks and crannies of this nation interviewing great people and leaders and also had a privilege, rare privilege, to be part of government as a spokesperson of my state and spokesperson of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So I want to speak to the point of view of knowledge and experience.

“Young men and women, let me assure you, no matter what you read about Nigeria and hear about Nigeria and most of the time, especially now when what you read is negative, 90 per cent of what you read about the country is negative, and I am worried for children that are growing up like you, when you read newspapers and see what is going on in our media concerning our country, even adults, parents are despairing about the future of our country. Every day you hear one negative story and other.

“And so, when you are preparing to leave school in this kind of atmosphere, where there is this seeming clout of dishonesty, you ask yourselves, ‘my other siblings are still at home, they have finished from university, there is no job’ and, of course, you cannot move forward. There is a sense, some kind of feeling or discouragement that young people feel about this country.

“We also see on social media young Africans trying to cross the sea to Europe, sometimes a thousand of them have died, human trafficking still going out, only a few months ago, the British Parliament under their own government did a law that they would transfer those Africans to Rwanda, young Africans despairing to go to Europe because of the situation in our content. When I read those things, inside me, I feel bad,” he said, adding that the kind of place Africans are in the world today should worry everybody in the worship places, academics, farms, markets, villages and other places “because this is not the place we are supposed to be. We are not destined to be here.”

Facing the graduands, Labaran Maku said, “You belong to great country. I called Nigeria great not because of what it is now but because of what I see it becoming and because of my memory of history. When you see some people they say ‘Nigeria is too big, may be if we tear it into pieces it will be a better country.’ Hahaha! How can Nigeria be too big, 200 million people too big to belong to one another? They say, ‘We are too many, we are different ethnic groups, this country will not work.’ Please let me tell you all these children, even now as we travelled to enter Ibadan we see a human energy like you see on the streets of Nigeria, you would know that there is something here that you cannot find in the whole of the world.”
 
He said Nigerians should stop concentrating on the negative things about their country and think about the positive, adding that the challenges of today are opportunities for better things to happen in the future.  “If you think about having no light, you should also go and know that as you think of having no light, heroes think of how to fix the problem. I worry when I see that Nigerian youth run abroad and Chinese run into Nigeria. And when you ask the Chinese, they say Nigeria is the easiest place to generate wealth.”

Maku faulted the misconception that people go to school to train to work in government offices. He said it is a mentality that must change because, according to the former Minister, the best place for job creation is the private sector and then urged the graduands to start thinking of making productive contribution to make Nigeria truly great.

In his address as the Special Guest of Honour, former Minister of State for Works, Senator Adedayo Adeyeye, thanked his brother, Prince Adeyeye, for naming a hall in the name of “our late father”.

Talking to his brother, he said, “I am sure of so many people who have graduated from this school, who are in various professions. That is the beauty of education. I congratulate you for this milestone. And I want to thank you specially for naming this building after our late father, the late Oba David Opeyemi Adeyeye, Agunsoye II, Arinjale of Ise-Ekiti (1932-1976), a great Oba indeed, one of the greatest monarchs that has ever been produced in the history of Ekiti State. In the history of Ekiti, he had the privilege of being the Chairman of Pelupelu, which is the highest level of traditional rulers, in 1942. He was revered and he was great.

“Again, I am going to thank my great friend and brother, Hon. Labaran Maku, former Minister of Information. As you can see, he is a great orator, a very educated man. He has given countless lectures to universities home and abroad. I remember he was in Federal Executive as Minister before me and I remember when I joined him as Minister, one day he said, “From Okota to FEC, Federal Executive Council”, narrating how they both started together in Okota, Lagos as young journalists and then thanked him for agreeing to accept the invitation to deliver the valedictory lecture of Crown Heights College in Ibadan.

Thereafter, the Chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) counseled the graduands: “Now my attention should be turned to you, children. Today is an historic day in your life, you are passing out of secondary school, that is an event that occurred in my own life some 51 years ago, 1973 precisely when I was 16 years old. At that event like this, people came to speak to us and those words remain with me till today. It was catholic school and our father, one of the school’s fathers, although government had taken over the school, said to me, ‘Make Christ your foundation’.”
 
Applying that to the Crown Heights College’s fresh graduands he said, “Make Christ your foundation and be focused in life. It is not the number of degrees that you have that matters. Of course, you can have PhDs and become professors, you can be anything, but be focused.”

Senator Adeyeye, who is currently the Chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) said, Among other dignitaries at the event were Secretary General of South West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA) and former Member House of Representatives representing Irepo/Orelope/Olorunsogo Federal Constituency, Oyo State, Barrister Bosun Oladele and author of famous Economics and Government textbooks, Dr. Olayiwola A. Lawal among others