Professor Odunayo Adebooye, who was just recently inaugurated as the Vice chancellor of the University Of Osun state, has narrated his background story.
According to him, his father died at a young age and he had to drop out of school until a catechist of St David’s Anglican Church Akiriboto-Gbongan in 1979 had a discussion with his mother to send him back to school on free education program held by the Government then.
Professor Odunayo stated that, he really wasn’t moved to go school Because of the financial crises that would come up.
His mother who was 86years old believed so much in education because a prophet had told that her son will be great and she believed it was only through education.
This prompted her to sell her belongings just to see that her son goes to school and fufills the prophecy of being a great man.
According to him;
“I’m just a product of grace. My father died when I was in Primary 2 in 1974. There was no hope for me again because of financial constraints but I completed Primary VI in June 1978. As soon as I left school, I started subsistence farming and hunting which I did for one year. In June 1979 when a catechist of my church, St David’s Anglican Church, Akiriboto-Gbongan, came to my mother late in the evening, to urge her that is should seek admission into secondary school. The catechist’s reason was based on the possibility of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) winning the Governorship election as they promised that there would be free education.”
“I got the admission but the financial resources to sponsor me to school were not there because our bread-winner and pillar of our family was no more, my daddy. My mother, 86-years-old, Gladys Adébóóyè, decided that she would sell her belongings to send me to school because a prophet told her that I will become great, she believed that education could make the prophecy come to fulfilment.
“I started attending secondary school reluctantly just to please my mother because I erroneously felt I would soon drop out for a financial reason.”