“My Mum sold her belongings to send me to School” – Varsity Vice Chancellor Shares His Story

The newly inaugurated Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University, Professor Odunayo Adebooye has disclosed that his mother’s passion for education inspired him to proceed to secondary and higher institution after his primary school education.

Professor Adebooye while speaking at his robbing and inauguration as the fourth substantive Vice Chancellor of the University, said his mother believed that the prophecy of his being a great person could only be achieved through education.

He added that he was reluctant to attend school despite the free admission form he obtained which was influenced by a catechist of St David’s Anglican Church Akiriboto-Gbongan in 1979.

His words,  “I’m just a product of grace. My father died when I was in Primary 2 in 1974. There was no hope for me again because of financial constraints but I completed Primary VI in June 1978. As soon as I left school, I started subsistence farming and hunting which I did for one year. In June 1979 when a catechist of my church, St David’s Anglican Church, Akiriboto-Gbongan, came to my mother late in the evening, to urge her that is should seek admission into secondary school. The catechist’s reason was based on the possibility of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) winning the Governorship election as they promised that there would be free education.”

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“I got the admission but the financial resources to sponsor me to school were not there because our bread-winner and pillar of our family was no more, my daddy. My mother, 86-years-old, Gladys Adébóóyè, decided that she would sell her belongings to send me to school because a prophet told her that I will become great, she believed that education could make the prophecy come to fulfilment.

“I started attending secondary school reluctantly just to please my mother because I erroneously felt I would soon drop out for a financial reason.”

The new VC vowed that his administration will consolidate on gains and expand the scope to attain sustainability for the institution.

In his remark, the Pro-Chancellor of the institution, Mallam Yusuf-Ali, condemned vote-buying in Nigeria’s democratic system.

“How do you take money from those who you are voting for and expect them to perform? When a man sells two or three houses to contest elections, he will surely recoup his investment. Let us go home and tell our people”, he said.

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CREDIT: ALLSCHOOL, Vanguard