A Visit from the District Permanent Secretary





The Lagos State Ministry of Education had decided to group all the public schools in Lagos into six districts. Each district had a Tutor-general or Permanent secretary overseeing matters around there, and their jobs included occasional visits to schools under their districts, inspection and all such. My school, Egan Senior Grammar school–a wide school compound with class-rooms that were more like chicken coops–was one of the many schools under DISTRICT I.

And so, we arrived that morning to news of a visit from our Permanent secretary. Our principal, Mrs ???, preened at the sleeves of her suit jacket as she announced it to us on the assembly ground. She didn't miss out the very important detail that the permanent secretary was an Oyibo woman. A white woman. And that meant everything had to be very white, from the school compound to the very language. No vernacular, if the need arose for any one of us to speak.

The other teachers, who were wearing suits, too, ran around and supervised cleanups. There really was not much to entice any sophisticated visitors with in our school. But we did work on that day.  We made sure that each shrub in the morning-glory-lined avenue to the principal's office stood erect. We swept the whole compound. We cleared some weed.  Then we all went into our classrooms, silent as an empty room.  We watched our teachers through the windows: they were seriously scurrying around, all in their good behavior.

Then we heard the permanent secretary had arrived. The messenger who was stationed at the gate had sprinted down to relay the message. Our teachers lined up at the assembly ground, all preening their suits and practicing their smiles. A car drove in and pulled up in front of them. A lanky old woman ducked out of the car.

She was wearing a faded Ankara gown, and an Ankara hair-tie. I felt shame.

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