Impacting lives, nurturing leaders of tomorrow is my greatest achievement, says Gbadebo Adeyeye, Proprietor, Crown Heights College, lbadan
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance and people who want to be their own governors must arm themselves with power that knowledge is. This is the reason Crown Heights College remains committed to its founding mission since 1997 to provide our young men and women in the society a conducive environment where they can be well educated without any compromise and without fabrication.
Like a diamond in the sunning sky, Gbadebo Adeyeye, a prince of Ise Ekiti, Ekiti State, South West Nigeria, descended into the expansive premises of Crown Heights College, Ibadan, Oyo State, where he, radiantly looking, received friends and well-wishers to the 2024 Valedictory Service the prestigious college’s Class of 2024 and dedication of Oba David Opeyemi Adeyeye Hall.
Prince Gbadebo Adeyeye’s characteristic smiling face was magical as it happened on the said day that even new comers had no second thought to tell the state of his inner mind – a pure minded personality who, despite having seen it all locally and globally, remains calm with humility being his personal trait. No wonder the parade of ‘who is who’ that graced the well organized and excellently managed ceremony that started off with commissioning of the new Hall, which he said was still a peanut in appreciating his late king-father, His Royal Majesty Oba David Opeyemi Adeyeye, Agunsoye II, the Arinjale of Ise-Ekiti, who reigned for 32 years between 1932-1976.
Interestingly, the newly commissioned hall, which inauguration was performed by former Nigeria’s Minister of Information and former Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State, Hon. Labaran Maku, became the very venue of the all-important event that was well attended by the august visitors, who visited in July. It was a day to remember all the times with all the glitters and glamours that both graduating students and their junior ones still in school put into it, to the amazement of the guests including members of the press.
It is noteworthy the emotion-laden performances whereby the junior students sent off their passing out seniors, who intermittently filed in to hug, shake hands and dance with them with some of them having to systematically lift up their faces looking into the ceiling, an indication of a very sad-happy reality that the departure from fellow school juniors was now real. “We will miss you”, some of the junior students were heard telling their passing out seniors.
It was a day that narrating will not be able to tell enough story of the great things that transpired especially from the proprietor, Prince Gbadebo Adeyeye, who held the hall hands down with his short address that started poetically, followed by the minister of God, Pastor Johnson, who gave spiritual diet that became too plenty for audience in the hall to finish, the oratory paper presentation by the Guest Speaker and Former Minister of Information, Hon. Labaran Maku, to the Special Guest of Honour’s address of Senator Adedayo Clement Adeyeye. The Crown Hearts College’s event had a lot offers that people took home as takeaways, so hilariously entertaining, informative and educative.
In his welcome address, the Proprietor, Prince Gbadebo Adeyeye, said, “In a moment like this, nothing is more important in our nation than to provide quality education for the young population of our society.”
According to the United States-based educationist, “James Madison said many years ago that, “A popular government without popular information or a means of achieving it is a tragedy.”
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance and people who want to be their own governors must arm themselves with power that knowledge is. This is the reason Crown Heights College remains committed to its founding mission since 1997 to provide our young men and women in the society a conducive environment where they can be well educated without any compromise and without fabrication.
“Ladies and gentlemen, as we gathered here this afternoon to celebrate our Class of 2024, to rejoice with their parents and their guardians, there is no better moment than this to remind them that no matter what Nigeria’s situation is today, the future of our society is still bright. Don’t lose hope. And that bright future does not belong to the Yahoo leaders, the bright future belongs to you. That is why you must take your role from today, and I pray that the Lord Almighty will continue to guide you in your journey of life. You are welcome everybody,” Prince Adeyeye concluded his address to the round of applause from the audience.
Speaking to senior journalists earlier in an interview, the proprietor, responding to question about what prompted him to move from marketing and advertising to becoming an educationist, made the reality unambiguously clear to his questioners that, “In our modern days, that is not really strange as it has been done many times” and he listed names of great people in the world who were not educationists but became partakers in the sector. Adding that, “All we care about is to contribute to the future of the younger population of our society, which is very important and nothing is more important than that.”
On his achievement since he started Crown Heights College, Ibadan 27 years ago, Adeyeye said, “Money is not the only achievement that we are expecting, personally, that is not the motivation. The motivation for me is to see the students growing well, doing well in all areas. So, the major achievement so far is in the products that we have already released to the society; many of them are doctors, engineers and each time I see them, I feel much, much better than millions of naira in my bank.”
On whether or not he is worried about the state of education in Nigeria, he said, “Well, if I tell you I am not worried, I am just deceiving you or myself. Everybody is worried, at least anybody that has good education, any progressive mind should be worried now because we are not in the right place. The country is not where we supposed to be, not only in education, in all areas but we are talking of education here and I think we need to wake up and do what is right for our people and our great country,” he said.
For me, it is better to engage the future than to be invited to address political rallies. This is engaging the future of Yoruba Land, the future of Nigeria and the future of Africa. Let me associate myself with every word by the pastor because he simplified my job. He made prophetic statements concerning these young children of ours. The title of my speech is ‘The future is great, do not be afraid, only believe’,” Former Minister Labaran Maku said of Class of 2024 graduands of Crown Heights College, Ibadan.
In his lecture, the Guest Speaker and Former Minister of Information of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Hon. Labaran Maku, while addressing the valedictorian after giving all his adulations about the role he believes Ibadan has played in the nationhood of Nigeria, started by saying, “Because of these great young men and women that are leaving school today, when my friend (Senator Adedayo Adeyeye) told me they’d decided that I should be the one to come and speak to them, I said whatever I would be doing this weekend, I would set it aside to come to Ibadan”, and he stated why.
“For me, it is better to engage the future than to be invited to address political rallies. This is engaging the future of Yoruba Land, the future of Nigeria and the future of Africa. Let me associate myself with every word by the pastor because he simplified my job. He made prophetic statements concerning these young children of ours. The title of my speech is ‘The future is great, do not be afraid, only believe’,” he said.
He continued, “I have been in journalism, I have been in governance and I have the privilege of travelling round the nooks and crannies of this nation interviewing great people and leaders and also had a privilege, rare privilege, to be part of government as a spokesperson of my state and spokesperson of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So I want to speak to the point of view of knowledge and experience.
“Young men and women, let me assure you, no matter what you read about Nigeria and hear about Nigeria and most of the time especially now when what you read is negative, 90 percent of what you read about the country is negative, and I am worried for children that are growing up like you, when you read newspapers and see what is going on in our media concerning our country, even adults, parents are despairing about the future of our country. Every day you hear one negative story of one and other.
“And so, when you are preparing to leave school in this kind of atmosphere, where there is this seeming clout of dishonesty, you ask yourselves, “My other siblings are still at home, they have finished from university, there is no job and, of course you cannot move forward. There is a sense, some kind of feeling or discouragement that young people feel about this country.
“We also see on social media young Africans trying to cross the sea to Europe, sometimes a thousand of them have died, human trafficking still going out, only a few months ago the British Parliament under their own government did a law that they would transfer those Africans to Rwanda, young Africans despairing to go to Europe because of the situation in our content. When I read those things, inside me, I feel bad,” he said, adding that the kind of place Africans are in the world today should worry everybody in the worship places, academics, farms, markets, villages and other places “because this is not the place we are supposed to be. We are not destined to be here.”
Turning his face to the graduands, Labaran Maku said, “You belong to great country. I called Nigeria great not because of what it is now but because of what I see it becoming and because of my memory of history. When you see some people they say ‘Nigeria is too big, may be if we tear it into pieces it will be a better country.’ Hahaha! How can Nigeria be too big, 200 million people too big to belong one another? They say, ‘We are too many, we are different ethnic groups, this country will not work.’ Please let me tell you all these children, even now as we travelled to enter Ibadan we see a human energy like you see on the streets of Nigeria, you would know that there is something here that you cannot find in the whole of the world.”
Speaking further he said, “No matter the level of education that you have, without character rooted in culture and traditions, you are empty. Addressing the graduands further, he said, “Whatever it is that you have read or have heard about Nigeria, the future of the country is great.”
He said Nigerians should stop concentrating on the negative things said about their country and think about the positive, adding that the challenges of today are opportunities for better things to happen in the future. “If you think about having no light, you should also go and know that as you think of having no light, heroes think of how to fix the problem. I worry when I see that Nigerian youth run abroad and Chinese run into Nigeria. And when you ask the Chinese, they say Nigeria is the easiest place to generate wealth.”
Maku held guests in the Oba David Adeyeye Hall hands down when he said Nigerians’ problem is usually that they go to school to train to work in government. He said it is a mentality that must change because, according to the former Minister, the best place for job creation is the private sector and then urged the graduands to start thinking of making productive contribution to make Nigeria truly great.
Addressing the graduands he said, “Do not train because you want to make quick money. Wealth is good. In fact, poverty is a curse. Those who engage in activities of making quick money today are in trouble. Where is the richest youth in the world, who is a Nigerian? He is in the net.
“Do not read for instance medicine because other do. Be yourself and pray because God is real. Devil too is real. So, as Christians and Muslims, work hard and pray.
In his address as the Special Guest of Honour, Former Minister of State for Works, Senator Adedayo Adeyeye, thanked his brother, Prince Gbadebo Adeyeye, the proprietor of Crown Heights College, Ibadan for naming a hall in the name of “our late father”.
I am sure of so many people who have graduated from this school, who are in various professions. That is the beauty of education. I congratulate you for this milestone. And I want to thank you specially for naming this building after our late father, the late Oba David Opeyemi Adeyeye, Agunsoye II, Arinjale of Ise-Ekiti (1932-1976), a great Oba indeed, one of the greatest monarchs that has ever been produced in the history of Ekiti State,” Former Minister Adedayo Adeyeye said to his proprietor of Crown Heights College, Ibadan.
Talking to his brother, he said, “I am sure of so many people who have graduated from this school, who are in various professions. That is the beauty of education. I congratulate you for this milestone. And I want to thank you specially for naming this building after our late father, the late Oba David Opeyemi Adeyeye, Agunsoye II, Arinjale of Ise-Ekiti (1932-1976), a great Oba indeed, one of the greatest monarchs that has ever been produced in the history of Ekiti State. In the history of Ekiti, he had the privilege of being the Chairman of Pelupelu, which is the highest level of traditional rulers, in 1942. He was revered and he was great.
“Again, I am going to thank my great friend and brother, Hon. Labaran Maku, former Minister of Information. As you can see, he is a great orator, a very educated man. He has given countless lectures to universities home and abroad. I remember he was in Federal Executive as Minister before me and I remember when joined him as Minister, one day he said, “From Okota to FEC, Federal Executive Council”, narrating how they both started together in Okota, Lagos as young journalists and then thanked him for agreeing to accept the invitation to deliver the valedictory lecture of Crown Heights College in Ibadan on the appointed day.
He then said, “Now my attention should be turned to you, children. Today is an historic day in your life, you are passing out of secondary school, that is an event that occurred in my own life some 51 years ago, 1973 precisely when I was 16 years old. At that event like this, people came to speak to us and those words remains with me till today. It was catholic school and our father, one of the school’s fathers, although government had taken over the schools, said to me, “Make Christ your foundation”.”
Applying that to the Crown Heights College’s fresh graduands he said, “Make Christ your foundation and be focused in life. It is not the number of degrees that you have that matters. Of course you can have Ph.Ds and become professors, you can be anything, but be focused. There are many professors in this country who have not made their mark, let me say, and I am sure at the end of the day did not feel fulfilled in life.
“And yet you have a person like King Sunny Ade, a musician, who has only a primary education and is known worldwide and he continues to be relevant. Recently I was in Lagos at a birthday of wife of a friend, Sunny Ade played and his former Deputy Governor said, “Sunny Ade played for the grandfather of those he is playing for now.” He played for their grandfather not only their father and he still alive playing. That is a man. That is the focus you need in life to be successful. From 1967 till now, Sunny Ade relevant. Only primary education, same thing with Ebenezer Obey.
“Obey said in one of his records that Baba said he must go to school, he refused. How many professors are greater than Obey today?” He asked, saying, “So, what matters in life is to remain focused, to determine to be successful in your own chosen area. Like the Honourable Minister said, it is not the number of degrees, no. I was reading three days ago what Mark Zuckerberg founder of Facebook, which is now Meta, said, he said degrees are going to be useless in future and he said what you need is to be focused on what you are doing. Pick an area of life, which you think the society will need, enter into it and become successful. That’s it. You will be successful.
Senator Adedayo Adeyeye, who is currently the Chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) said, “Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, founder of Apple, all of them are university dropouts. They never finished school, they just left. They found their mission and pursued their mission.”
Others who dignitaries at the event included Secretary General of South West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA) and Former Member House of Representatives representing Irepo/Orelope/Olorunsogo Federal Constituency, Oyo State, Barrister Bosun Oladele, author of famous Economics and Government textbooks (by OA Lawal), Dr. Olayiwola A. Lawal, among several other dignitaries.
