At retirement : Ijemo Titun High School old students gift outgoing principal Toyota car
When former President of the United States; Thomas Jefferson said that “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it, little did anyone know that the word would actually come into fruition in 2021 when thousands of old students of the Ijemo Titun High School, situated inside the Government Residential Area of the Ibara Housing Estate, Abeokuta, Ogun State would come together for the common good of the school which stood shoulder to shoulder with the best schools in the state and across the Federation and also rally round to present a Car gift to the retiring School administrator.
Ijemo Titun High School, apart from being an institution of great higher learning where most parents were proud to send their kids and wards to, the school wherever it was mentioned in matters that has to do with the game of Cricket, the name brings shiver down the spine of any other school paired to play ITHS, the school, apart from having excelled academically had also been able to build a strong foundation for it’s old students.
Like one of the stanza of the school song said, ” As we unite, we stand, we stand, never to fall, we stand, we stand…., another said, Ijemo is built on solid rock, our motto expresses Knowledge is wealth, positive aspirant, we must be, and we hail Ijemo, the song while it was being written had this day when the old students would give back and also look at rewarding a man who had served for over sixteen years as a teacher and two and a half years as the senior school principal.
When the Yoruba adage said that” Asele ni abo wa ba”, meaning what you did, you will reap”, this adage definably was intended for what the outgoing principal of Ijemo Titun High School and a teacher of over sixteen years, Alhaji Lateef Adeboye would be able to thank God for, he should be able to look back over those years and thank God for what God had used him to do.
When he became the school principal some two and a half years ago, what he brought to the fore was purposeful leadership, a type that created a great relationship between the old students and the school principal, he was very accommodating as usual, we used to call him” Master” and he fulfilled his role as not only as a master, but as a fatherly figure to all of his students, he definitely over the years touched a lot of lives, he changed a lot of destinies, he was a role model and I believe what he is receiving today is just a reminder that truly the reward of teachers is here on earth, that is for those who saw their students as their children also.
For having been able to do all what he did as a teacher and as a principal at Ijemo Titun High School, Alhaji Lateef Adeboye would be retiring from the Ogun State Teaching Service Commission a fulfilled teacher,school administrator and a fatherly figure of thousands of those lives he had been able to touch positively, Alhaji Adeboye, no doubt is leaving the service with his head held high, over 20 classrooms were either renovated with complete plastering, repainting, flooring, reroofing, fixing of new doors and windows and the complete channelisation of the whole school, these are projects worthy of emulation.
Government, definitely cannot do it all alone, Government needs the help of everyone that wants a better future for children yet to be born and even those already given birth to, the kind of education we had from teachers who were so dedicated to their duties at Ijemo Titun High School is definitely what the Ijemo Titun High School Old Students Association ably led by Captain Gbenga Oludipe is looking to acheive.
It is pertinent to note that the over 20 classrooms touched by the Old Students Association were done on a class set basis, all the sets that had graduated from the school all came around to paste their signature of gratitude on the school.
The school that boast of the likes of Chief(Mrs.) Egbeyemi, Mrs. Olurin, Mrs. Onasanya, and now Alhaji Lateef Adeboye is definably on the right course, with our new found vigour, direction and leadership, we believe that Ijemo Titun High School would once again become the pride of all, it will beome an institution that will pride itself of not having to register just anybody, but register anyone with the right prerequisite, just as old.
It wouldn’t be too good to complete this write-up without nothing that Alhaji Lateef Adeboye aside having his house repainted by an old students set, would also be going home with a 2007 Toyota Corolla, he deserved it, he worked for it, while working, he never knew he would be a school principal, talkless of being a school principal at the school he taught for over sixteen years, work had, no one knows what the future holds for you too.
My set, 2001 set ably led by a vibrant lady, Mrs. Adeola Amusan was also able to rehabilitate a block of three classrooms, the project had to go through repainting, replastring, provision of ceiling and provision of doors and windows.
Obasan Oluwafunso is an old student and currently the Press Officer attached to the Press Crew of the Ogun State Governor.
