CECILIA Chiawotu Okachi is gentle, soft spoken, posh and generous. She is passionate about her profession and speaks glowingly about it. 'We teachers make the nation, without us doctors, presidents, governors, ministers even the journalist cannot function well in their endeavours. So, I advise the government to give us what we deserve. Among many things, we deserve good salary and I encourage every home to ensure that they produce at least one educationalist, as it will elevate productivity in our society.'In an era when investors rush to establish schools ' for all the business reasons, and people are schooling more for certificates than learning and character, Okachi remains one of the few school owners who have not lost their sense of humaneness.She is passionate in ensuring that school age children are not denied quality education. For her, it is not a question of getting rewarded in future by the beneficiaries or their relatives. It is simply the passion.In 1999, Okachi faced a career dilemma. She was torn between the head of a school as an employee or starting her own school.She decided for the latter with nothing other than her dream and her faith in God. Not a few of her watchers were sure she was headed for self-destruction.In 2000, she realised her dream and Simmic Schools, Abaranje in Alimosho, Lagos, was born.She had made a vow to God ' a partnership that has since defined her business philosophy: 'Oh God, should you by your mercies enable me set up this school, I shall at all times, place 100 kids enrolled herein on complete scholarship. I will also constantly empathise with any other parent in genuine financial difficulty by not sending their children/ward away on account of debt.'God, she recalled, soon mobilised men and materials in honour of that pledge. And the school began and steadily grew.Through Simmic Schools, she has without fail, borne the cost of educating 100 kids yearly. Many of her beneficiaries are now either in tertiary institutions or have graduated and are now independent.This noble gesture of developing people in the society has earned Okachi numerous awards such as Cadbury Nigeria Plc Bournvita Mothers Award, Outstanding Woman of the Decade by Alimosho Times, Outstanding Woman of Distinction by Woman Empowerment and Gender Equity Centre; Distinguished Woman of Substance award by Woman of Okwu Uratta, Owerri North and Yeye Oge of Abaranje Land and her domicile local government of Alimosho.Also, since 2009, Simmic Schools has consistently won the Cowbell's Hall of Fame, for academic excellence.Okachi ascribes her success to the grace of God. 'What keeps me growing is the grace of God and the fact that I see my pupils striving in their daily endeavours and am most ecstatic for the fact that each time I am in the bank, I see my pupils working in one desk or the other helping me to make sure I don't have any delay. And recently, I just alighted from my car when I heard someone scream my name from afar, and the next voice I heard behind was Ma! I don't have much money to give you now, but I have N50 to appreciate you for your tutelage.' Then I just inserted N1000 note in her bag. It doesn't end there as my pupils crave to pay my transport fare anytime I am on public transport. For instance, I was sick sometimes ago and two men came to my house with baggage containing beverages for me. All they said was, ' Thank you so much ma for your tutelage,' she reminisced.The proprietress, who is an ordained, practicing pastor with the Global Revival Ministries (Christian Teaching Centre) Ikotun, believes that quality education does not have to be expensive. And in keeping with her predominantly low-income environment of Abaranje, her school charges a paltry N4, 000'N10, 000 tuition a term between nursery and senior secondary classes per head.Interestingly, she terms these acts to fulfilling that part of our national call to service that says, '' to serve our fatherland.'Igbo by birth and Bekwara (Ogoja, Cross River State) by marriage, she hopes to join grassroot politics in a few years to contribute her quota to the development of her community.For her, politics should not be a do-or-die affair, it is a call to service and 'I advise politicians to strictly adhere to the principle of fair play because it results to productive governance and society where everyone lives in peace and harmony,' she says.Growing up for her was tough, coming from a poor background; but they were privileged to be raised on the Island at Cameron Road, Ikoyi area where her father worked as a gardener for the first Permanent Secretary in the Nigerian civil service, Dr. Mrs. Francesca Emmanuel. Okachi regarded the latter as role model having been encouraged by her mother, a petty trader, to emulate Mrs. Emmanuel's traits. Of that experience, she said, 'I appreciate the fact that I came from a very poor background because it is interesting to know that my siblings I and have to wake up very early morning to hawk bread and sell cigarette every morning before we go to school and that has shaped my character as a trained teacher.The mother of Michael and Simeon is married to Pastor Michael Okachi, whom she describes as 'a loving, caring and the best father and husband in the world.'Until you get used to the established bond that exists between her and the neighbourhood children, you would wonder just how many biological children she has. For her, every meet is a chance to hug, laugh and share, as a mother would do to her children.She narrated how she met her husband. 'I met a guy, who asked me out for a relationship, but I refused. The guy kept coming to my house, but I refused. He also came with his cousin who visited him from another state. Having introduced him to me as Michael, they both left that day and the cousin (Michael) then suddenly appeared the second day without him and said he came to see how I was faring; and did that for a week. On the seventh day, he posed a question to me : 'Haven't you noticed something'''Something like what'' I said.He said, 'Can't you see that we are meant for each other'' I later considered and agreed to marry him. We tied the nuptial knot in 1986. Then I started and completed my education in his house, every woman deserves the kind of my husband.'Asked to evaluate Nigeria's development, she said, 'No electricity, no good road network and most of all no security; if these three can be fixed, this nation will become a super power.'Of her relationship with others: 'I may be extravagant in meeting the needs of others, but I am frugal with myself and immediate family. None of the pioneer staff here is willing to leave because Simmics School is both a work place and family. I merely see myself as deputising for God; because he runs the show here.'She believes that no parent loves owing school fees if such a parent has the means to pay; and that financial freedom translates to easy willingness to pay school fees, and sometimes even ahead of demand. To this end, Mrs. Okachi since year 2000, has used Woman Empowerment and Motivation Centre, which she also founded to organise workshops and trainings on various skills.She is also using this platform and her role as a marriage counsellor for over a decade to partner financiers and consultants in training indigent/under-employed parents on various trades and assisting them to own their personal businesses thereafter.What fuels her passion for selfless giving and defense of the underprivileged' With a sigh she said, 'My heart breaks when I see a school age child not attending school due to poverty. And it is also a matter of security pro-activeness, because an uneducated child is a potentially dangerous adult tomorrow,' she submitted.
Click here to read full news..
