Sheila
Sheila Solarin and Susan Wenger did not hail from the same country. While the first was from Britain, Wenger, popularly called Adunni Olorisa, was an Austrian. Besides, although they were expatriates who practically made Nigeria home, they did not operate in the same sector.
Yet, they shared a similarity in their exploits in this country. While Wenger was devoted to cultural propagation through the development of the Osun Osogbo River and Festival, Solarin immersed herself in the education industry, building one of the most popular schools, Mayflower Secondary School, Ikene, Ogun State, alongside her husband the late Tai Solarin. It is thus not surprising that the way it did when Wenger died, the country spontaneously began to mourn Sheila as soon as the news of her death filtered in on Sunday.
She died at exactly 4 p.m at the Babcoock Medical Centre in Ilishan- Remo, Ogun State, where she had been hospitalised since the middle of July after she fell down in her Ikene home. According to her daughter, Corin Solarin, who is the proprietor of Mayflower Private School, the deceased had been in the hospital before she finally gave up the ghost yesterday at the ripe age of 88 years.
Among other tributes, Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, in a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communication, Mrs. Funmi Wakama, described Solarin as an uncommon human.
He said, “Mama Solarin was a foremost educationist, a great teacher and disciplinarian who rendered an immeasurable service to the people of Ogun State and Nigeria through Mayflower. The school founded in 1956 became one of the best in the country and produced many leading lights in our nation.
“Mrs. Solarin was an exemplar of that much-needed global spirit that sees beyond colour, race and religion in inter-relationships among peoples, nations and continents of the world. Ogun State and Nigeria have lost a first class teacher, an epitome of hard work, a humanist extraordinaire and role model of distinction.”
Amosun’s predecessor, Otunba Gbenga Daniels, also described her, as a bridge builder in the Nigerian education sector. “Even, after the demise of her husband, she kept the flag of Tai Solarin flying loftily in the education sector in Nigeria. Through her death, Nigeria has lost a humanist, educationist, bridge builder, and peace maker. We will miss her but takes solace in the fact tha she left behind a worthy legacy,” he said.
A fellow educationist and the Deputy Provost of Tai Solarin College of Education, Prof. Cornelius Onanuga, in his tribute, said Mrs. Solarin was a woman of substance.
“I’ve known the family since the late 1990’s. She was very committed to the education sector throughout her life time. She was also more concerned about the common child receiving a sound education; this led to the establishment of Mayflower School. She was determined to have people exercise their rights without prohibition. Because of their love for education and the ordinary man, the Ogun State government named the university after her late husband, which is now the present Tai Solarin College of Education,” he said.
He added that she was a humanist, who did everything for the sake of humanity while her home depicted someone who has love for nature, leading to the establishment of a private zoo.
He said, “What most people admire in her is courage. Even after her husband died, she remained in Nigeria. People thought she was going to relocate, but she didn’t. Not only did she remain in Nigeria, she also went ahead to bring in Volunteer Services Overseas from the United Kingdom. This organisation indirectly supported the education of children. This really helped so many children.
“The late Sheila Solarin is someone that will be greatly missed, especially in Ogun State and Nigeria at large. What didn’t people admire about her? Is it the assistance she gave her husband? She stood by him all through. Imagine someone leaving the comfort zone and moving into a jungle to establish Mayflower School. She was so determined in making sure her husband’s dream came to fulfilment. She was also one of the pioneers of vocational education. When Mayflower was first established, the school did not follow the usual method of education. That is, she included skills such as cooking, sewing, carpentry in the school’s curriculum. She desired to raise a total child.
“Even after the government took over the secondary section of Mayflower School, she continued running the primary section and was also assisting the secondary section. She was very hardworking. Till today, old students visit the school. They know that the school has played a major role in their success. We have distinguished people who were old students.”
A member of the staff of Tai Solarin College of Education, Mrs. Halima Akinbode, also said Solarin was a great intellectual, a woman of substance who gave a lot to the education sector.
“Her impact cannot be ignored. Education here in Ogun State is what it is majorly because of her husband and herself. She was a mother. I still remember this statement she made at a programme, ‘If you don’t know something, ask your mother’. That phrase has stuck with me till today. I will miss her. Tai Solarin University would not be have been in existence if not because of her husband and herself. May their souls rest in peace,” she said.
Despite her religious status, which many in a ‘pious’ Nigeria would ordinarily frown at, the late Solarin had Christians, Muslims and traditional worshippers trooping to Mayflower school because of the quality of education it offers. Even when standards arguably took a downward turn, Mayflower still flourished and produced some of the best brains in the nation today. And while many other private schools ask for high fees, Mayflower is believed to have a system that is not out of the reach of the average Nigerian family.
Solarin, who taught English for 50 years, was once quoted as saying, “We didn’t ask anybody what their ethnic background or religion was, we simply wanted to provide an education for all the children in the area.”
Little wonder, Corin has said that the vacuum left by her mother cannot be filled.
She said in an interview, “I cannot, in 1,000 years, be like my father or my mother, but I will try my best to be myself. I will also want other Mayflowerists who are scattered all around Europe, America, Africa and other continents to come around so that we don’t allow these legacies to die. Also I want them to always keep the spirit of hardworking which my parent had impacted in them to be their watchword as every one of them is a potential leaders, I cannot be like them but will strive to sustain their legacies and want others to join hands with us.”
Born in England in 1924, Sheila Mary Solarin, nee Tuer, had her early education in England and obtained her Higher School Certificate in 1941. In 1951, she graduated from Manchester University with a degree in English before proceeding to Ontario Institute of Education, Toronto, Canada for her Masters degree in Education in 1975.
Based on her love for impacting knowledge, she joined her husband, the late Tai Solarin, who she met in the early fifties, to work at Molusi College, Ijebu Igbo in 1952. In 1956, the couple founded Mayflower School in Ikenne, Ogun State.
She was awarded membership of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire – MBE – by Queen Elizabeth II on 17 October 2007 for her services to education in Nigeria.
While more Nigerians have continued to pay tributes to the great educationist, a page has been opened online for old students of Mayflower School to honour their own. It welcomes one with a quote from the sage: “I would like to be remembered for handwork, honesty, some kindness here and there, and an effort to make the best of the mental and physical equipment I was born with.”
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