By,
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja, Executive Director, Nigerian Law Society (NLS), Abuja, FCT.
On this 5th day of October 2024, I am taking time out to write a tribute to Mrs. Euphemia Eremieofori, my biological mother for being my first teacher and best teacher (besides Almighty God and Jesus Christ).
My mother began her professional teaching career at the primary school at Taaba, Ogoniland, Rivers State in the year 1977 and retired as a Director at the Rivers State Universal Basic Education Commission, in the year 2014.
There are many lessons that my mother taught me. She taught me Bible lessons at home, and she was responsible for teaching me how to read and write.
As a secondary school teacher in a government school, on a monthly salary of ₦100 per month, my mother made the sacrifice of enrolling me in a private school where the school fees was ₦90 per term. Attendance at this Montessori school gave me a very solid educational foundation because we were taught music, playing musical instruments, amongst other mind-broadening curriculum. This private school was charging the the highest school fees at the time.
The good educational foundation at this primary school spilled into my secondary school, wherein I graduated as one of the three best students.
Apart from academics, my mother as a good teacher taught me some life skills such as cooking and cleaning the house.
She also taught me typewriting using the old manual typewriter. She also taught me shorthand, this is because my mother herself was a graduate of those old stenography schools. I earned pocket money during holidays by typing handouts for college of education lecturers because we resided on the campus of a school that served as learning centre of the College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti.
My mother taught me how to exercise self-discipline and save money for rainy days and for major projects such as building a house.
It was my mother that taught me by her example, the value of diligence, resourceful and entrepreneurship. In addition to her full-time job as a classroom teacher, my mother at different points in time, supplemented her income by private home tuition, private clerical and secretarial services and even hairdressing.
I considered myself blessed by Almighty God to have a wonderful mother whose hardworking nature has ensured that her years as a pensioner are not burdensome on her children and has ensured that she is so healthy with very minimal requirement for hospital treatment.