Mary Opurum left the Imo State Primary Education Service without entitlements after more than a decade of crisscrossing towns and communities teaching, moulding pupils in learning and character.
Now in her early 70s and still grappling with the ailment that cut her teaching career short, she is under the care of her only surviving brother in Lagos, and is appealing to the authorities in Imo to release her entitlements to ameliorate her condition.
When TheNiche ran into the mother of three at the Apapa residence of her brother, she narrated the story of a teaching career marred by misfortune.
The beginning
Opurum started teaching in January 1973, before the old Imo State comprising present day Imo, Abia, and Ebonyi, was created.
She had finished secondary school at Emmanuel College, Owerri, in 1970 after her education and that of her twin sister at Nwafor Orizu Secondary School, Nnewi, Anambra State was interrupted by the civil war.
After surviving the 30-month war that left Igboland in ruins, she went on to complete Grade II teacher training programme at St. Joseph Teacher’s Training College, Aba between 1971 and 1972.
She had hoped to go on to university. But if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
Welcome to the classroom
Her first teaching posting was Aba, now in Abia State, where she taught at Ulasi Road Primary School, and later Ndoki Road Primary Schoola. She taught primary four pupils at both schools.
In 1976 when Imo State was created out of the then East Central State, Opurum was transferred to Owerri where she taught at Community Primary School Aluma-Orii, Urattah.
From Urattah, she was transferred to Umuahia, present day Abia State capital, where she taught for a short while before being redeployed to Mbano, one of the towns in Okigwe zone of today’s Imo State.
At the primary school, situated right inside the Mbano Council secretariat, she taught primary four pupils for many years.
She was later redeployed back to Obioma Ngwa, now in Abia State.
The last place she taught was at the Holy Rosery Primary School, Onicha Ezinihite, Mbaise in Imo State, where one Agwaja Ahuogu was the Headmaster.
Quitting service
Opurum left the service with no gratuity or pension in 1987 because of a debilitating illness that almost snuffed life out of her. She took ill after childbirth through caesarian section and was taken back to her home town.
She never returned to teaching due to complications arising thereafter. The birth was her third.
For her family, what was uppermost in their mind was how to save her life. When her health condition became critical, her brothers and sisters resident in Lagos moved her over to the city.
She remained on admission in different hospitals in Lagos for several months. Though she eventually improved, she has never been the same again, and the family decided that she should remain in Lagos.
Since then, Opurum has been in the care of family members who have been managing her health condition.
Fate ain’t fair
Although she is quite grateful to God for sparing her life, she is at pains for losing all her personal effects, particularly her documents and certificates to fire incident that razed down the family home.
“Fate, sometimes, ain’t fair, particularly to those whom others look up to, to change the course of life for good,” she muttered in tears.
Waiting and wailing for entitlements
Opurum narrated that her prolonged illness kept her away for too long to retain the job, which prompted the Imo State government to retire her 28 years ago.
She said all she received after being compulsorily retired was some stipend from the federal government. Imo only promised to pay when resources were available.
“I was told that the state government would pay my gratuity and pension. But since then, I couldn’t go personally to press for my entitlements due to ill health.”
Some years ago, somebody from the service came searching for her in her home town when she was in Lagos still struggling with poor health.
“The message got to me but I was helpless. I didn’t even care about anything. I lost interest in life. It was that bad at one moment in time.”
Teaching reminiscences
Opurum’s failing health did not impair her memory, as recollections of her teaching days flowed freely.
She remembered that when she arrived tumbledown Holy Rosery Primary School, other teachers were shocked that more teachers were being posted even as there were no classrooms to accommodate them.
“The buildings were collapsing. The roofs were falling off, there were more number of chairs and tables damaged than serviceable. Our pupils spent more time under the trees than in classrooms. Each time the rains came down, there was no hiding place.
“It was under this condition that I met the school, and fellow teachers were shocked to see me adjusting instantly to the condition on ground.
“I didn’t have to complain about anything. Instead, I quickly invited a carpenter to mend some of the broken chairs and tables.”
The carpenter repaired over 20 broken chairs and tables on her own bill, to the admiration of other teachers.
Opurum also recalled that there was a building which the parish priest of the church just vacated after a new one completed for him. His old mud house was vacant but dilapidated.
“I engaged some natives to rehabilitate the house for my living quarters. These efforts gave me the nick name, Lioness,”
Appeal to Imo State government
With tears streaming down her cheeks endlessly, Opurum is distraught; she does not know where to begin the search for gratuity and pension. Her greatest concern is the loss of her credentials to a midnight inferno that left nothing to recover in the village.
Her family has recently erected a new structure but nothing was recovered of her pile of books and documents.
She dreams of going back home but the thought of how to cope without pension fills her, particularly when there is no one else to help.
“I have been away from home for too long. Am grateful to my brother. But now I am homesick.
“If only my state Governor (Rochas Okorocha) can facilitate payment of my gratuity and pension, life will be more worthwhile if I go home.”
