Keeping the Dream Alive
By Sebastine Obasi
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Michael Oluwasesin, husband of a teacher killed a year ago by her students in Gombe State launches a Foundation that will keep her dream of helping the needy alive
One year after the murder of Christiana Oluwasesin, a teacher, by the students of Government Day Secondary School, Gandu, in Gombe State, plans are underway to immortalise her. Macedonian Initiative, a Lagos-based non-government organisation, NGO, in collaboration with Michael Oluwasesin, widower of the deceased, is setting up a foundation in her name. The foundation is to be called Christiana Oluwatoyin Oluwasesin Aids Foundation, COOAF. It will focus on the less privileged in the society and those who are persecuted for their religious faith. It will give scholarships, medical attention, food and clothing to the needy in the society.
Michael Oluwasesin, the widower of the deceased, said the foundation is in fulfillment of her late wife's ambition to have a charity organisation that would take care of the poor in the society. He considers it the best way to mark the one year anniversary of the death of his wife, who left behind two kids, aged three and one. "There is no better way to immortalise my wife, than to establish a foundation that would take care of the less privileged in the society," he said.
Ladi Thompson, a reverend and international co-ordinator of the Macedonian Initiative, said the NGO decided to collaborate with the Oluwasesin family, to establish the foundation, because of its determination to keep the memory of Christiana alive.
The NGO also wants to continue to fight abuses and violations of human rights across the country through advocacy. Thompson is unhappy that the killers of Christiana have not been brought to justice, one year after her murder. He advised the government to be alive to its responsibilities of protecting the citizens wherever they are resident. "If the conscience of the nation is re-awakened, the value of life across the country, will be lifted. Then democracy, economic and social life can be set on the path of progress," he said.
Christiana joined the services of the Gombe State government, after her National Youth Service Corps, NYSC programme. At the Government Day Secondary School, Gandu, where she was posted, she was a teacher and also in charge of discipline.
On Wednesday, March, 21, 2007, she was assigned to invigilate the Islamic Religious examination for the Senior Secondary, SS, class. In a bid to guard against examination malpractices, she collected all the students' papers, books and bags and dropped them in front of the classroom. In the process, one of the students raised an alarm that a copy of the quoran in her bag had been desecrated, because it has been touched by the deceased who was a Christian.
The incident led to an uproar in the school as other students in the class began to chant "Allahu Akbar"[God is great]. They called for her head. In the ensuing tension, Baba Musa, the patron of the Muslim Students Society, together with three other teachers moved Christiana from the classroom to the principal's office, which they considered safe. The students, joined by outsiders, threatened to burn down the school, if she was not released. The principal yielded to their pressure. She was killed and her vehicle burnt. Three persons were arrested in connection with the murder. They were arraigned before the Federal High Court, Gombe, which is yet to deliver judgement on the matter one year after her gruesome murder.
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