How N165,000 saved James Aninyem from quitting school

A HUNDRED and sixty five thousand naira, the amount some Nigerians spend to acquire a mobile phone, gold wristwatch or 40-inch plasma television set, was all it required to ensure that the young, budding 14-year-old James Aninyem did not quit secondary school.
     But for the timely intervention, made by the Senior Management Programme (SMP) Class 47 of the Lagos Business School (LBS), Aninyem would have, indeed, been forced to quit the Ansar-Ud-Deen Grammar School (AGS), Surulere, Lagos, where, in SS1, he had already shown a lot of promise, even in sports.
     And at a recent, brief ceremony, where the cheque was handed over to the school management as part payment of his fees for the next three years, a tearful Miss Tonia Aninyem, James’ elder sister, who works as a waitress and had brought James over to Lagos from the village, could not believe her eyes. She had decided to pull James out of school, because she simply could not afford to continue to pay his fees.
     Boxed into a corner where she was forced to take the painful decision, Tonia said she came to the realisation that her meager monthly salary of N25, 250, which she earns a waiter, could no longer sustain James in school and also cater for his other brother’s needs, who also lives with her.
     She said, “their mother is alive but their father died when they (James and his brother) were very young and they were abandoned in the village. I decided to bring him and his younger brother to Lagos with me because I wanted them to have a better future. I did not go far in my education, but I told myself that I would give them what I couldn’t have because of poverty.”
     On how she had been paying James’ fees before the intervention, she said, “what kept me going for the past three years that James has been in the school, was the school’s support. I was allowed to pay the fees in installments. From my salary, I take out some money every month to pay the fees.  I started with about N28, 000, but when he was about to enter SS1, I was told to pay over N100, 000. And since I couldn’t afford that kind of money, I decided to pull him out to another public non- fee paying school.”
      The pretty Tonia, who decided to relegate marriage to the background because of her fear of what would happen to the children if she gets married, expressed hope not just for James but also for her entire family.
        With what James has now been offered by the LBS class, she said she could now see a very bright future before him. “I am proud of him because I know he is a very humble child,” she stated.  “He was chosen and by the grace of God, he deserves it. He needs extra encouragement now to do more to make the school and his benefactors proud. I will be alive, by the grace of God, to see him come back to this school and do something because they are the people, who gave us hope when we felt the end had come.    
     On how she feels about the LBS Class’ gesture, Tonia said, “you have no idea. You can see me shedding tears. I wanted to stop the tears and say thank you to everyone, but the tears just won’t stop. My tears of joy.”
      To the benefactors, she said, “if there is any word greater than ‘thank you,’ I owe it to them. I thank them for remembering that there are some under-privileged children out there.”
     Explaining how it all began, the school’s Principal, Mr. Badru Adeniran said, “a member of the LBS/SMP Class 47, came to the school about a month ago and we had a chat. He said the group wanted to give something back to the community. Since we didn’t have a capital project on ground, I suggested scholarship awards and they agreed. We went through the results of our students and we identified James Aninyem as a candidate that cuts across, in terms of academics and in terms of sports.”
     Describing James as a “fantastic boy,” he affirmed, “we wouldn’t have settled for him if I wasn’t convinced about his personality, his future and the promise he holds.”
     Recalling how he felt when he learnt about James’ imminent pullout from school, he said, “I felt terrible. Even when his younger brother was withdrawn, we felt bad. Even if you have a million students, you don’t want anyone to leave and we are talking about a student, who is good in sports, in cricket specifically. The school came fourth nationally in the cricket game held in Ibadan and he was in the team. We also won the Lagos State junior Cricket cup and he was part of the team. We wouldn’t want to lose such a student.”
     He announced that the group has also promised to pay for the remaining three years James would spend in the school, which would amount to a little less than half a million naira (N496, 000).
     Adeniran admitted that there are other students in a situation similar to James.’ He called on other public-spirited Nigerians to rescue other children in dire need of educational sponsorship.
     “We have lost so many students due to the fact that parents cannot cope with the financial burden. Miss Aninyem paid as little as N1,500,  just to keep the boy in school. She continued to pay piecemeal and we allowed her to do that because we don’t want the boy to leave,” he said.
       The Group’s President, Mr. Ubong King said, “in our class, we have identified that, in the quest for education, funding is a limiting factor in the country. A lot of people don’t have the opportunity to go through school or they don’t get to finish school because of funding. So, members of our class decided to put resources together and support children.
     “We got information that a student, who is also a valuable asset, was on the verge of leaving the school because of financial constraint. We had to step in immediately. We are 44 in the class and we are the first modular set in the Lagos Business School. Our classmates are scattered all over Nigeria. We meet once every month for six months in Lagos. We interact a lot and after this, we are expected to give a report to the class.”