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A Teacher, Her Girls And A Lifetime Of Excellence

Gbemi Olujobi

Iphigenia Efunjoke Coker, first Nigerian principal of Queen's College, Lagos, first Nigerian principal of any Federal government institution, and renowned teacher and trainer of girls turns 80. She shares the story of her glorious life and times as well as her many recipes for succeeding as a teacher

Never has altruism been so richly rewarded as in the case of Iphigenia Efunjoke Coker first Nigerian Principal of Queen's College, Lagos. So many years after retirement from active practice of the profession after her heart, her former pupils continue to be an important part of her life. Sample: She is to report at Queens College on October 1st, 2004 at 12 noon for the celebration of her 80th birthday, with no contribution from her or from her biological family. "I have been told that I have nothing to do with the celebration except to be present. My girls have taken me over," she concludes with a proud smile.

"My girls" include four female judges, first female head of NICON Insurance, first female secretary of ECOWAS, doctors, lawyers, bankers, professors, high-flying business women, top civil servants, captains of industry and many earth-shaking names on the Nigerian socio-political terrain. Beyond the confines of femininity, her former pupils also include respected technocrat and Presidential Aspirant, Olu Falae, Pastor Professor, Moyibi Amoda, retired colonel and dental surgeon, Jimi Oshisanya, retired Air Vice Marshal, Bayo Lawal, retired Air Commodore, Kola Falope, former Managing Director of National Bank, Odunayo Olagundoye, Deputy Director, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, Tunde Ayegbusi, among many others.

How did Coker make her way into such resounding glory? She says; "I have always wanted to be a teacher. I was not interested in money or cars. I was only interested in teaching and training the young ones. When I was asked as a child what title I would like after my name, whether B.Sc. or B.A., I always said what I wanted was just 'teacher', my name, and teacher after it as title. That was all I ever wanted to be. "I was not interested in going to secondary school or doing school certificate. All i wanted was to go to teacher training college where I thought I would learn Principles of education, methods of teaching, child psychology and all the other things which could make me a good teacher. My first day as a teacher remains one of my happiest days on earth".

Ask Coker what the best profession on earth is and you will get a very predictable answer. Her mother had told her, so many years ago that "teaching is the best job on earth. It carries God's blessings." The daughter now says, " I am sorry for those who take up teaching as a stopgap. Whoever wants to be a teacher must be ready to put everything into it. And the rewards are plentiful, in heaven and also here on earth.

One is what I am getting now. The girls are getting ready to have my 80th birthday celebrations. They look after me, because I looked after them when they were young. As a teacher, I worked tirelessly, ready, besides my normal class, to give extra lessons, help small groups and even individuals. I loved teaching so much I wished I didn't have to be paid for it. It was a living as well as a love.

"Your pupils appreciate you, not when you are training and correcting them, but when they are older and understand better. They will then know that you were acting in their best interest. That is when they will love and appreciate you. But if you are a part-time teacher, and you think the children don't understand what they are doing to them now, trading and wasting their time, when they are older, they will understand it, and resent you for it."

One of Coker's recipes for success as a teacher is in the form of a quote, which she often shares with teachers and aspiring teachers. It says:

'Desirest thou the teacher's work? Ask wisdom from above
It is a work of toil and care Of patience and of love.'

"You cannot teach without having these qualities", she concludes emphatically.

Recognition of her efforts has also been one of the rewards of her labour of love. In February 1979, she was conferred with a national award: Member of the Order of the Federal Republic, MFR, by the then Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo, in appreciation of her immense contribution in the field of education. The award citation described her as "a dedicated teacher, moral tutor and respected educationist, and a pace setter in emancipation of Nigerian womanhood, a woman of unusual talent, who dedicated her career to the service of her nation in the supervision and training of young ones"

Apart from their love and care, many mementoes of gratitude from her pupils still warm her days "To this day, I still have the plaque my girls presented to me when I was leaving Queen's College. It says, 'To us you have been for 14 yrs, mother, teacher, staunch defender. Words too insufficient to express our appreciation.....As you make your graceful exit, here with us you leave behind, memories of all your efforts, indelible footprints on the sands of time' I still have that plaque. It is an important treasure."

Cokie, as she was nicknamed by Queen's College girls in her days as PQC, remains a staunch defender of youths, both male and female. On the general charge of delinquency made against them, she rises up in their defense. "I condemn society's charge of delinquency against them as gross injustice. Nigerian youths are what adults have made them.

"Into what society were these children born?" she asks. "Into a society lacking in discipline, where money, however ill-gotten, is the only essential, all moneyed people sedulously courted: into a society abounding in dishonesty of every kind, lacking in integrity, abounding in robbery, drug-taking, cultism"

Cokie draws on long years of experience as a trainer of youths to declare parental neglect responsible for many of the ills found among Nigerian youths. She says, "Most reprehensible is parental neglect, self-centered parents being interested only in freedom to enjoy themselves. Children are no longer provided with homes, only residences, and as parents are not around to train them, the children bring themselves up as best as they can, with disastrous results. Parents give no rules, and where or when they do, these rules are nullified by lack of enforcement.

"Compounding their crime of abdication of duty, parents overwhelm their children with money, to buy their love, and worse still, plead for a sparing of young wrong-doers, 'temper justice with mercy', they say. Are they aware that this attitude means aiding and abetting or championing criminal tendencies in the future leadership of Nigeria?"

Of the much touted decline in education standards, she says, "I am not really sure about the word decline, because there are areas in which education has improved. Many more subjects are taught now, so there is a wider spread of knowledge. The only problem is that schools don't operate as they should. Many teachers are Naira and Kobo teachers who don't care much about the subjects they teach. They let the children do what they like with little supervision. There is little interest in bringing up children in proper ways. The subjects are many, but not well taught. Teaching has become a part time profession. There are no full time teachers anymore. Teachers are now part-traders, part-teachers. There is no such thing as dedication as we had from our teachers when I was a student, and which we gave our students when I was a teacher. Everything now revolves around money.

" I think it is the general trend. People are more interested in material things. The richer you are the better you are to people. My goal, in my time, was to teach and train. The idea of wealth never entered my head. I focused on teaching and training my pupils. These days, emphasis is now on how wealthy people are. Children also get this from their parents. Parents no longer have time for their children. Children are not looked after at home by parents, or in school by teachers."

Teachers of today certainly have more than a few lessons to learn from Efunjoke Coker. Far from being a lowly, lack-luster profession, teaching has always given class and panache to Coker. In December 1975, she was one of the thirty leading women in Lagos who hosted Coretta Scot King, wife of American hero, Martin Luther King Jnr. The first Nigerian principal of Queens College, and indeed of any federal government institution in Nigeria says, "PQC was a very important assignment, and I remain very thankful about it. I thought it was a huge responsibility and I showed God gratitude by spending all my time teaching and training the girls. That was all I did. I had little time outside Queen's College."

How was this devotion and dedication to duty married with being a wife and mother? Coker says, "It was very difficult. I was on duty 24 hours. I lost my first son and lost another baby after. I only had Remi for whom I didn't also have much time."

"Apart from her pet subject: education, another sure way of getting Efunjoke Coker's attention is by talking about the city called Lagos. Though of Egba stock, Coker is an 'expatriate Egba', haven been born in Lagos, on Monday, September 29, 1924, at 118, Bamgbose Street. Her father, Bankole Soluade, was one of the sons of Kusimo Soluade, an early teacher of renown, who was baptized Laurenco Rufino. He worked at the Treasury Department of the Secretariat for many years before he resigned to set himself up as an Auctioneer. Her mother, Aina Soluade, a teacher, was the daughter of Senhor Izidro de Souza, a merchant and highly regarded pharmacist. Kunle Akinsemoyin's book, "Who are Lagosians?" quotes Senhor Izidro de Souza's house, 12, Taiwo Street, as where Lagos Catholics used to gather for prayers on Sundays, before the priests came.

The then Efunjoke Soluade, thoroughly bred in Lagos, was a real Lagos girl. She says of Lagos boys and girls of her time, "We were smug. Why not? Lagos and only Lagos was Colony, while the rest of the country was Protectorate. Lagos was the home of the Firsts and Bests in Nigeria: First Secondary Boy's and Girl's schools: CMS Grammar School, 1859 and CMS Girl's School, 1860, first Federal Government Secondary Schools: King's College 1909, Queen's College, 1927.

People residing outside Lagos Island, belonging as they did to the Colony, were nevertheless cheekily tagged "ara isoda", meaning "people from across": and boys,- more so than girls,- priding themselves on being better dressed, were ready to poke fun at the less-well-turned-out from outside Lagos. Girls, more modest, silently rejoiced in the sophisticated wardrobe needs supplied by Au Bon Marche and mail orders from England. Lagos provided every known need. Who, then, would not be happy and contented in a setting which boasted the availability of every comfort, every amenity? Lagos, to us, was a paradise, and our pride in her found expression in the song: "Ko ma s'ilu ti a o f' Eko we", Meaning "there is no just land to compare with Lagos"

"Lagos was clean and beautiful. The gutters were clean. Street cleaners swept the streets and scrubbed the gutters so clean one could see right to the bottom. There were waste disposal sheds located at convenient distances from houses. There were incinerators, public toilets and water pumps. Health and sanitation received proper attention. There were sanitary inspectors called wole-wole for individual house inspection, bupa-bupa or health officers who gave mass inoculation or vaccination, maja-maja or dog catchers who rid the streets of stray or unlicensed dogs. Illumination, which was provided by streetlights at night, gave beauty to the Island, in particular to the Marina, while the moonlight gave the Victoria Beach a touch of the unreal, a fantasyland.

"The population was nothing near what we have now. We knew every other person, knew their families and agboles. We were satisfied and contented. Affluence meant little. There were two big families: Darocha and Doherty, and we used to play games wondering which was more wealthy. People were honest as well as industrious. Houses were left unlocked, without undue anxiety. People could walk about at any time of the day or night without molestation. Messengers of banks and commercial houses could be seen carrying money trays with piles of coins arranged in different denominations along Broad Street or Tinubu area without any fear whatsoever."

Despite the glamour and comfort of Lagos, many-a solid character was formed within its gates. Discipline was the watch-word, says Coker

"In Lagos, young girls were not allowed to go out at night after 7 pm. when street lights automatically came on. So wherever we went, we always struggled to be home before the lights went on. When we were older from 16, 18 or 19, we went to parties but had to get back by 9pm. Boys and girls were not allowed to mix. We met at parties and dispersed thereafter. Boyfriends could not visit girls at home. Young boys wrote love letters, which were always written "in the garden of love" and addressed to "the golden key of my heart". They contained a list of the young lady's attributes. I received one, which celebrated my marvelous steppings, elegant clothes and smooth face.

"Our parents placed a lot of emphasis on discipline. Everyone was conscious that good behaviour was expected at all times. Rules were numberless: don't make noise, don't borrow, don't waste, don't lie, don't bring other people's things into the house etc. If you were caught by a family friend or a relative in a misdemeanour in the street, the person had the right to reprove or even to punish you

"We were happy as children. Something was always being celebrated. We had weddings and birthdays. We also used to have wake- keeping when old people died, singing songs which we all knew. These songs were introduced by the saros, as Sierra Leoneans and Gambians were known. The saros were disciplined people. People used to be afraid to live with them. They were a no nonsense people and we respected them. Parents sometimes threatened their children with sending them to live with saros because they were considered firm in discipline."

How was Efunjoke Coker's character moulded? Which individuals contributed to make the fine young lady the woman of character she was to become?

She says, "My mother who had been a teacher, and who, along with my paternal grandfather, who was also a teacher, must have influenced my choice of teaching as a career. Top of mother's precepts were comportment and propriety: sit straight, knees together or cross your legs, walk straight, don't slouch or you will develop a hump, dirty nails and peeping bra or shimi proclaim you slovenly. Her other often repeated admonition was 'Count your Blessings.' Don't consider those who you think are better than you, but those who, you know, are worse off, and you will be happy and thankful to God"

"Another great influence was my immediate brother, Jola, who seemed so superior, knowledgeable and wise. I think he hated the sight of me when I was little, until I was 13, when he changed and started taking care of me. Before then, any attempts at getting close to Jola were not only rebuffed, but discouraged by taunts and derision. He made fun of me because I could not speak English at the time and also because I had pock marks on my face from smallpox.

" Growing up days brought no respite from Jola. To him, I had become "long shanks", all arms and legs. But after the transformation, I became the recipient of constant attention and affection. He would engage me in long discussions in which we would exchange information on school activities and other topics of mutual interest. He extended the frontiers of my knowledge with talks on the lives and lifestyles of film stars, information substantially reinforced with gossips and briefs in the weekly 'Film Goer' and other film magazines. He took me on regular visits to the cinema house. Popular film houses in our time were the Rex, the Royal and the Capitol, all on Lagos Island.

"Archbishop Leo Hale Taylor also helped me a great deal when I first became Principal of Queen's College. He knew much about ministry matters which I did not know. If I did anything wrong, or attempted to do anything wrong, he would correct me immediately. On one occasion, while still acting principal of Queen's College, I said, 'As I am now principal' 'No,' he cut in sharply, 'you are not. You are merely acting and must wait until you are made substantive. Then you have the power.' Mentor, confidant, friend, his death left me considerably bereft, but his words continue to live with me and to influence my life; 'Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Get on with it"

And how has Coker been getting on with the 'it' called old age? How does it feel to be 80?

"It does not feel anyhow, only that i feel weaker in my body. That's all. I am happy to be going through the experience. I used to love old people. I looked after my mother who died at 92 and my brother who died at 82. I like the experience of being old. I pray for good health, which I am thankful I have. I have longevity on both sides of my family, except for my father who died at 65, which was rather young for their family. People on both sides of my family live to their 80s and 90s. I have one sister alive who is 88. Old age is not and must not be made synonymous with dowdiness and slovenliness. It is no excuse for letting oneself go. Dignity must be preserved.

"Exercise is very important along with lots of fresh air, good food, including lots of vegetables. I think solid fat is not good for elderly people. I suffer from arthritis, which gives me a number of don'ts; such as alcohol, red meat, citrus fruits, and whole milk. I love African food, such as amala, ewedu, ila, moin moin, fresh fish and nice, fresh palm wine, which is almost impossible to get now.

"My old age is saved from constant contemplation of the distressing situation in the country by some of my old pupils and a few others who call by telephone or in person to check on my welfare.

" I acknowledge, with gratitude, the singular gift of the ability to produce something worthwhile, my autobiography, titled My Life and Times, at an advanced age, that is, very close to that last stage of life so powerfully portrayed in Shakespeare's immortal line: "Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything"
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A journalist since 1984, Olujobi is a Pulitzer Fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California. She can be reached at olujobi@....

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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm