NAPPS

‘TIGHT CORNERS’

In the life of your school, there are many situations in which you will find yourself and it will appear as if you wouldn’t survive it. We have faced many of such situations in the past. One thing that I have discovered however is that at a point which you sometimes may not even know precisely, the problem just appear to evaporate. Let me share some of our tight corners which we never expected to come out of, but we actually survived and even made progress.

PAYMENT OF APPROVAL FEES.
When our school was approved in 1987, it was like a miracle because the officer in charge at the zonal office had told me frankly that the school would not be approved though we met the required standard, as I was not able to afford giving him the amount he demanded. He promised us however that the ministry would not disturb us about approval, and that we should just be content with running the school illegally. One day however, my wife challenged me that since the commissioner for education is a human being, I should seek her audience and explain myself to her.
I took up the challenge and went to the ministry of education at Abeokuta. I went straight to the office of the commissioner who was then a woman. The secretary asked me if I had an appointment with her, but I just told him that she would want to see me. I was then asked to come back by 2pm. As I was ushered into her office, she asked me, “Young man, what can I do for you?” I responded, ‘When I finished my youth corps, I decided to start a school with my savings and some loans but the school has not been approved because according to the Zonal Education Officer, you said the school should not be approved”. Surprised, she asked whether we have met the basic conditions for approval and I answered in the affirmative.
The commissioner then asked me go to the concerned director’s office and tell him that she wanted the file of our school on her table within ten minutes. Getting to the director’s office could not have been less than four minutes. By the time I told the director, he asked me, how I got to the commissioner’s office. While not even waiting for my answer, he practically ran with me to the commissioner’s office, to be able to get there within ten minutes. He submitted the file and bowed. After looking through the file, she asked him why the school had not been given approval, but before he could put his answer together, the commissioner authorized the approval and just told me that she was confident that I would be able to run a good school and that whenever she was in Ijebu, she would visit the school. When I got home, we celebrated, thinking that the battle was over.
The approval fee was N2,250 (Two thousand, two hundred and fifty Naira only). Some weeks later, I received a letter that if we did not pay the fees in another two weeks, the approval would be withdrawn. I knew where the battle was coming from so we started running up and down to be able to raise the money, all to no avail. I did everything that I could, but we could not raise the money. When all hope had been lost, I decided to write a letter to the ministry that since the given deadline was about one month to the end of the session, we should be given the grace to remain open to the end of the session, so that we might distribute the children to other schools before winding up! We could not just imagine how we could raise N2,250! It was a tight corner which we felt we could never escape from.
But guess what! before the date, God did it somehow through a source which we never expected. The money was raised and the closure of the school was averted.
Can you imagine not being able to raise that ridiculous amount!
There may be situations like that in the life of your school right now. It may not really be a payment to the government. It may be a loan repayment which you are looking at and can’t imagine how it would come, let me just assure you that somehow, the LORD will do it.

PAYMENT OF RENT.
The payment of rent was another big source of headache. We were never able to pay our rent as at when due. The compound in which we started the school comprised of two new buildings of four flats each. We started by renting two flats, one for school and one for residence. When the initial three months which we paid for expired, to pay the next month was a problem. At each point that we needed to pay, we would disappoint the landlord. However, despite the fact that we were not good tenants in terms of paying as at when due, we kept on taking more flats until we took up six out of the eight flats. I don’t know what made him to give more flats to us, but that was exactly what he did. We just appeared not to have enough to pay at the end of the month, but we kept getting more flats.
The landlord was based in Ibadan but a native of Ijebu, who would just come around during the weekend unannounced. One weekend, he came around unannounced and we were owing. When I heard the sound of a Mercedes Benz on that Saturday and I realized that it was the landlord, I became afraid and asked my wife, ‘What explanation shall we give baba for the two month arrears?’ We decided to hide and not show up that we were at home. Before hiding inside, I quickly called our first child, Lola and told her that the landlord had come and we didn’t want him to know that we were around. So she was asked to tell the landlord that we were not around. Lola was then probably about seven to eight years old. She quickly went downstairs, greeted the landlord and his wife. When they asked her about daddy and mummy, Lola innocently told them the truth; "Daddy and mummy said they are not at home!”
The landlord started lambasting us again, fully convinced that we were hearing him, “God bless you my daughter for telling me the truth. I wonder if they are thinking that this is their parents property, they must move out of this property, bastards!” The quit notice came the following week, but somehow, we did not move out as God took control.
In your own situation too, there may be quit notices from your landlord or even from your spouse. However, the truth is that if God is not yet ready to get you out of that property, even the landlord’s quit notice will not be of any effect. Don’t allow yourself to develop hypertension because of it. That same God that helped us in that situation is still on the throne and will help you out in Jesus name.

OUR GOOD NEWS THAT CREATED PROBLEM.
At a stage, we completed our residence and my wife said it would not be good for us not to tell the landlord. I tried to convince my wife that it could be risky as he may increase our rent but at the end of the day, we decided that we should inform him. Consequently, we travelled to Ibadan to see him and get him informed. We got there and informed the landlord that we had been able to put up a place as our residence which was not within the town. We made him to know that we would still continue to make use of all the apartments that we had been using for school. We noticed that his wife did not come out throughout the period of our discussion. Even when baba went inside to tell her the reason for our visit, she refused to come out. Then he prayed for us and we left, not knowing that our good news was bad news to them! I don’t actually know what their thought line was, but the steps which they took afterwards made us to conclude that we should not have informed them.
The following month, our rent was increased from N360 to N720per month for the six flats. We agreed to pay because we had no choice. The building we put up was a four bedroom bungalow which we intended to serve as our residence as we were even afraid to move the school to the permanent site due to the fact that it was at the outskirts of the town. We believed that the school could not survive moving to the site at once.
Then one month later he came to inspect the house and decided that we should repaint all the flats, which we also did. After repainting the flats, he came back and told us that we should have used gloss to paint the walls, whereas he originally used emotion paints. We also agreed, and started painting with gloss. On completion, he inspected the flats and appeared to be satisfied. Then the following month, he served us quit notice. In fact, he went to the customary court, settled them and we were asked to move out immediately. Can you imagine a court asking a tenant that is using six flats as well as temporary structures in the premises to move out with immediate effect!
Luckily for us, when the quit notice came, it was a few days to vacation. We just made up our mind that enough was enough! We decided to move to the permanent site, despite the fact that we had not put any structure in place. Consequently, during the holidays, we raised the fence of our land and constructed shed along the fence as temporary classrooms. The length of the shed was about 240 feet. Parents were then informed that we would resume the following term at the permanent site.
Three days to resumption, a rainstorm came and destroyed more than half of the temporary structure we made, pulling the fence down along with it. It was a devastating experience which really demoralized us. Had it been that we did not really make up our mind, we would have probably looked for people that would help us to beg the landlord for us to return to the old site. However, we had already made up our mind. One thing that really reduced the burden on us was that when we were about roofing the temporary structure, we wanted to use asbestos sheets to reduce heat, but could not get someone to sell to us on credit. A lot of disappointments in life turns out to be blessings in disguise. Had it been we used asbestos slates, the whole sheets would have been broken into unusable pieces but the roofing sheets were reused. It was indeed a disastrous moment in the history of the school. Among the proprietors that heard about it and visited us were Chief. (Mrs.) Sola Olunuga of Floret, Mrs. G.A. Osinubi of Gloria Schools and Mrs. Antonio of Bevola. The first two donated a bundle of roofing sheets, while Mrs. Antonio donated a ceiling fan. It was a tight corner which circumstances boxed us into, never expecting us to get out of it. Just as we got out of it and blossomed, so will be your own testimony in Jesus name.
Many parents withdrew their children initially, but after one term, most of them came back and the structures on ground gradually grew from the pitiable state of that time over the years to its present enviable state.
When the landlord discovered that we had successfully settled on the permanent site, he further sued us for N2 million damages. Through it all, he only succeeded in moving us to our permanent site to flourish, much earlier than we planned it. There are problems that God will use to take you to your place of fulfillment, may you experience such problems in Jesus name.

SAME DAY RESIGNATION OF FIFTEEN TEACHERS.
During the loan repayment crisis, a lot of things were upside down in the school. The loan could not be repaid as at when due and we could not pay salaries. In a situation like that, problems would just be multiplying. Then came July 2015, fifteen nursery and primary teachers resigned at the end of the session on the same day. It was more devastating because many of them were well trained teachers that have gone through various trainings in the Montessori method of education and were well experienced. It was as if the whole world would collapse on the school. You can imagine the bad publicity that such mass resignation would bring for the school. Guess what! the LORD took us out of it. Sincerely speaking, I don’t know how our Junior school survived it, but we did! Despite everything, some core staff remained which kept the boat afloat by the grace of God.
The experience may make you to conclude that it is not worth it to invest on the training of teachers but then we realized that it wasn’t by our own strength that we came out of such a time like that. Most teachers are with you because they need their salaries, one may understand if they desert you when the going gets tough or when they get better offer. However, it was a tight corner which many felt we could never escape.

The lessons which we learnt from our own tight corners were as follows;

Never Lose Hope.
‘And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren’. (Luk.22:31-32)

When you are boxed into any of your own tight corners, remember the scripture above. In it, Jesus told Peter that the enemy would scatter his life just as like when wheat is being sifted. However, the only prayer of Jesus for him was that his faith would not fail. In other words, that he would not lose hope. When hope is lost, it means everything is lost. When you see someone that committed su***de, it is just because he lost hope that the situation in which he found himself would never improve. Never lose hope in any situation, the devil, or the circumstances around you will make it to appear as if you can’t get out of the situation, but I have good news for you, it is just a lie, you will not only get out of it but actually share the testimony with others later.

Every Problem Has An Expiry Date.
If you buy any drug, check it very well, an expiry date will be inscribed on the package, so is every tight corner which you may find yourself as a proprietor. When a problem appears, it may have it’s duration but will expire one day, and guess what? You will survive it. However turbulent it may appear for you now, it is just matter of time, it will become history in the success story of your school.

You Are Not Alone.
When you are facing a problem as a proprietor, never succumb to the feeling that you are the only one experiencing it. There are numerous school owners that are going through the same challenges and probably worse situations. Consequently, you must never succumb to the idea that your situation is unique. There are a lot of situations that will definitely make you to suspect that it is your enemies that are at work. You may be right, as there are situations that may be the handiwork of dark forces, but if you cultivate the habit of believing that every uncomfortable situation is the work of the enemy, then, you may not be leaving the place of your herbalist, prophet, alfa or whoever is serving as your contractor in consulting God. However, if you believe that even if it is the work of the enemy, the scriptures says concerning such situations;

‘Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me:
whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake’ (Isa.54:14)

If you believe, all you need to do is to claim your victory, which was won for you by Jesus on the cross.

Learn To Hand Over To God, What You Can’t Handle.
Some of the challenging situations can be handled by you effectively, others may be handled with varying degrees of difficulty, there are many that you may not be able to handle on your own. If you discover that you find yourself in a tight corner and there is no way of escape, there is still something you can do; hand it ver to God! Such was the situation in which king Hezekiah found himself in the Bible, look at the way he handled it:

‘And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD’ (2Ki.19:14)

If you can learn to hand over to God, those matters beyond your capacity, you will see God settling the matter in a way that will make you to trust him more.

It May Be For Your Own Good.
We also learnt that there are terrible situations that may occur in the life of your school which may later turn out for your own good. For instance, all the trouble that we went through via our landlord might have been God’s way of moving us to our permanent site at His own time. Recently, I visited a proprietor who got some plots of land for his permanent site but since he was comfortable at the place he was using, he just built his residence and felt relaxed where he was. He just suddenly discovered one day that someone bought the land opposite him and started building a school. Incidentally the person was well known to him. Now he is thinking of selling the land and looking for another location to avoid unnecessary competition. It would have taken us a very long time to develop the site as we were so much apprehensive that the distance would affect our enrollment drastically. In fact, we were not planning to leave the former premises at all.
Despite it all, instead of nursing ill feelings towards our landlord for treating us that way, we thanked God for using him to speed up our movement. There may be a trusted staffer that suddenly leaves, don’t feel too disappointed, it may be the best time for him to leave for the future well being of your school.

CONCLUSION.
In the life of your school, you are going to meet with situations that will appear like being boxed to a tight corner, without any hope of escape. However, be assured that the difficult situation of today will become a testimony tomorrow. So shall it be for your school in Jesus name.

(Culled from LESSONS IN SCHOOL PROPRIETORSHIP by Dr. Mike Oluniyi)