I don’t know where Patience is at the moment, but if I could run into her today, I would ensure my daughters also meet her and recount the stories of how she inspired me and my classmates to be better students… I always tell my daughters to aspire to be like Patience – a daring, conquering, fearless and ultimately, caring human being.
International Women’s Day is set aside by the United Nations to highlight the achievements of the womenfolk, as well as commemorate their struggles for basic rights across the world. I always chose a day like this to pay tribute to women whose different roles in my life have moulded me into who I am today.
Looking back, many have achieved the statuses of ‘jewels of inestimable value’ through the responsibilities they’ve shouldered, knowingly and unknowingly, in shaping me into appreciating the world and its people, in their true colours.
In the formative years of my life, some time between the ages of seven and 12, I came into contact with Patience Gilbert. Like many of my neighbours and colleagues, we were then students of Demonstration Nursery and Primary School, the staff school of the then Government Teachers College (TC) in Yola town, then capital of Gongola State.
I left Demonstration Primary School in 1989, but 28 years after I last saw Patience, I still relish the impact she has had on my life and, I am sure that many of our classmates still appreciate her brilliance till date. Patience was among the smallest in stature in the class, yet at the end of every school term, she stood taller than every one of us due to her academic brilliance.
Patience had always emerged at the top of her class every single term from primary one till six; well, except for one term. How she managed to do that still beats my imagination, considering that the class had one of the best brains in the history of the school. The only one time I recall Patience not being on top of the class was in the second term of our Primary 4. I beat her to second position, and for the whole day, from when the result was released by our class teacher, Patience wept uncontrollably, until her mother was summoned by the school authorities to console her.
The fierce competitive spirit in her, despite her small stature and despite being a boy-dominated environment, made a lasting mark on me. To right the wrong of that second term in Primary 4, no one ever got close to her ‘dear’ first position until we left primary school.
During school terms, Patience always served the role of a supplementary teacher by coming forward to share her knowledge with the class whenever the need arose. Many students met her in her spare time to ask questions about lessons taught, and she never failed to offer help. I’ve met many women in the course of those 28 years since I last saw and heard of Patience, but any time I remember her kind and warm heart, I smile.
I have two daughters, and I have always regaled them with the story of Patience and how she left each and every one of her classmates, their father inclusive, in her trail, with each one of us marvelling at her brilliance.
At that young age, all we cared for was getting higher grades in class. I don’t know where Patience is at the moment, but if I could run into her today, I would ensure my daughters also meet her and recount the stories of how she inspired me and my classmates to be better students. I will narrate how she deployed her brilliance, at no cost, to help less endowed classmates reach the finish line, with smiles on their faces. I will tell the story of how a very young girl dominated her environment and set the pace for all to follow, and how one of my biggest rivals in class was also my chief motivator. I always tell my daughters to aspire to be like Patience – a daring, conquering, fearless and ultimately, caring human being.
Happy International Women’s Day.
Imam Imam is a Sokoto-based journalist; Twitter: @imamdimam
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