I returned to teaching after retirement because running a new firm was tough – Mataimaki Tom Maiyashi

Why did you take to teaching as a profession?I grew up in an educationally conscious family because my own father, throughout his life, was a career teacher.  My father was a classroom teacher up to the time he discharged. He taught for 40 years. I started teaching from primary to secondary schools before going into […]

Why did you take to teaching as a profession?
I grew up in an educationally conscious family because my own father, throughout his life, was a career teacher.  My father was a classroom teacher up to the time he discharged. He taught for 40 years. I started teaching from primary to secondary schools before going into other fields.

Who were your father’s pupils and students, if you can remember?
My father was Mr Maiyashi. He taught many students when he taught in the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM). Some of his studentswho became famous include Air Vice Marshall Aboyi Ishaya Shekari, Barrister Bitrus Duniya, among many others many others. He was later given the honourary title of the Garuwan Kajuru, which I inherited.

In those days, many people took to teaching profession and the police.  Why did you choose teaching?
To be frank, my aspiration was not to be a teacher. I knew that my father insisted that I should take after him, to be a teacher. I aspired to join the army as an officer corps so that I could become a General of the Nigerian Army.Then, we had the Northern Common EntranceExamination. I indicated that I wanted to join the Nigerian Army. In those days, all that students needed to do was to indicate his priority. The options included Barewa College, Zaria, Government College, Kaduna, Government College, Keffi, or Boys Company (later Nigerian Military School, NMS), Zariaor Craft Schools, Soba and Mashi. These were the most popular institutions from which prospective students had to choose.  Students chosefour institutions from the list. Sokoto Teachers College was my last choice. My first choice was NMS, second choice was GovernmentCollege, Kaduna, and Government Craft School, Soba as my fourth choice.
My headmaster,  who was called Mr Abioye, forced me to change the school of my first choice, and said, as far as he was concerned I was going to be an intellectual and that the army was an institution for those who had no place to go. With tears on my face, I cleaned my first choice with an eraser and put Government College, Kaduna, Nigerian Military School, Zaria and then Sokoto Teachers’ College and Craft School,Soba as my fourth choice. A Briton was the head of the panel. He asked whether I would be happy to  goto Government College, Kaduna.  I told him ‘No.’ He stood up and shouted that I passed the examination, and they needed me. I said ’No’ that what I wanted was to go to NMS, Zaria.  They saw the alteration. I said my headmaster forced me to change it.  When they saw the seriousness on my face,  the panel  sent  my result back to the Ministry of Education. The Ministry told me that if I wanted to change my entry from Government College to the Nigerian Military School, Zaria, it was already late. On that very day when I was having the interview with the Ministry, the NMS, Zaria’s interview was being conducted. So I missed that opportunity. I was told that I would have to go to Sokoto Teachers College, because both NigerianMilitary School and Government College, Kaduna had completed the selection of their prospective students.
Meanwhile, the Principal of STC, Mr. Elliot,a Briton came to Kaduna for the interview. I was the first to be called. He said I was going to be admitted into the college, I would receive a message from him in two weeks. If not, I should forget about the admission. But I already had admission into Niger Baptist College, Minna and the Baptist High School, Jos with scholarship.  We were going to be the first set of students.My father asked me to go to Sokoto Teachers’ College, and that when he would have retired, I would take over from him as a teacher. Though he did not notice it, I was not happy.In two weeks, the Principal of Sokoto Teachers’ College wrote to me that I should report on a particular day, and I reported.
When I was a student, an incident happened between me and the Commissioner for Education in the North Western State, who was later elected as president – Alhaji Shehu Shagari.  He came on  tourto our school and came into my class. But I was overwhelmed with my algebra.He noticed and came and stood between behind me.  My teacher said I was one of the best in Mathematics. Shagari then asked me who I was? What did my father do? Where I came from and what  I wanted to do. I replied that I wanted to join the army to become a General. He replied that I was good in Mathematics and I said I didn’t want the way civilians did their things; that they behaved like women. Shagari turned and said to my Principal that I was an army General in the making.
After my years, when Shagari became President and I was a commissioner, we went to receive him in Kaduna.  Governor Balarabe Musa  introduced me. The then President Shagari said ‘this face looks familiar.’ I said, ‘yes sir, Sokoto Teachers’ College,’ and he said, ‘aha’ the Army General.What is the Army General doing here?’ and I said,‘destiny, sir.’ That was how my life changed.  I have not regret. We are still in contact with the former President Shagari and whenever I am in Sokoto, I still visit him.

Have you ever told your father that he forced you to be a teacher?
Yes. When he saw the result that I had passed the required credits to go to the School of Basic Studies, Zaria, and that I didn’t need to go to the Advanced Teachers’ College, ATC, Kafanchan, before going to the university,  I told him that  I would abandon the teaching field. My father couldn’t resist. He only said, I would not only become a teacher, but I would be a teacher’s teacher (general laughter).

How many were you in the family?
We were six, with three boys and three girls.

How many did your father  persuade to become teachers’?
Four were ‘forced teachers’.

What about your children and the teaching profession?
None of my own three children took to teaching. They did choose their preferred professions for themselves. One is a Petroleum Engineer, the other is an Economist and the lady is a Laboratory Technologist. They see teaching as unattractive.

Did your father tell you that you would be well respected in the society as a teacher?
Yes, even as small as I was, I saw it myself,  as a Grade II  teacher, how teachers were well regarded in the community,though there were Grade III and IV teachers in the field.  Teachers were highly regarded, not as the case is nowadays. The teacher in those days was seen as a model in terms of character, commitment to service and honesty.

What happened as a Christian student in Sokoto, a Muslim dominated society?
We had a religious instructor for Muslim and Christians. We also had prayer meetings and other normal Christian programmes within the school and we also attended church service in the town on Sundays -Catholic, Anglican and Sudan Interior Mission, SIM, which I was a member. If you didn’t attend the church service, it was an issue. That was part of moulding you to be a role model in the society.

What happened in the school when the first coup happened in 1966?
We had the school shop and the shopkeeper was a senior student.  He had a radio on the window of the shop. We were in Form Two then. The newscaster said there was a military coup, and that Sardauna and some persons were killed. We heard many new words, like ‘coup d’etat, closure of borders, suspension of the Constitution, curfew, and military administrators.’ We were like in a new world,  but as time went by the senior students tried to explain them to us. The Sardauna was very popular with students.The people welcomed and waved him by the road side whenever he was on tour of Sokoto.

How did you become Commissioner of Education?
I was appointed commissioner by the Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa administration under the Peoples Redemption Party(PRP) in 1979. I was the Secretary to the Kaduna State Integrated Rural Authority in Zone Four in Samaru Kataf. While there, my name came up to be Commissioner from the Old Kachia Local Government, now comprising of Chikun, Kajuru, Kachia, Zangon Kataf, and Kagarko. Each Local Government was represented in the Executive Council.I was called to see the Secretary to the State Government, a senior colleague, the late Dr Yusuf Bala Usman. I did all the formalities and the Kaduna State House of Assembly cleared us. The executive included the present Emir of Birnin Gwari, Alhaji Zubair Jibril from Birnin Gwari, Mr. Ishaya Dare Akawu, now the Chairman of the State’s Universal Basic Education Board, Sunday Garba of the Local Government Service Board, Alhaji Bawale Bala Kankia, now Chairman of Katsina State Independent Election Commission, Alhaji Bala Kuki, Dr Yunusa, who became Commissioner for Agriculture. I was the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Information and Culture and acted as Commissioner for Ministries for Agriculture, Trade and Industry.

How did you become the commissioner for the second time under the military regime?
It was during the administration of General Sani Abacha. I was a Director at MAMSER. I was called to Kaduna.When I came my wife said some people had come to look for me and that they had dropped some telephone numbers that I should call one of the three numbers. I picked one of the numbers and called it. I announced my name, and the receiver said this is Colonel Lawal Jafar Isa.  I said, ‘Your Excellency.’ He said,‘when are we going to meet, I know you must be tired now, can we meet tomorrow.’ I said,‘yes.’
We sat down and discussed the problems of Kaduna State at that time. The governor sought to know my views and how to tackle them. All this while, I didn’t know what he was upto. When we finished he said ‘can you, please, help me and raise this to a memo.’ And I said,‘I will do that when I get back to Abuja.’ I wrote the memo over the weekend and he went through it.  We discussed again. I said,‘if we go through this, we are likely to address substantially the major challenges facing Kaduna.’  And he said ‘you and I are going to implement what you have in your memo.’
Colonel Jafar Lawal Isa said ‘go to Abuja and disengage. The Presidency and your Director-General have been informed. You are coming on a special posting.’ I said that sounds military and he said ‘yes.’  I said, ‘sir, I am not sure.’ He said,‘this is a military regime I am not asking for your opinion. This is an order for you to accept for the development of the state and country.’I went to my D-G in MAMSER, Professor Amoche Aze. He said, ‘well, I am sure you know we are missing you. When you finish the special posting, come back.’ So I went and worked with the military.

How did you plan for retirement?
I was the Commissioner for Education when one of my directors came and said he was in trouble and that he had lost his balance.’  He said the Civil Service Commission had sent him a letter that he should start preparing for retirement in the next two years. He asked mewhat  he would do on the retirement issue in the next two years. I called the Permanent Secretary and said,‘this is an eye opener for me, too, as I had not taught of retirement too.’I then collected a data on the sample of the junior, middle and senior staff about how they were preparing for retirement. Most of them didn’t have any plan. But the junior officers were better off, as they had been buying and re-modelling mud houses and things like that, ahead of their retirement.While the senior civil servants were in Government Reservation Areas(GRA) houses that everything, even the small chairs in their houses belonged to the government. When they retire they become a pity or better put, they lose their balance.
I then conducted a course directing all employed staff on the first day to start planning for retirement. When I was retiring from the National Orientation Agency(NOA), I was ready for retirement.  When I retired it was not easy starting a new firm. I went back to teaching and was grateful to my ‘forceful dad teacher’ as I have been comfortable as an education consultant who is always busy.I was ready for retirement even before I retired because I was not happy with the same circle of work being done in the civil service where you go to office sit down, treat files, go to seminars, sit and the same routine daily.  I wanted something really challenging.

Are you into other things like farming, apart from Educational consultancy?
I can say, casually, not on full scale basis.
 
What is your advice to those in service now?
They should start preparing for retirement the very first day they receive their appointment letters. It is better. Many people become desperate when they retire because they were engaged with collecting and not preparing and saving for rainy day.

What are your legacies?
I set a promotion exam and asked the staff to write what they had done to the Ministry of Education, and all of them failed. They were obsessed with just coming to office and not doing anything. I motivated them to work by sacrificing for the younger generation, then make teaching a career in Kaduna as a classroom teacher can rise to the rank of Director of Education, while teaching without necessarily being transferred to the office in the Ministry of Education, among others.

Why are you always  in the opposition party?
I have since been in the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) until recently when I joined the APC. I find my ideals to agree with those of the PRP.

You are from Kalla Village in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State, a Kadara by tribe. You come from a place where Muslims and Christians lived together in peace, but the situation has really changed. What is the cause and the solution?
The problem is with the status- quo who wants to be in power at all cost. They are the ones instigating these crisis. And when the hungry and poor realized that they will straighten things up, as the Niger-Deltans used to say: the day monkey goes market, it will not come back.