Asipa Kaoli Olatunji Olusanya, is the Founder/Chief Learning Officer (CLO), Kith & Kins Educational Schools (KKES) and a two – term Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives and former Vice Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC), Lagos State.
The educationist, who was also a former lecture with the Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) and chieftain of the APC, will clock 70 years in few days and part of the programmes highlighted for the celebration was the commissioning of a block of 6 classrooms and 12 toilets he rehabilitated at the Salvation Army Primary School, Ikorodu.
During the commissioning, Kunle Adelabu, the Publisher/Reporter – in – Chief, THE IMPACT Newspaper, engaged Asipa Kaoli in an interview on why he embarked on the project and what people should be expecting from him at 70 years and beyond. Excerpts:
THE IMPACT: Kindly accept our congratulations at THE IMPACT for this laudable project that you are commissioning and handing over back to the government and the school management today. Sir, how do you feel getting this done and why did you embark on the project?
Asipa Kaoli: The value that I hold dear to myself and very passionate about is the training of little children. It is from what you train a child for and engrave in his heart that he would get his imagination and which he would try to achieve and you can only do that with quality education. If you look at our environment, you would see that there is need to intervene in the lives of the ordinary people. We all come from very humble and poor backgrounds and we should not remain like this. In order not to remain poor, the few people that are endowed should, in one way or the other, look at our society and try to give back; to raise more people to at least above a reasonable level of where they can start helping themselves. That was what informed my intervention and the area that I want to impact and live a legacy is education. Why because I believe that to get out of vicious circle of poverty and ignorance, what you should give is education. When I visited this place which incidentally falls under my Ward and within the where I was born, in fact, I started schooling in this school when it was at the Salvation Army Church, I saw the dilapidated condition of the school and I was moved. There and then, I took it upon myself to give back to my school, my home and community and that is what we are doing here.
THE IMPACT: What is your message to the staff and pupils of the school in term of managing the facilities?
Asipa Kaoli: My message to the staff and pupils in this school is to take ownership of the building, make good use of it, maintain it and avoid any kind of vandalisation or misuse of the facilities that has been provided. Once that is done, more can be added to it. When more is added to it and they are maintained very well, before you know it, this could be a modern school. The space here is big enough. What we are having here today is a 300 – capacity classrooms with furniture. Additional 300 can be added here and when that is done, we will be working towards reducing the number of the out of school children. I am making that contribution of reducing these out of school children and bringing more children to the classrooms.What could be added here is to make the school and classrooms enjoyable for pupils and when you see classrooms that I provided, you will see some semblance of a nice environment that would excite and motivate a child to learn.
THE IMPACT: Your 70th birthday is coming up soon, what should people be expecting from Asipa Kaoli at 70?
Asipa Kaoli: This is what you should be expecting. I mean giving back to the community and building a legacy at 70 and beyond. This is what I have passion for and that I have been doing. So, going forward, what should be expected from me is giving back; impacting on the people; mentoring and trying to leave a legacy behind because anytime one could go and I don’t want to come and go in vain. God has created me for a purpose and I have discovered that purpose and that purpose is to impact, care, give back, mentor and to raise people. So, I will be devoting myself to do that for my community. Ikorodu is my community and whatever that I can do to raise the standard of living, infrastructure and intervene in any form that can improve our environment, that is what I will commit myself to do. I will be collaborating with the traditional institutions, government, clubs and peers. One cannot do it alone. That is what I will be doing.
