The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Kolawole Salako has commended the immense contributions of teachers to the overall development and success of their students and the world in general. Speaking during an interview with Glorious Vision Television on the impact of Pastor Emmanuel Awojide, his then English Language and Bible Knowledge teacher, Prof. Salako said his Christian life and fluency in English was as a result of the dedication and perseverance of Baba Awojide. According to him, “Baba Awojide, as I would prefer to call him, taught me English language, Bible knowledge and he was also a Boarding House Master. One thing I would always remember him for is that he was a disciplinarian, who never spared the rod anytime there was a reason to correct us for rowdiness or breaking any of the boarding house regulations”.
The Vice-Chancellor further noted that the teachings he received from his former teachers and Baba Awojide in particular, who is currently the Vice-President of the Apostolic Church, Nigeria really impacted on his Christian life because “We were really taught the basics and truth about the Bible when we were younger”. Speaking on Baba Awojide’s impact on his written and spoken English, Prof. Salako said “Till date, there are times when I want to make a certain expression, it comes back into my mind that this was what Baba told us in class and one thing I have come to realise is that if you miss your English in secondary school, you cannot get it back and I think that is what our younger ones in the current generation do not understand”.
The Vice-Chancellor noted that, although it was a good thing to attend good nursery and primary schools having dedicated teachers and following as a committed student, to get it right was much better and that the way forward was to be re-engineered towards ethical development. “The Society is losing it now because of lack of ethics and because the right priority is gone. You know people do not care about their names anymore”, he said. Prof. Salako later advised religious leaders and Baba Awojide in particular to keep faith with what the Bible teaches while providing quality leadership as he had been doing in the past.
