Farewell to a village and its headmaster

Aliyu Musa
In the early 1980s the Village Headmaster (later renamed the New Village Headmaster) was a TV drama series that I watched with sincere admiration. Its setting, a moderate rural south-west of Nigeria, cleverly conveyed several meanings that many of us strangely missed. Perhaps today with the passing away of many of its casts and some of the warnings coming to past some of us might recall how little we made sense of the didactic lessons in the soap.

Of all the characters I found Cosmos Aderibigbe Ali, the Headmaster, most impressive. Played by Justus Esiri (who took over from Femi Robinson) the Headmaster was a no-nonsense head teacher and disciplinarian both at home and in school. Married to a Hausa woman Fatima, CA (as Fatima fondly called him) was an epitome of trust and inspiration to all. Even colleagues like Mr Garba and Teacher Ogene, who did not quite like him, at least in secrete admired his often-principled deportments.

Mr Ali represented everything one would wish in a teacher or head teacher. When I was growing up, like most young school pupils, teachers were often my role models, probably next to my father. And like most young people I looked up to them and hoped to become like them some day. So, seeing the headmaster act his role so meticulously impacted immensely on me.

Even the ever-verbose Mr Garba once made a statement that would have a lasting effect on me. In one of his usual outburst he frustratingly remarked that gone were the days when schoolteachers were ‘worshipped’ like the lords in courts. That statement sank into me with complete swiftness.

My first frustration with teachers (and sympathy too) was when the then government of Chief Solomon Lar in Plateau state failed to pay teachers’ wages and they went on strike for several months. It affected me significantly because it was my final year in primary school and delayed my graduation. It ended up costing me a whole session. But the real meaning of Teacher Garba’s statement became clearer in later years, as teachers had to endlessly down tools to protest the non-payment of their wages. And leaders were persistently unruffled, making students the actual victims.

A few decades ago our public schools and universities were among the best in the world in terms of curriculum and quality teaching. Over the years politics slipped in and corruption took over. People that benefitted most from the system and who found themselves in positions to improve the system chose to do the direct opposite. New generation private schools and institutions modelled on foreign school systems suddenly began springing up. And privatisation became a language everyone must speak and live with.

Not that I hate privatisation; I, however, totally loath one that would be done at the expense of public institutions and with funds diverted from public coffers. But with former public office holders turning into school proprietors and university founders one can hardly argue with confidence that the funding for those institutions are not tainted. Yet all we do is watch the drift progress pathetically. If Teacher Garba were alive today and had to replay that role and repeat the statement I would wonder how he would put it or what meaning it would make to Nigerians. I would also wonder how CA would play the Headmaster, in the midst of the putrefaction our system has become, if as it was speculated the soap had been revived before his death.

We are no doubt an assembly of talented people. In arts, sciences, sports and all fields we leave imprints on the sands of time. In those years some of our best brains used their natural gifts sufficiently, many through drama and literature to convey meanings of our everyday happenings to us in the languages we easily should have comprehended. But we either misunderstand or ignored the messages.

Perhaps that is why we learn very little from our mistakes and continue to repeat them. Sadly many of those wise voices have gone their ways and the village now affably deserted. Very soon where it once stood would also vanish and we won’t even remember it ever existed.

Postscript:

This piece also appears in the Blueprint newspaper of 22/2/13.