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By Chika Abanobi
In many primary schools in Nigeria, public and private, prefects or students officials are selected by the school management. But this is not so at Verifort Academy, located on Salami/Ilamoye Streets, Ijeshatedo, Lagos. Founded by Mrs. Ndidiamaka Oyeleye, an Igbo woman married to a Yoruba man from Ekiti State, it is one school where pupils contest election into various school posts and win before they are allowed to function in such positions.
This year’s election saw about 20 pupils being elected into various posts. They include Head Boy, Head Girl, Social Prefect, Health Prefect, Chapel Prefect, Games Perfect, Labour Prefect, Library Prefect; School Time Keeper and the School Governor who coordinates the activities of all the prefects.
Giving pupils the power to vote and to be voted for
This is not surprising as Verifort, a name which is said to have been formed from the fusion of the owners’ children’s names, Verity and Fortitude, operates a Montessori method of teaching. The education model founded by Maria Montessori, an Italian medical doctor, and educator, in 1897, but documented as The Montessori Method in 1912, emphasises learning by doing. To this end, the school organises practical lessons on how to knot the tie, button the shirt, lace the shoes, roll up the mat, do without the diapers, for its pupils in the kindergarten and nursery sessions. It also teaches those of them in the upper classes philanthropy, and social etiquettes by organising tea parties and visits to orphanages and schools of the handicapped.
On the issue of election, Oyeleye, also known and addressed by parents as “ND”, told Saturday Sun: “We want to place the power in the hand of the children. We want them to be the ones to select their own leaders. It is actually a way of teaching them what they will find in the larger society. They are taught civic education as a subject. But a lot of them do not understand what is meant by an election; they only hear people talk about it. So, we wanted them to have the practical experience. That way, it is not going to be strange to them in the near future when some of them would have crossed the threshold of 18 years and can vote in the country’s election. And, some of them might turn out to be politicians and community leaders. The whole idea of putting matters to vote, of allowing them to choose leaders by consensus, and all of that, would have become something that they are familiar with. The contestants campaigned, gave their manifestoes, and then allowed the pupils to choose leaders on their own. Unlike most primary schools, here pupils pick their leaders through voting. We allow them to make posters so that people can relate to their faces. And, from Basic 1-6, they were all allowed to make their choices. They are not influenced or told who to vote. They make their own decisions all by themselves. We want them to get used to this because we don’t know what they would become in the future.”
Antecedents of contestants
Mrs. Meduoye, the Head Teacher of the school, adds that the pupils voted based, not on monetary inducements, tribalism, or religion but on the elocutionary power of the contestants. Morenikeji Adeniji, nine years old, who contested for the position of Head Girl but narrowly lost to her opponent confirmed this when she said: “Before I got elected, I gave my manifestoes and made the electorate see the reason they should vote for me. I told them that if they make me the Head Girl I won’t let them down. But while getting prepared for the campaign, I was kind of scared. But later on, I conquered fear and stage fright.”
Parents interviewed by Saturday Sun agreed that the Montessori method is the best way to go for those who want to give their children a head-start. Mrs. Agatha Nnajiofor, a schoolteacher in another school said that the things the pupils are being taught have helped to shape her daughter, Destiny, who emerged the Head Girl in this year’s election, into a child that is neat, caring, friendly, and one that always behaves well.
“I will try to make the school proud of me,” the 13-year-old girl said in her tiny voice when asked what she would do now she has emerged the winner.
Mr. Rowland Uche Nwahiri, a businessman and father of nine-year-old Daniella who emerged the Chapel Prefect in the election said the children should be thankful, both to God and to the school management, for giving them such exposure because it wasn’t so in his own time as a primary school pupil. Mrs. Gladys Okwuzi, a lawyer, and whose son, Derrick, emerged the Library Prefect, recalled how his previous election as a Time-Keeper changed his life.
“Before then, he would be the last person to sleep, and the last to wake up,” she said. “But when he became a prefect, he would always want to leave home early. So, it developed in him a sense of responsibility and accountability, so to say.”
Morenikeji’s mum noted how the caring attitude that the pupils are being taught in school to have for the handicapped and less privileged turned her daughter into an uncommon philanthropist so much that she herself began to complain of how “she is wasting food and resources in the house.” She said of the girl, a one-time Social Prefect of the school before becoming the Assistant Head Girl, in the current election. “People say someone is a man of the people. In her own case, she is a girl of the people; she is popular with them. She is all out for people. She loves to mingle with people and to cater for them. Sometimes, she loves to make sacrifices that I would say are uncalled for. She goes to school with excess water and food, just to share with people who didn’t come with any. She is always ready to help.”
Asked if she saw her daughter becoming a politician in the future, she answered that such a career was unlikely. “But if she turns out to be one, I really would not criticise that.”
Lessons for Nigerian politicians
But the encomiums notwithstanding, the election is markedly different from that done in the world of real politics. Take funding for instance. While electioneering in the wider world is money-consuming and capital-intensive, often bankrolled by moneybags, this election cost little or nothing to the contestants except money used in printing banners and posters. Secondly, it was not characterised by rigging, thuggery, violence, assassinations, tribalism, ethnicity and religious biases. Thirdly, underage children were those that voted and were voted for. In real politics, you must reach 18 before you are qualified to vote, and be even older before you can contest. Additionally, with the new amended electoral laws, you must have a higher certificate other than the first school leaving certificate before you can contest for any post. Fourthly, the election, more or less, featured independent candidates, rather than contestants with party affiliations. Fifthly, unlike real Nigerian elections, it was not a case of winners-take-all. Rather, at the end of it all, the pupils who lost are made assistants of the opponents they lost to. Lastly, voting was free and fair, and votes were counted in the public view of everyone by class teachers who acted as the electoral umpires.
Even so, parents and school management think Nigerians and Nigerian politicians have a lot to learn from the school election. Mrs. Okwuzi talked about accountability. “In Nigeria, nobody really holds politicians accountable, unlike in the school,” she opined. “Let’s say a child who has been elected as a prefect keeps coming late to school. The teachers are there to caution him or her to stop. They would even go to the extent of threatening to take away the position from him or her if such attitude or habit continues. But in Nigeria, nothing like that happens. Politicians go there to loot, not to serve. Our censors that should caution them are not working. I believe if a small amount is budgeted for political offices, it is people that have a genuine interest in serving Nigerians that will contest for those positions. But people go there to enrich themselves. Even if you are elected, and you don’t steal money, your family will be angry with you. They will say that you were there for eight years, what did you do? Your father’s roof was leaking, and you kept quiet. Our society as a people needs to change.”
Mr. Nwahiri said, judging from the pictures/photos and videos of the poll posted on the school’s Whatsapp platform, of pupils queuing up to cast their votes, of teachers openly doing the counting, it was a free and fair election. She recommended the same to INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) and to Nigerian politicians.
“These children’s hearts are pure and open,” Mrs. Meduoye remarked. “But Nigerian politicians are not like that. That is the problem. In the wider society, they go there to make money. In this one, there is no salary to be paid. Rather, they are expected to come up with one or two projects to execute.
“They are even too young to begin to consider monetary rewards either for their offices or for the electorate,” Mrs. Oyeleye said. “What happened was that the contestants reached out to their fellow pupils and told them about their intention to run for specific positions. And, based on their power to convince, they took their decisions. For instance, Ameerah Baruwa, a Yoruba girl and a Muslim, won a position. Yet, she was voted into that position by the Igbo Christians who are in the majority because the school is located in their midst. What this means is that they were not thinking of tribe or religion when they did that. The election shows us how people from different backgrounds can co-exist.”
