Learn to do things right, money will meet you where you are - Prof S.A Oluwayomi Oladunjoye

The home boy, Prof S.A Oluwayomi Oladunjoye, the Professor of Language Education at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, will be delivering the 107th inaugural lecture of the university in the town. 

"It will be a special moment for me," says Oladunjoye, " because an inaugural lecture is what one has always been preparing for because, it is the peak of academia. It is a time to profess what you have done with your career life."

And he has had quite an interesting sojourn in the academic world, within and outside the country.

In this interview with Paul Ukpabio, the educationist, teacher of teachers and trainer of trainers, gives us an insight into what it takes to be a Professor.

In what ways will you say that your early beginning influenced the person you are today?

Not so much, not so bad. I grew up in a polygamous setting, it wasn't really a rosy beginning but the desire to be great has always been there, but the wherewithal was unknown anyway.

I didn't have too many counsellors when I was growing up, I had my immediate elder brother. My mother was an illiterate woman. I didn't even know my father in the first 16 years of my life. So my background was somehow! I had the desire that I must make it and I was busy reading, my immediate brother was holding evening classes, we were both young, and it prompted me to love to teach and read. By and by I found myself while being an undergraduate at the university, teaching students while schooling. It was quite exciting, an amazing beginning. In a way, from the outset, I knew I was going to be a teacher perhaps and I was going to study. I was interested in education and indeed that background had a strong influence on my desire for study and reading.

Who inspired you into the pursuit of education? And how easy was it to source funds for your early education?

I was inspired by my elder brother. He is the number one in the family while I am number 5. Inspired by the desire to see all of us grow up and be great, he knew our parents were not educated, he did not earn much, but he was determined to sponsor all of us. And he actually did. So my first mentor is my elder brother. He was my motivator back then and with his meagre income, he was still able to focus us, coordinate our activities and paid our school fees, the little that were paid in those days.  But then, it was big money then. The pursuit of education for me was early in life. You know when money is settled, it is easy for you to go to school, you will not be afraid of being thrown back home or told to go and search for school fees. Well, it wasn't easy in those days, honestly. to be frank with you, it wasn't easy to generate funds. I knew some of our classmates who were not regular at class because they could not afford the little fees that we we paying at school. I was not from a rich family,  but I seemed to have been better than some of them. Funds were scarce. And some had to go and do some petty jobs to be able to fund themselves.  But then the quality of education was very high which motivated many to go in search of the money, in order to fit into the process of education, of course, when free education came the story changed for many.

Where did you spend your early years, what was life like then, what memories of those years do you have and still cherish?

I grew up in this university town, but in my younger days, there was no university here (laughs). My early years were spent here in Ago-Iwoye, in Ijebu, I had my primary school at St. Michael Catholic Primary School at Okeodo, off Onabamiro street. Onabamiro was the first professor in the town. I attended a secondary modern school it was secondary methodist modern commercial school, 3 years to have what could be compared to the junior secondary school certificate of today. But it wasn't really junior in terms of quality and quantity of what we did, it was far better than what is obtainable today. After that, I was still at Ijebu where I attended the teacher training college at Sagamu, then the NCE studies at Ijebu Ode  before proceeding to university, at Ago-iwoye here. I think what took me eventually out of this place to Ibadan, was my Masters and PhD. And also when I travelled outside the country. I have always been around here. My first and second appointments were also in Ijebu where I taught in secondary schools for 5 years, and at the College of Education, I taught there for another 5 years, eventually I had my first degree here too.

My childhood memory includes being well taught, we had fantastic teachers, then, there was stiff competition, reading literature books, we were reading as if for Cambridge examinations. Literature books were in abundance, we read a lot of series, Macmillan pacesetter, Longman Drumbeat, Heineman, African Writers series and others. We were not too much polluted. We had  healthy relationships with one another. All our competitions were around studies, literacy, education, even when we went to parties or social gatherings, we went with the desire to go and show off our speaking skills. Our riddles and jokes were woven around our learning and studies. So it was all academics. If it were possible to be young again, I would want to be with my colleagues then, showing off our speaking skills. I also remember interacting with my brother, he is a disciplinarian, he is still alive. During our meal time, he used to give me the best of ethical training. Those were funny, wonderful times.

You decided early in life to be a teacher at a time when young people  I guess, were thinking of becoming accountants or bankers or lawyers to make money, what prompted you to hold on to education as a career?

There was no time I ever felt inferior being a teacher. There have never been any reason for me to regret being a teacher. Of course a few of our colleagues went other ways but for me, from the beginning, the traits were there. My brother was holding a lesson at a point. What is now called evening classes.  I did too. I admired teachers, they were usually well dressed, and teachers were highly respected. There was no need for me to envy anybody. I have always felt that I am different. Or that I can be different. So I didn't care if somebody else was doing law, medicine or accountancy. If you were to see our teachers in those days, you would want to be like them, they were exemplary in their appearance, pedagogy and in ditching out content, so you would have wanted to be like them. So they constituted a great motivation. In those days too, emphasis was not on money, it was on patriotism, representing your family well, the emphasis was on ethical standards, doing what is right. The principles then was that when you do things right, money will naturally come. And that principle has not changed with time. This is what I also tell my students at all levels. Learn to do things right, money will meet you where you are. Now I'm a writer. Some of my novels are being used in schools. I identify talents and mentor them. I show them how to detect entrepreneurial possibilities in their different fields and profit therein. When that is focused, money will come. You may not be a millionaire but you will be comfortable. Very comfortable. God rewards diligence. 

When eventually you rose up the ladder and joined the management team in many institutions and bodies, did you start feeling fulfilled that you chose education as a career?

Yes I have occupied some management positions and other positions of authority in the university and that gives me some joy, it brought me practical "on the job" experience.  I'm not a position seeker but when it comes, I always want to do my best within the possibility of my capacity. Naturally one feels fulfilled when contributing to human capacity. When you are investing in men, you are building the nation. And you are actually investing in the tomorrow of the next generation.

You travelled abroad after winning a rare scholarship, tell us about that and what was your experience abroad?

The comparison is like between sleep and death or like walking from Ijebu Ode to Kano. If you have travelled overseas before, you will know that nothing is working here while everything is working there. The developed world builds their education system around necessity. Yes, people say necessity is the mother of invention. They develop their young ones around patriotism, you are trained on what you will utilise when you get out of the school. Even while in school, there are lots of internship programmes. We are talking of a place where when you want a train, you get it at the exact time; in fact if you are late you will miss your train. As for food, they have taken care of it. There is racism in some quarters, but it can be maned by smart guys. Of course, it's not good to study abroad as a youth without knowing God. I won't say more than that for now.  If you are versatile in your field, they are even more careful because the market is wide. We are talking about where you can conveniently hold on to 2 or 3 jobs at a given time. There are more opportunities there and they won't owe you money.

Everything works there. The first time I travelled in 2007, I came back, and told my family that only heaven is better than that place. The roads are good, when you have a lecture, everything you need are all around you. My experience there was exciting and amazing, and I had had reasons to travel again and again after that, I was still in the UK in November and December 2022. The system is fine, transportation effective, among other things. Yes, the weather may not be so good, there's security to a great extent. Europe and the West is a  land of opportunities, but you must be good to fit into that system.

At what point did marriage set in? Most lecturers marry their colleagues, is yours a similar situation?

I didn't marry my colleague (laughs). I became a Christian in 1986, joined a living church in 1987 and that is where I met my wife. We didn't know each other while in school, we met in the church. And I'm about 2 years older than her. God led us to each other (laughs) and that on its own, is a long story. And only those in a living church can fully understand what I mean by God led us to each other. I got married two years after graduation from the university. So my marriage is 32 years plus. 

Tomorrow will be a epoch making day, very historic as you present the inaugural lecture, how do you feel, what does this mean to you?

Oh that will be tomorrow Tuesday at 2pm. Everyone has to be seated at 1:30pm, because late comers may not have a place to sit. As for being an epoch making day, yes it is, a period that every professor looks forward to, a period you prepare for, because it is the peak of academia. It is a time to profess what you have done with your career life. All the work you have done, because rising to the position of a professor is not an easy thing. You have read, written papers, gone on international conferences, you have done community work, it is time to come and give the stewardship of your service, to the entire community even beyond the nation. The way it is now as the lecture is going on, colleagues and family around the world will be watching it simultaneously. A very beautiful thing. The motivation of an inaugural professor is possibly being known beyond this environment, its like being in the open market because somebody could find what you are doing to be fantastic and wants to engage you as a consultant. As university lecturers, we teach, we do research and do community service. Inaugural lecture therefore means a lot to us, and to me, it is a great fulfilment because I never thought I would be a professor but here I am a  teacher and a  trainer! Our joy should be in being a professor! So it is quite fulfilling. It is like a dream come through.

Your advice to teachers  generally, especially those working in Nigeria

My advice to teachers is that, they should look beyond today. We ere trained by teachers who were not expecting anything in return.  We are their proud products. I have also learned to invest in people. Teachers are not well remunerated in this country; they are cheated by the government which is not the best for any government that wants progress. In developed countries, teachers earn more than in Africa. 

Teachers should face their work, remain in the profession and invest in young people and leave the rest for the future. I was told that the students I taught 30 years ago, were on the social media and were discussing me, while I was not even in that particular platform. They remembered how they were taught English language then and now they are all well placed in the society and they want to pay back by leaving great comments about their teachers. So teachers should develop young people in the most suitable way they can, and they should also develop themselves and master their fields. There are two things in teaching, that is, the content and the pedagogy. If you have the content but you don't have the methodology, you may not be able to go far. That's why in training people to teach, we leverage on both sides of the fence that is, the content and the pedagogy. So I will advice the teachers to improve themselves and look beyond the gains of today.