I Wanted To Be A Medical Doctor, Says Nigeria’s Best Teacher

Dr. Mary Adebayo Oluwaseun is the winner of the Overall Best Teacher award for 2026 at the Federal Government’s President’s Teachers’ and Schools’ Excellence Awards. In this interview with THE WHISTLER’s CHIKA MEFOR-NWACHUKWU , the 53-year-old mother of three and a teacher at Nawair-Ud-Deen Grammar School, Abeokuta, Ogun State, shares her inspiring journey from wanting to be a medical doctor to becoming the nation’s best teacher, and how she now uses AI to make learning come alive.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A TEACHER?

I got into teaching in 1990 when I completed my Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) programme at Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta. But I started with private school. It was in 1999 that I joined the civil service; Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM), Ogun State.

MANY PEOPLE ARE RUNNING AWAY FROM TEACHING. What Made You DECIDE YOU WANTED TO BE A TEACHER?

I didn’t want to become a teacher by will. I was also running away from teaching as many other were running. I didn’t even want to be one because my father happened to be a teacher.

Since my primary school days, I was helping him to writing lesson notes because he was using it to teach me to have good handwriting. Whether I liked it or not, I must sit down to help him write his lesson notes.

My father taught in our community school. But the way teachers were treated while I was in primary school, I didn’t like it. Sometimes, when my father had beaten his students in class because they did not perform well, after we got to the playground, they would abuse me. I would be the one that would receive the feedback of my father’s treatment.

So I didn’t imagine my children passing through that stress again. That was the first reason I didn’t want to go into teaching.

Apart from that, I love medicine. When I see doctors in their uniforms attending to lives in hospitals, I want to be there. If you asked me in my secondary school days what I wanted to do, I would say medicine.

I attempted several times to get admission. One of my sisters said, instead of sitting at home, I should go to Teacher’s college. She said when I am done, at least you have something doing. With the little you get from teaching, you can sponsor yourself to go into whichever course you want. So I took the advice and that was how I came to Abeokuta for my NCE.

When I came to Abeokuta, I joined Water Corporation. I was working with them. I gathered some money to get the form for admission.

I had already applied for Science Laboratory Technology at FUNAAB. I didn’t know my admission letter had been sent home. My mother collected it. She didn’t open it. She just kept it. By the time I got back home, the admission year had already closed.

When I went back to Abeokuta, I went to Isale-Igbehin, that was where we had University of Agriculture then. I went to check the list on the board and saw my name. I tried to see if I could still come in, but when I saw the payment, N10,000. Who would give me N10,000? My pay at Water Corporation was N300 per month. I just had to let it go.

And that was how I went for NCE.

It was when I got into the school and started the training that I began to develop interest. The motto we have in my school then – “We will mould you to be able to build others and build nations.” The thing kept ringing in my mind. “You will mould me that I will be able to build a nation.”

Before I finished the three-year programme, I already had passion for teaching, especially little children. Then, teacher salary was N1,300 around 1996 when I finished. Some private schools paid N2,000.

So, I went to private school. I taught in about five or six private schools before I got employment in government on July 23rd, 1999.

Since then, I’ve not regretted teaching. I’ve been enjoying it. Working with the children… when you start with them, you will think they don’t know anything, and within two, three weeks or a month of working with them, you see the growth. You see the difference. That brings me joy.

WHAT IS THAT ONE MOMENT THAT MADE YOU PROUD TO BE A TEACHER?

Actually, at many points in time, the aspect I love most – I am a science teacher. I love when somebody is teaching me and I can see what they are teaching come alive.

All glory to God, that honour goes to one of my teachers. He is late now. Mr. Tilola, of blessed memory. He was my Biology teacher.

When he was to teach us titration, he was taking Biology and Chemistry together because nobody could take Chemistry. He said all the reagents in the lab, he was not sure of their contents again because all the labels were gone. So he would improvise and make sure we were able to do titration.

He distributed work to us in groups. Some groups collected lime. We were asked to get lime, squeeze it, sieve it and bring the juice to school. Some were asked to look for wood ash, dissolve it in water, sieve it and bring the water. We have hibiscus flower in the school.

He asked us to get plenty of hibiscus flowers from around the school and from elites in the community. We gathered everything and took it to the lab. He said we should pour the hibiscus flower in water and begin to pound. After pounding, we added water to get the fluid out. We used that solution as our methyl orange indicator. The lime was our acid, and the wood ash water was our base.

He said, put this one in the burette, put this one in the pipette. We titrated and we got the correct end point. I said, wow. These are teachers at work.

So when I got into the work proper, I said if somebody could go this far to improvise, I will also, as God gives me opportunity, improvise and make my class alive. I go the extra mile. Anything I can get as instructional material to make the topic come alive, I will get it. I don’t just want them to pass exam, I want them to master it and be able to relate it to what is happening in the environment.

By the grace of God, I teach Agricultural Science. I love farming. I take my students to the farm. Any topic I want to teach, I make sure I relate it to what is happening in the environment.

I HEAR YOU ARE NOW USING AI IN CLASS?

Presently, I am working on a website where I want to develop a kind of simulation where students can learn Chemistry in their mother tongue. The work is in progress. It is one of the things I uploaded for my award.

I went for a training organised by a foundation on digital literacy for teachers. It was a great exposure to me. They taught us how we can use AI and other tools to make our class lively.

Immediately I am trained, I come back to class to use whatever I’ve been taught. I give my students the scheme of work ahead of class. So I am learning together with my students.

With AI, I teach them ethical use and responsible use.

Some parents were arguing, “You want to spoil them, they will not be able to think.” I called one of the parents one day, I said, sit down. “Mummy, when you were growing up, what were you using to grind pepper?” She said grinding stone. I asked her how easy it was. She said it was not easy. I said what do you use now? She said blender.

I said, if you will not use AI, that means you will not use blender again. Go back to grinding stone. Technology has brought advancement helping women in the house. How long did you use your hands to wash clothes? Why did you embrace washing machine? Because it makes work less cumbersome.

Yes, AI has shortcomings, but there is nothing in life that has good things that will not have bad. Let’s teach students to run away from the bad, but embrace the good aspect to complement what the teacher is teaching.

Since 2020, after COVID, I’ve been teaching online. My students can hold meetings online conveniently on Google Meet or Zoom.

WHAT WERE THE THINGS THAT MADE YOU EXCEPTIONAL AND EARNED YOU THIS AWARD? DO YOU THINK IT WAS YOUR WORK IN AI AND TECHNOLOGY?

I believe it will be one of those things. We all submitted our work to the Ministry of Education online. We were told that before now, it was hard copy – everybody will bring photo album and they will go through and read. But this year it was changed because some people were complaining that it was not fair.

They said nobody should collect hard copy again. They brought other people into the selection process, apart from the ministry.

So I believe it was God. I didn’t know anybody. Before now, I am one of those that say they know those they want to pick. So I said I am not troubling myself. But people told me, “Mummy, you have all it takes. Go and put in.”

When I teach my students, we go to the farm. Before teaching them how to plant, I tell them the entrepreneurial aspect – how do you sell after production? I have some practical activities we did in school that I posted on social media too.

HOW DID YOU FEEL THAT DAY THEY ANNOUNCED YOU AS WINNER?

They had told us they selected three of us from each category – first, second and third position. But who will be first, second or third, nobody knew. I told myself that even if it was third position I receive, it is still something big.

One of the awardees told me she had won the award before and she has been coming from another state.

So when we got to Eagle Square Abuja for the national award – I had already won best teacher in senior category in Oyo State, my husband went to collect the state award on my behalf that same day – we were at the national venue.

At Eagle Square that day, the MC said if you are for the award, come out. I could not really move far because I was on crutches. They started calling names. The first person they called was the woman who said she had won before. She had already gone to where they parked the car, waiting to collect the car.

I even thought she had collected the car. When they were collecting awards and I didn’t hear my name, I said, was it a mistake? I was shaking where I stood.

Thank God for the NUT comrades, the delegate that came from my state. They stood by me and told me not to worry.

The announcer now called the last person and finally said ” Overall Best Teacher for 2026” and called my name. I burst into tears. I was not imagining it at all.

I give all glory to God that He surprised me.

HOW DO YOU FEEL THE AWARD WILL MOTIVATE YOU AND OTHER TEACHERS?

It is a big motivation…, a big special one because from that day now, I have already had so many other ideas coming in to do more.

Since that day, God has been helping me. I’m already putting up a programme for my students, for the teachers. Many teachers are already calling.

Nigerian Teachers are facing a lot; starting from our remuneration, the condition of service, and all the moral decadence we have in our society.

Many teachers now just go to school. If parents say, “Don’t help me train my child, leave them,” they say, “Let us do what they want and go to our house.” The mindset to go the extra mile as we did in the olden days is no longer there.

But what God has done for me, I know that hard work pays. God rewards hard work. It’s passion for the children. He knows these children we are taking care of are His own.

So I am already looking at how to start, what I can do with this opportunity, to call for philanthropists to come to our aid, to be able to bring education to life in our various schools. I have many dedicated teachers in our school that I’ve worked with over the years.

In terms of funding, we have a lot of problems. In terms of publicity like this that will bring hard work to limelight, I know God is using this opportunity to call everyone of us to come together to put our hands together to be able to give our nation a future.

APART FROM TEACHING, WHATELSE DO YOU DO?

I have a YouTube channel. I have a particular handle on YouTube where I talk on emotional education.

I talk mostly about the boy-child. When God gave me that inspiration, He said, we have so many people working on girl-child.

Many homes are having problems.. not because the women there were not well brought up but because of the men; the way they were brought up. I don’t see anybody talking about bringing up the boy-child. We neglect the boy child. We focus only on the girl-child. And when they now get married, it is whatever your husband has allowed you to do.

So God gave me that inspiration to build up the home emotionally.

Especially in most of our African culture, from their youthful age, we neglect the boy child. We allow the boy child to suffer so much. When anything happens to them, we pamper the girl child – “Oh sorry, sorry.” But if it is a boy child, “Keep your mouth shut. Don’t you know you are a boy? Why are you crying? Have you seen any man crying, sobbing like women outside?”

When things happen to them, maybe they lost their father or mother, you will see very few men crying compared to women. Because they were trained from onset that men should not cry. Boys should not cry.

So from early childhood, they grow that thick skin. They don’t feel emotionally. Many of them don’t feel at all because from the background, we have already battered their emotions.

God gave me strength on that, and I have written books on that.

WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE BOOK?

I have three of them. One is, Raising Emotionally Intelligent Boys, the second one is, The Heart of a Boy and the third is, Raising Tomorrow’s Men.

Whatever I get is for that particular mission – to educate boys and help them emotionally.

WHAT WILL BE YOUR ADVICE FOR YOUNG TEACHERS?

The only thing I will tell them is to keep up with their passion. Whatever your passion is, if you find yourself in teaching, see it as a noble profession. We might not be remunerated very well, but see that you are pouring into the heritage of God. That will surely pay back. You don’t know when it will pay.

I started working about 25 years ago, and see when God is paying me back.

Keep pouring. Keep working upon these children. I have so many of them who are in high places now. Many of them are more than me now.

So I always advise them, we should not be discouraged about whatever circumstances around our profession. And I believe God is raising the teaching profession very soon. Not only in Nigeria. God is giving us boost and better recognition.

They should not relent in their effort. Let us see the future of those children and keep working with them as co-labourers with God to be able to mould them, so that we can have a better future from them.

APART FROM THIS AWARD, WHAT DO YOU THINK GOVERNMENT SHOULD DO TO MOTIVATE TEACHERS?

Actually, on the aspect of motivating teachers, our joy is to see our children doing well.

On the aspect of boosting – good environment for teachers, good remuneration for us. Treat us as somebody that is worth good treatment. After all, we trained doctors, we trained lawyers. God has used us to build so many of them.

I am not saying all of us are good. We might not be as good as the products we have produced, because that is the prayer of every parent – that our children will be better off. God is answering that prayer for teachers. Our children go to any profession and do well. But the way they come back to pay us back is not too good.

It is affecting our morale. The interest is already coming down.

Whatever anybody can do – philanthropists, organisations, even every other profession – to come out to rally around teachers to be able to help us do this work very well, to build the next generation very well, I believe it is not too much.

Imagine some of us. Many of us travelled far. When we go to where we teach, especially in primary schools and public schools, come and see the condition of service, where we work, our offices, the chair we are sitting on and our tables.

I thank God for people that are looking into our side – like Maltina Teacher of the Year, the Ideal Teacher, the Global Teacher, and the Federal Government coming into this issue of giving us this award. It has great impact.

Come and see the way my colleagues have been celebrating me. It’s a big encouragement to teachers if we can have more people coming in at local government level, at state level, not only federal government.

Government is trying, especially Oyo State. I give it to our governor and the Commissioner for Education. This team is wonderful. They are doing good work. We have many technology devices in our schools now, professional training for teachers that is helping us to be able to do well and compete in this 21st century.