A Fallen Hero: Reasons Baba Kareem Was So Popular is Glaring | By Akham Praiseworthy Ayo-Akano
Remembering A Fallen Hero, Baba Kareem.
____________________________________________
Reasons baba Kareem was so popular is glaring.
Baba’s technical way of teaching Mathematics in the local language should be studied on its own.
As a student who had a phobia for maths since primary school, no matter how I killed all other subjects, the sight of maths would shake me that I remember pissing in my body in a maths class.
My mum was always sad about me being a failure at maths despite being the subject she used to teach.
And then when baba Kareem surfaced, the Channon and Smith (New General Maths) textbook do not frighten me anymore.
Baba Kareem offered all secondary school students to come for evening lessons in his personal home at the cheapest rate in Nigeria (arguably).
READ ALSO: Prof Oguntola Alamu, Installed As Àgbàakin Abóbagúnwà Of Fèésú
I never went to any of his lessons but it was the moment adolescence was worrying us. For some rough or senseless reasons best known to guys, we would find ourselves in his home for ‘shadowing’. It is not the best moment to explain the meaning.
I was a beneficiary of Baba’s talent in the then AYIWOLA’s REP (Honorable Jolaoye’s organized tutorial for all secondary school students) popularly known as Jolaoye Lesson that year.
Hardly will you see a secondary school student of my generation that didn’t get a lecture from this man.
Then I went to a secondary school ‘Islamic Model College’, in our SS3 moments in 2008, baba was assigned by the school to be giving us extra coaching at closing time.
READ ALSO: Top 7 Pick Entrepreneurs of the Year 2019 in Iwoland
Unlike Hafiz, I was still a dullard in Maths but was always happy to enter BABA KAREEM’s class.
The mystery of his lecture I can never forget is how he let me understand the calculations of any negative signs in Maths. Throughout my educational career, any question that had negative at the initial point, I would never get it. E.g -2+3, -3+4, etc.
Baba’s technique of teaching in Yoruba opened my brain. While trying to explain such question, His usual slang to me as he personally knew me because he was a co-teacher to my mum in a particular Anwar Islam Schools would be.
‘Ayo-Akano, Ori ẹ ku, -3+2, o jẹ gbese 2naira, ọmọ rẹ waa de lati school, o fun ẹ ni change 2naira ninu owo saafu 3naira, elo ni gbese to ku?’ meaning, you have a debt of 3naira, and your ward came from school and gave you 3naira change from the money for food, how much is left from your debt? Me and all other mates would chorus with joy “gbese 1 naira’ meaning ‘1 naira debt’. Which equqls to – 3+2=-1.
These funny strategies and many more are the ways of Baba Kareem and anybody that listens attentively to his lectures without understanding would never understand again from other teachers, that person is a born dullard.
READ ALSO: Why People Say Oluwo Of Iwoland Is Controversial
In a saner condition, baba should have become a Lecturer in an institution or given an honorary award in teaching.
Baba shouldn’t be someone who we should be requesting money for when he was sick. Pasting his account details online as that was the saddest of it all.
But I’m satisfied that I tried my best in spreading the help needed as I personally promoted him and his account number to reach over 64,000 Iwo Indigenes, maybe that was not enough to save Baba’s life, but it gives me a sense of relief to have impacted in informing people our benefactor needed help.
Baba was not a Prof nor a Doctor of Maths but what he taught us is stamped in our brains. It is not sure if we would have any maths teacher as great as him in our land anytime soon.
Rest In Peace Baba Kareem. I personally know your space would be hard to fill. ADIEU BABA KAREEM 😔 😢
.){kind=link}