Tai Solarin: Founder of Mayflower School, Ikenne

Recognised by Nkuzify as Patron Teacher of the Year.

World Teachers' Day
Happy Teachers' Day from all of us at Nkuzify.

Seventy students. Two founders. A few mud huts. That was everything Mayflower School had on its first day.

The date was 27 January 1956, in Ikenne. The founder had just left his post as a principal after a quarrel with his school board over compulsory church services, and he and his English wife were sleeping in those huts, unsure whether more parents would dare to follow.

Tai Solarin never did go quiet, and that school became one of the most talked-about in Nigeria.

The principal who said no

He had been principal of Molusi College in Ijebu Igbo. A dispute with the school board over compulsory church services pushed him out. He and his wife Sheila, the English-born woman he married in 1951, decided to build the kind of school they believed in.

Why they called it Mayflower

They named it after the ship that carried the Pilgrims, because it stood for escape from persecution into freedom. In his words, it was to be a school for all children, discriminating against none. Mayflower is remembered as the first secular school in Nigeria.

A school that taught self-reliance

Solarin taught that a nation must learn to feed and build itself, so self-reliance, hard work and practical skills such as agriculture were part of school life. By 1992 the school had 1,900 students, and employers looked for its graduates because of their reputation for honesty and hard work. Its old students are called Ex-Mays.

A voice that would not be quiet

He fought for free and compulsory education for every Nigerian child, and for years wrote newspaper columns as a fearless critic of those in power. He died on 27 July 1994 in Ikenne.

Why Nkuzify celebrates him

Solarin did not wait for a better system. He built one, with very little, and let the results speak. That is the spirit behind Nkuzify: teach people real, useful things, teach them where they are, and trust that a good teacher can change a whole community. He also reminds us that a school is not only buildings and exams. It is character.

Read more in Nigeria's Education Heroes: Pioneers, Prizewinners and Unsung Teachers, or make a free Thank You card for your own teacher.