NIGERIA'S LONGEST SERVING PRINCIPAL REV.FR. JEREMIAH DERMOT IS DEAD
The send-forth for Rev. Fr. Jeremiah Dermot
O’Connel, arguably, the longest serving principal of a public secondary school
in Nigeria.
Aged 83, the Irish national is returning home after
a 55-year stay in Nigeria, 50 of which he spent as the principal of Government
Secondary School, Minna. His sojourn began in 1962 in Calabar, Cross River
State, one year after his ordination as a Catholic priest. He arrived as a
missionary of the Order of St. Patrick, the patron Saint of Ireland.
After working at the Calabar and Ikot Ekpene Diocese
for five years, O’Connel was deployed to Niger State. He went straight into
education in 1967, starting as a supervisor of schools owned by the Catholic
Mission, known as the Catholic Prefecture of Minna. He was appointed principal
of Fatima Co-Education, now Government Secondary School, Minna.
Expectedly, men and women, the old, young from all
walks of converged on the Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi International Conference
Centre, Minna, to bid goodbye to a man, described as “the last man standing.”
Nicknamed, “Jack of all trade and Master of all” by
his former students due to his penchant for walking into any classroom without
a teacher and taking students on any subject including Islamic Religious
Studies (IRS), he was said to be the most respected principal of public schools
in the state.
As a show of appreciation, the Emir of Minna, Alhaji
(Dr.) Umar Farouk Bahago, conferred on him the traditional title of “Jagaban
Ilimin Minna”, meaning, the custodian of knowledge of Minna, when O’Connel paid
him a farewell visit in his palace.
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