A female UNILAG Lecturer – Prof. Omoegun resigned to create employment space

Professor Mopelola Omoegun, Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Lagos, shares her life experiences in this interview with ADEOLA BALOGUN

As a management officer in the faculty, what were the challenges you faced during the strike?

We faced a lot of challenges. Basically, students were supposed to go on their teaching practice which is 12 weeks, and we had thought that the strike would not be prolonged, hoping that they would have

enough time to face their teaching practice. I had sleepless nights on how to help the students at the same time not breaking the strike. So, I called the students and explained to them and my members of staff to deliberate on how to help out. I know it was wrong, the union said no, lecturers were not supposed to work and if the students failed to go for the teaching practice then, it meant they had to spend extra year. But I was lucky, everybody cooperated with me. With the Head of Departments, we were able to post students to schools and I met them in one of the private schools. That was how we were able to help and thank God we were proactive, nobody envisaged the strike would be prolonged and the students would have battled an extra year. Another challenge was with the sandwich students who were supposed to be working. We had to arrange outside the campus for them to receive their lectures even though lecturers were not supposed to teach. And if we didn’t take them up during their vacation, it would mean they had to wait for another year. But thank God, I had the support of my colleagues and we solved the problem, even though, the union was not comfortable with us. I got in touch with the state government to secure a place outside but near the campus where we were asked to pay.

How has it been managing a big faculty as education?

The faculty is the biggest and I tell people that it is the mother of all faculties. It is God that has been helping out and I tell people that I am what I am because of God. To manage the faculty is demanding but I have been able to cope. Again, I didn’t envisage much problem because I have been in education all my life and this has been my faculty ever since. I am more or less an insider as far as this faculty is concerned. After my Grade Two, this has always been my faculty; I had my NCE here, I had my first degree, the second degree, my doctorate, everything here. So by the time I took over as dean, I had studied what was on ground; where we needed changes and I had a focus that I really wanted progress. And by the grace of God, I think I have made a lot of impact in my one and a half years in office. That is why I totally supported the strike because of the state of facilities in universities. Can you imagine, the facilities I met on ground when I came for NCE in 1971, nothing has changed. The same classrooms we were using then are still being used in 2013. In fact, since 1971, we have not had any additional building in the faculty. I remember in my class then, we were only about 10 or 11, now we have about 200 in that same class. I tell people that I have soft spot for the faculty hall because that is where I had my wedding reception in 1975 and it was still the same when I took over as dean. We thank God, we have been able to renovate and upgrade some of the facilities. Some of our lecturers have been provided with offices and the hall has been renovated, courtesy of a telecommunications company.  With the little we have been able to do, students and lecturers are happy and we thank God for that.

Was it your dream to be a teacher?

That is a very interesting question. As a growing child, initially I was sent to the boarding school but I think whatever I am, God made it. My father was not particularly happy to have girls and the first three children were girls. It was part of the culture then that people were not happy having female children. My mother told me the story that by the time she had me, my father was not happy with her. She said she had already been warned that if she had a third female, that might be the end of the journey for her in the family. She said when I turned out to be a female, she became apprehensive and that is why they gave me that name, Mopelola, meaning the number of female children is complete, no extra one. I always share that testimony with people that God turned my name around and to the glory of God, I am now complete in Him. So because we were girls, the first three, my father being a railway man, decided to send us to boarding school to make the best out of us because he so much believed in education. It cost a lot of money to do that in those days and that caused a lot of problem for him in the extended family. As it was the tradition, he was supposed to train his siblings but he chose to train his female children. His other siblings said he was wasting the money he was supposed to give them to train those who would at the end of the day end up in the kitchen. To them, he was wasting the money; he was close to us and he told us the story. One of them who wanted to travel abroad for further studies quarrel with my dad because he didn’t give him money. My father said he opted to use the money to train his own children, that what he owed them was to train them to school certificate level. My father put us in boarding schools for primary, modern and teacher training education because he believed girls must be teachers. As he told me then, you were either a teacher or a nurse. It was my father who actually prayed that his girls would be teachers. A white teacher in my primary school discovered very early that I would be a great Councillor, but my father said he was not aware of such. My father got me a form for NCE in the University of Lagos and said if I passed, I was going to be a teacher. I went for the exam and out of all of us from Abeokuta, I was one of just three or so that passed and were taken. It was a big ceremony in our church. My father was very excited and that was how I came in for my NCE. I met one of my lecturers who was a Councillor and because of my performance, he said I should come back for my degree in counsel-ling. I came back for the degree and went back to teaching and that was the time of (Lateef) Jakande when school was in shifts in Lagos. I used the opportunity to do my Master’s because I was closing by 11am for the morning shift. I did my Master’s and worked for a private school, Lagos Tutorial College as counsellor and registrar. When I got there, the students population increased so greatly and the school was transformed. I have always been a teacher but my strength is counselling.