Pa Tete Allen, this is for you!

I WATCHED a feature on Channels Television about the story of a 90 year-old man, Pa Tete Allen, who enrolled into Primary One to get educated in a school in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. He was shown sitting among five to seven year-old tots, young enough to be his great grand children. He learned to count and read ABC proudly in front of television cameras.

Pa Allen said he had never sat in a classroom (or broken a chalk as my people would put it). He told the reporter that he was tired of thumb-printing and would be thrilled to be able to sign his own signature “before my dying day”. It was not only my spirit that was uplifted by this exemplary elder.

Many other uneducated grown-ups interviewed confirmed they had been inspired by Pa Allen to put aside shame and go to school.

Pa Allen is my own idea of a hero because already in his village and surrounding towns he is hailed wherever he goes. These are the kinds of small folks we want our national honours awarded to, not the highly educated vermin and parasites that ate down this country and consigned the vast majority of its ordinary people to destitution and economic refugees in foreign land.

Thank you, Pa Tete Allen!