Ten Things you Need to Know about Oladele Saheed, WAFSEP Coodinator

Has the poor mastery of English in many Nigerian schools ever bothered you?
What about its awful societal usage?

Thank God for War Against the Falling Standard of English Project (WAFSEP). 

Here are ten things you need to know about the brains behind it. 

1.    Oladele Saheed was a victim of the fallen standard of education in Nigeria. He did not only attend a public secondary school that left much to be desired but also celebrated mediocrity. These circumstances turned him to a post-secondary school self-developmental student. Six months indoor life became his turning point as the dozens of books he read on English prepared the solid foundation for his future career and projects. Reading 12 hours daily is unarguably herculean but the fruit is sweet. Before Oladele Saheed gained admission to the University of Ibadan to study linguistics, he had written his first unpublished material that demystified WAEC English.

2.    During his undergraduate days in the University, despite marital responsibilities, Oladele Saheed participated in several extra-curricular activities such as campus journalism, media reportage, and literary and debating among others. Yet, this did not derail him from graduating with the first class grade he had maintained from his first year. 

3.     Immediately after graduation, Oladele Saheed was hired by Adiat School of Basic Studies, Agbowo, Ibadan to teach WAEC GCE English. His handwritten pre-university material did wonders as majority of the over 120 candidates he taught mainly from public schools had distinctions in English. This is what inspired him to start the Erudite Centre for Language Proficiency at the tail end of his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme to deal with the numerous teaching prospects.

4.    As a corps member at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, Oladele Saheed’s good grasp of syntax availed him of the opportunity to co-teach linguistics courses with Professor Lawrence O. Adewole across undergraduate levels. This distinguished him from other corps members serving in the University. Despite the academic and other tasks, the NYSC year witnessed the beginning of two of his books.

5.     During his Master of Arts programme in linguistics, Oladele Saheed was a University of Ibadan Scholar. As a way of rewarding his academic excellence, the University did not only wave his tuition, accommodation and other fees but also paid him monthly stipends. 

6.     Oladele Saheed’s online exposure to international services offered by language companies abroad led to the establishment of Erudite Millennium Limited to bridge the gap in the supposed Nigeria Language Industry and create jobs for language graduates and other related professionals. His enthusiasm for arresting the poor mastery of English in schools and its awful usage in society formed the basis of his War Against the Falling Standard of English Project (WAFSEP) which has attracted the attention of many scholars. 

7.      Through the instrumentality of Erudite Millennium Limited, Oladele Saheed has successfully co-trained federal and state government officials, journalists, private school proprietors and teachers among others. It is important to mention here some of the scholars that have made the Erudite training experience worthwhile: Professor Francis Egbokhare and Doctor Demola Lewis of the Department of Linguistics and African Languages; Doctors Olayinka Egbokhare, Bisi Olawuyi and Raphael Ojebuyi of the Department of Communication and Language Arts; Doctor Kester Ojokheta of the Department of Adult Education; Misters Charles Akinsete, Akin Tela, Gabriel Faniyan and Ms Bimpe Aderibigbe and Esther Opeyemi Atolagbe of the Department of English and Ms Bimbo Benson of the Department of Theatre Arts, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

8.    Even though training is one of its key instruments, WAFSEP has three major research goals. The first is to develop a tool for Practical Oral English Teaching and Examination in Nigerian Schools that will not only serve as a reference material for teachers but also a self-practice tool for students. It may interest you to know how far this has gone. In 2014, Oladele Saheed launched Remedial English Pronunciation Software to rid users of learning and examining oral English on paper and boards in schools. Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo among other dignitaries that graced the launch considered the software a very helpful tool that would revolutionize the teaching and learning of English in the country and urged the author to keep updating it till it becomes the standard of oral English teaching in every Nigerian school. In 2015, based on this golden advice and request from schools, Oladele Saheed developed a comprehensive lesson plan for easy use of the software from JSS1 to SSS3 and included tongue twisters and other necessary features skipped in the software. Today, Remedial English Pronunciation Software has been approved and recommended as instructional material in oral English by the Federal Ministry of Education and the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC). If everything goes according to plan, REP-Software and its comprehensive lesson plan will soon turn Paper 3 of the Nigeria School Certificate English, Test of Orals, to Alternative to Practical Oral English as done in Chemistry and other related subjects. This will raise the standard of English speaking in Nigeria and improve our international intelligibility.

9.    The second goal of WAFSEP is to bridge the gap between the static Nigerian English curriculum and dynamic English, as a subject and medium of instruction in schools through up-to-date research findings. It is surprising that the kind and manner of English learnt in school or read in books two decades ago is still promoted by the Nigerian curriculum. This is why the noun is still defined as ‘the name of any person, animal, place or thing’ or just ‘a naming word’ and the verb as ‘an action or doing word’ in Nigerian schools. Hasn’t anything changed or developed? Oladele Saheed’s New Dimensions in English for Up-to-date Communication to be launched in a couple of months is expected to challenge English language teachers, curriculum planners, concerned English language users and other stakeholders.

10.  The last goal of WAFSEP is to devise a new vocabulary scheme that will lead to a paradigm shift from the current emphasis on impressionistic vocabulary items to simple English words for the right purposes. If many Nigerian graduates, after sixteen years of education in English, cannot adequately describe the human body in English let alone knowing the simple English words for common Afro-English concepts, what is expected of secondary and primary school learners? Oladele Saheed’s Multipurpose English: an Ideal Vocabulary Handbook (2017, forthcoming) will not only facilitate the learning of ideal vocabulary for efficient communication which is the focus of current English dictionaries but also form the basis of the Erudite Centre for Language Proficiency’s Diction Plus Competition using an ultra-modern interactive learning application for all Nigerian secondary schools. Oladele Saheed believes that spelling bee is not enough without testing pronunciation and understanding of words. To him language learning begins where some people think it ends.