Mrs. Obiageli Mazi
Life and its vicissitudes. Like it says in the song, ‘go to bed on top of the world, and wake up the world on top of you,. It however makes sweet commentary when you go to bed, world on top of you, and wake up on top of the world. Until that cold morning, the […]
Life and its vicissitudes. Like it says in the song, ‘go to bed on top of the world, and wake up the world on top of you,. It however makes sweet commentary when you go to bed, world on top of you, and wake up on top of the world.
Until that cold morning, the world had been on top of her as she eked out a living as a primary school teacher in a place so hostile that it is a marvel that she is found there at all. She has been there for 31 years, may be even more for I perceive that she has lived there longer than she has worked in her chosen career. The lady is simple married teacher, Mrs. Obiageli Mazi, found on duty at her work place as early as 6:30 am, when Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum visited one of the schools in the Maiduguri metropolis. He had decided to pay a surprise visit and as expected, caught all the school officials absent except Obiageli, a mother, and a teacher of the pupils for 31 years.
Did she have an inkling Zulum was coming? No! Conversely would she not have expected that she could encounter the terrorists on her way to the school where she worked? Yes. Could she not have feared that the terrorists might attack the school on this day? Yes. These are common vicissitudes in Borno, which she must have considered. It is the new norm that most people not only in Borno, but in all of Nigeria today, go about with these fears. But as it is, providence had smiled on her, on this fateful day.
When Zulum met Obiageli at Sanda Kyarimi primary school at 6:30 in the morning and the report went out, the nation’s conscience was stirred. The dedicated teacher was not Muslim Kanuri, but Christian Igbo, and this was not her State Abia, but Borno State, the greater majority of the pupils indigenous to the state. It is disheartening to note the primordial issues that divide us in the country, and instead, not the ties that should bind us – our selflessness, dedication, and patriotism as displayed by Obiageli.
Obiageli told Zulum that she had been a teacher for 31 years, and was on Grade Level 12. He there and then gave her a personal gift of N100,000. He was to later pronounce her promotion to the rank of Assistant Headmistress.
In the parable of the 10 virgins that Jesus gave in scripture, Obiageli was one of the 5 wise ones. Her lamp was burning bright with enough oil to last 31 years and more, not for just one night, and as well burning bright, up to the unholy hour, when the groom, Zulum showed up. It was a compelling development, and an old scriptural lesson captured and told in the modern idiom. Obiageli was triumphant against all odds imaginable, she was found with her lamp burning bright. Her dedication was not to go down in vain as does the labour of many of our heroes past. She was a teacher whose reward was not to be in heaven as the polluted maxim goes. She got hers right here on earth, not only from the Governor but as well from sympathetic public spirited individuals. Overnight, her misery has turned to the joy of affluence. It shows clearly that when we remain dedicated to a cause or a calling, and even if it seems we are not being noticed and appreciated, a day comes, when the unexpected happens as did for this exemplary school teacher.
Obiageli is my topic today because she announced recently that in spite of the gifts, the promotion and the fame, she will not abandon her pupils because she loves each and everyone of them, and teaches them with dedication out of this love. She is a passionate consummate teacher, drawing pleasure and satisfaction from the fact that daily, before her very eyes, she is watching her pupils transform into knowledgeable individuals whose characters were continuously developing. In 31 years, she must have a horde of well accomplished citizens by now. They must be happy wherever they may be. It is a fulfillment to tell of. “Let the things you love be the work you do, and you will never need a job in your whole life.” The original thought of this quote is not mine, but my children are familiar with this coinage that I live by and commend to them. Obiageli’s love and passion has brought her reward and fame.
Yet as we celebrate Obiageli, we must bemoan the lot of our teachers today, among them, several Obiagelis. Vagaries have caused teachers to lose all the commitment that teachers were once known with. The profession lost its respect because the constitution confined primary education to local governments, yet allowed control of local government revenues to the mismanagement of State Governments, to the extent that the teacher’s salary is the last consideration. Himself and his pupils are the wretched lot, committed as if guilty of any felony to a life of time spent in dilapidated structures for classroom and office, making the job uninteresting. They have lost all prestige and pride, yet are keeping at the job, not in expectation of a Zulum visit, but for the joy and satisfaction of fulfilled passions. As if we were not done with the lower rungs in education, we have allowed the rot to be all encompassing, to include secondary and tertiary institutions. The collapse of education particularly in Northern Nigeria can not be defined as a crisis, but as something worse and needing the declaration of emergency. As we celebrate Obiageli, let us give a thought to hundreds of thousands like her, giving their all to lofty public pursuits nationwide, and unnoticed. A teacher, a soldier, a nurse, a midwife, a school cook, a tailor, a traffic warden – they abound. For Obiageli, we must give a thought to our oneness as a people and the fact that our ordinary citizens love and believe in being at home anywhere in Nigeria. It is our leaders that create the difference, dividing the common folk, to rule over them in perpetuity.