Barakat; a pride of strength in a homeless family suffering the injustice of OPD
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As she stood before the dignitaries and the
laurel presenter, she was probably the only one that could tell what the day
meant to her. Even though the event here in question could be insignificant in
matter and context to you as I write about it now, it was a day of expression;
a medium of communication between a father and daughter. The communication was
non verbal yet too loud with ultrasonic pitch to deafening. The message was
simple, yet a phrase laden with expressions of a thousand sentences. The aura
of the message was all over her and radiantly beaming to me -- the father, the
receiver.
It was a day Barakat Ololade Jimoh passed her
first ethos of meeting a set goal. She deserved the accolades and ovation of a
record-setting Olympic track and field sporting victory, as she stood before
the Fasholas -- the first two citizens of Lagos State -- to receive her prize of
‘exemplary participant’ in this Year’s LEARN
– Lagos Empowerment and Resource Network. That Governor Fashola attended this
year 2012 closing event made the day a remarkable rare mystery of coincidence
of chance meeting of man and fate that is religiously tagged in ‘miracle’. It is
a matter of fate all the same whether it turns out to be good to be
acknowledged miraculous or turns out to be bad and takes the tagging of
emotional tragedy: as to religious mind, miracle is of divine while tragedy is
of evil; yet man goes through life destined only for either of these two as the
passing phases of the journey.
Although this case of Ojukoju meeting of these trio of Barkat, Abimbola Fashola and Raji
Fashola on the high stage of a state event was never defined into either of
these two categories, it never the less signposted the Yoruba adage that Omi l’awa eniyan – human beings are like
a sea.
As Barakat stood before the state
functionaries to receive her prize, she was a homeless, out of school
girl-child from a homeless family. She did not assume this status by a fault of
herself or the parents’, but by a fault of extremely dysfunctional state
apparatus of governance from corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency from
misfit deployments of the state’s manpower resources largely on premises of
cronyism, quota misapplication and political chicanery.
Ironically, non of these plights of Barakat
ever evaded the knowledge of His Excellency, Babatunde Raji Fashola, as each of
the unfortunate events that confined Barakat to out-of-school and homelessness
were duly reported to him as the Chief Security Officer of the State. And
unfortunate enough, the cloud of threat by the exam fraud syndicate still hangs
over Barakat’s home as the patriarch vows to do the needful for systemic merit.
But today, see how fate works: Mrs Fashola
through her LEARN is unleashing the innate potentials of girl Barakat -- the
same potential Mr. Fashola of the same family unit has strived to suppress
through inactions against dysfunctional mechanism of State governance. However,
that the three of them are meeting on this stage today is never an accident but
a result of a set goal Barakat made last year at incipient of her sojourning
through the pains of a homeless child. And to this achievement is what I hereby
dedicate this piece of writing; and to other numerous children and family units
suffering a similar fate of Barakat’s in silence.
Barakat got to know of LEARN last year
through a newspaper advert calling for registration of interested pupils. As an
avid and voracious reader, she has access to media information, as buying The Punch and The Nation daily, and the News Magazine added at weekends, is next
on our priority list after food in that home. Today, Barakat has read over 57
novels as at age 15. She sometimes even lament these days she has many books to
buy and read while she is yet out of school for now. She is currently making isusu savings towards getting a copy of “What a Country” by Chinua Achebe.
According to her, she needs to read this to reconcile certain facts with what
she read in Wole Soyinka’s “You Must Set
Forth at Dawn” – a book she has read twice, I think.
So having registered for 2011 LEARN hosted by
Tomia Senior Secondary School, Alagbado, we became a homeless family courtesy of
armed invasion of our home by a syndicate of examination malpractice seeking to
confiscate some materials they believed were inimical to their trade. We lost
the savings for a new home to that invasion. All the same, Barakat and her sister,
Mariam, attended their LEARN Programme but with flaws of truancy occasioned by
challenges of feeding and transportation that demanded N800 daily, six days a
week.
Weighed down by this challenge, Barakat lost
all opportunity to make it to Bero Auditorium, Alausa, the conventional venue
for the closing ceremony for LEARN Last year. But some how, her sister made it
as a mere audience. With tales of the events and her sister’s “insulting” offer
of empty bottle of La’Cassera as a return gift, Barakat vowed to make it to the
‘happening’ stage of the State functionaries and “shake hands with Iyawo Fashola” come this year’s. Thus
what Barakat said last year is coming to past today; as she flexes her kneels
to receive her prize of exemplary participation at 2012 LEARN is the joy of
Father and Daughter while the inaudible message is “Yes Daddy, I told you”.
Congratulations
Barakat!
Thank you
Mrs. Dame Abimbola Fashola!
And
your Excellency, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola: Please revisit the
following plaints to your office:
1. Letterhead: Razaq Jimoh Adedeji & Family
Dated: October 15, 2010
Received in your
office: 20 Oct, 2010; 3:5pm.
The question to
answer:
(a) Whether the operation
of private schools in Lagos is exclusive of the regulatory power of the State
such that a private school could deceive parents to take N12,000 for Lagos
State J.S.C.E registration, only to take them to Ogun State for J.S.C.E
Examinations because it cheaper in cost there?
b) and whether
therefrom, a pupil/student/candidate that claims to have a Lagos State
education could justifiably present or holds or flaunts an Ogun State final
Certificate of J.S.C.E. granted that this certificate is the only true testimony
of where the pupil/student/candidate had the educational qualification being
certificated.
The injustice Barakat
sought your office to redress in that petition was that that singular
misconduct of the school concerned did deny her of the alternative of Public
education.
2. Plaints
2:
Letterhead: Razaq
Adedeji Jimoh Family.
Dated: April 27 2012
Received: 07 May 2012;
12.29pm
Relevance: A reminder
with new insight to an earlier petition dated November 18 and acknowledgedly
received on 24 November 2011.
As she stood before the dignitaries and the laurel presenter, she was probably the only one that could tell what the day meant to her. Even though the event here in question could be insignificant in matter and context to you as I write about it now, it was a day of expression; a medium of communication between a father and daughter. The communication was non verbal yet too loud with ultrasonic pitch to deafening. The message was simple, yet a phrase laden with expressions of a thousand sentences. The aura of the message was all over her and radiantly beaming to me -- the father, the receiver.
Ironically, non of these plights of Barakat
ever evaded the knowledge of His Excellency, Babatunde Raji Fashola, as each of
the unfortunate events that confined Barakat to out-of-school and homelessness
were duly reported to him as the Chief Security Officer of the State. And
unfortunate enough, the cloud of threat by the exam fraud syndicate still hangs
over Barakat’s home as the patriarch vows to do the needful for systemic merit.
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