Publisher's Synopsis
This book is about the life and times of a Nigerian
education icon, Tai Solarin, written from the
perspective of a very close student who was trained by
him. Tai was unusual and deserves to be celebrated
because he dedicated his entire life to the service of
humanity, starting by building a unique Nigerian
secondary school from scratch with his British wife
without any significant financial investment but robust
physical energy, Spartan self-discipline, and a meteoric
vision. This was in 1956. This school allowed religious
freedom and full development of the human spirit;
motivated the students to become the best they could
be and taught physical and vocational education. The
students worked with the non-teaching staff to build
classrooms, cook, and process food; grow and harvest
crops; manage 24-hr water and electricity supply; bake
bread, raise pigs, poultry and goats for domestic
consumption.
Tai still found time to write pungent newspaper articles
criticizing the government to improve social and
educational services for the underprivileged citizens
and to stop the shameful plunder of public funds for
self-aggrandizement. He was jailed several times for his
efforts. He picked corpses from the roads (innocent
victims of hit-and-run drivers and the destitute) for
proper burial; dressed and lived simply to afford the
funds to educate indigent but otherwise highly cerebral
students.
