Olashore School Addresses Nigeria’s Issues in Anniversary Play

Oluchi Chibuzor

Olashore International School, Osun State recently staged a play titled ‘Etiti: All Eyes on You’, written by Chief Jimi Solanke as part of its silver jubilee celebration to address the contemporary issue of leadership.

Staged in Osun, Lagos, Ibadan and Abuja recently, the play highlighted the inconsiderate leadership and self- centeredness of the elders of the community and the youths’ protest of neglect and unemployment.

The play preached good leadership from elders and those in possession of power. They are compelled to find out the problems of the people and provide solution to them because leadership is a business of facing problems and tackling them. It also x-rayed the reasons youths should embrace their culture of dressing, language, respect and values as opposed to adopting foreign cultures. Youths were also advised to harness their youthful energies to create jobs for themselves in order to enhance their future and stay clear from laziness. The play elucidated that both elders and youths in any community have a part to play to make that community work.

The Principal, Mr. Derek Smith said the school decided to stage the play because it is committed to developing Nigerian leaders for the 21st century by delivering quality all-round education that will offer students the opportunity to excel in academics, sports and performing arts.

“Our commitment to academic excellence is demonstrated by children producing excellent results in external examinations. However, academic excellence is only one part of an Olashore education. Developing leaders for the 21st century is a key part of our mission statement and so we will also celebrate students who have excelled in activities that develop 21st century skills.

“These include debating, public-speaking and the ability to perform in high-pressure situations such as quizzes. In order to ensure that Olashore graduates are prepared for the 21st century, we have identified a number of core skills that students must develop during their time in secondary school. These include creativity, imagination, collaboration and communication. The performing arts provide an excellent platform to develop these skills.”

The Chairman, Board of Governors, Prince Abimbola Olashore said the school believes in all-round education and drama fits into the key pillars.

“For us, we try to make our drama reflect Nigeria and its culture. Next year in Nigeria is an election year, where people elect their leaders who will serve them. This play tries to address leadership issues which resonate with the leadership of Nigeria in the present state. Drama has been and is still part of our way of grooming the 21st century graduates. In 2013, we staged a play on ‘Morountodun’ written by Professor Femi Osofisan and it fetched us recognition. This goes a long way to show that our students are doing well in drama.

“The all-round education we have given to our alumni while they were with us is what makes us proud of them. We hope that one day our current students will also make us proud by portraying what we have taught them in character and in learning.”

The student lead character who played Etiti/the story man, Bolarinwa Elegbede, said he practiced his lines everyday till it became his morning routine; hence he acted his role correctly.