To make a decent living, one needs to engage in one or more professions. My journey to where I am today is a kind that was filled with passion.
I grew up as a farmer's son. That is the profession that I learned by imitation. I proceeded to school and after rounding up my degree, I took up teaching as a profession. That makes me a man of two professions. I am a farmer and a teacher.
Food is a physiological need of man. No one can survive without eating. As important as food is, and with the arable land that God bestowed on us in Nigeria, many people are running away from farming.
We have no reason not to be food sufficient as a nation. At my own little level, I try to produce what I eat. I am more of a subsistence farmer. Though I have a plan to go commercial soon. I don't want to keep wishing to see a Nigeria that is self-sufficient in food but to contribute my quarters in making such a wish a reality.
My institution has a vast land which was allocated for staff for farming purposes. I take this advantage to grow crops such as beans, bambara nuts (Vigna subterranea). I plan to go into rice farming this year. Labour is available in our host community. All I do is to hire the service of laborers to work in the farm while I supervise the work mostly on weekends. I do some part of it myself too. Like I said, farming is what I learned right from my childhood. It was a practical lesson from my father.
Society needs farmers more than anybody else. Without food, we can't survive. This tells us the importance of farming as a profession.
As a teacher, I participate in building a nation. There is a popular saying that a nation can't develop more than her level of education. I believe this statement absolutely. For a nation to advance, education of the citizens goes a long way in achieving the objectives.
Teaching has a role to play in molding the lives of the students beyond the walls of classrooms.
When I was a kid, I preferred offending my parents rather than offending my teachers. I idolized my teachers. I took them as people that knew anything and everything. After coming of age, I now understand how delicate the role of a teacher is. A teacher needs to inculcate moral values in addition to academics into the students.
I can say that I have taught at every level of Nigerian education. I taught primary, secondary and tertiary students. At each of these stages, I see the mirror of Nigeria's future in the eyes of my students. I see myself playing an important role in shaping their future and by extension, that of Nigeria.
The importance of teaching to society is inexhaustible. What motivates individual teachers differs. In my own case, a sense of satisfaction from the students that I teach is my greatest motivation. On many occasions, my students would just walk up to me and say thank you. This means a lot to me.
My students once created a scene at a public place. They went in group to a jamb CBT center to do biometric capturing for their UTME examinations. I left their school the previous year. Upon sighting me at the highly populated junction, they screamed my name. I nearly fell from the impact of their hugs. That level of public display of appreciation nearly moved me to tears. This is my greatest motivation.
I love impacting knowledge wholeheartedly.
If I had the chance to change my profession, I wouldn't do that for any reason. I don't see any other profession that can be fulfilling to me like farming and teaching.
A society that is well fed and well educated has prosperity at his beck and call. I'd rather stick to building that kind of society.