Awo’s UPE Programme X-rayed in New Book

Ola Opesan is an engaging writer with eclectic taste, in his latest book on the Universal Free Education programme of the Chief Obafemi Awolowo administration during his days as Premier of the Western Region in the 50s, he gives a graphic account of the politics and dynamics of that unique education initiative that revolutionised education in Western Region and catapulted the region into the forefront of development in the country.

The book titled: ‘On ’55 We Stand’ is a seminal account of the free education programme, a massive educational experiment started in April 1955, which today has stood out as the most successful of all education initiatives in Africa.

The book is compartmentalised into 10 chapters. The chapters delve into the nature of what constitutes education at the levels of both formal and informal, the genesis of the program, the key players that made it possible, the disruption of the lofty experiment during the military interventions starting from the mid 60s, and the trajectory of education policy ever since which has witnessed a disappointing downward trend.

With a brilliant panache, the book takes a comprehensive survey of the trajectory of education in the country, beginning with 1925 Colonial Memorandum on Education for the British Colonial Territories which framed and shaped the country’s educational policy from 1925 to 1945.

This nuanced and well researched survey is detailed and gives account of the contributions of both Christian and Islamic missions to Education in the country.  These contributions are loud as can be seen in the establishment of important mission schools, institutions that produced and still produce a crop of eminent Nigerians that formed the nation’s intelligentsia in politics, the military, business and every segment of life.

The author takes a hard look at the military interventions as a major setback for the noble education initiative. The military itself attempted a copycat of the scheme in 1976 during the administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo without really fully understanding the dynamic and logic of it. Their own experiment collapsed like a pack of cards in 1978 under the weight of dwindling resources. Part of the fallout of the military abandonment of the scheme was the famous “Ali Must Go” riots when university students protested against increase in accommodation and feeding fees, even when the government claimed it had made tuition free.

When the country was returned to civil rule in 1979 President Shehu Shagari who came to power cancelled the scheme.

Opesan’s book interrogated a lot of challenges in the education sector, presenting insight of leading educationists like Awokoya, Alayande, Ajasin, Tai Solarin, Professor Babs Fafunwa and others.

The book traces the compounding of the problems in the sector to a lack of adequate understanding of the challenges, commitment deficit and poor planning amidst policy inconsistency, the dissonance between policy and practical needs of a country yearning for technological and scientific advancement.

The book is a must read for policy makers, stakeholders, students, and all those interested in education as a tool of national development.

Opesan’s outing in this important work is not all that there is about him. Opesan has previously acquainted himself as writer, journalist and educationist. His first literary outing was the novel: Another Lonely Londoner (1991), under the pen name Gbenga Agbenugba.

He was born in London to Nigerian parents in 1966. He returned with his family to Nigeria when he was ten years old, going to school there, and attending the University of Ife. He returned to London to study scriptwriting, completing a TV and video course, and writing several screenplays.

While in London Opesan read Sam Selvon’s novel The Lonely Londoners, and in response wrote his own novel, Another Lonely Londoner. Written in a mix of English and Nigerian pidgin, the novel deals with the experience of young Nigerians in Lond