Life became a struggle

best education, so that if I had the best education, sit down and work hard, and have faith in God, the sky would be the limit. This was significant because he had given me that guidance, so when I realised he was not coming back, I realised what he talked about, and I decided I would do exactly what he said.”

His father’s elder brother saw him through primary school from proceeds from some of what the late Lambo left behind. He finished at 11, but could not take the entrance exams to secondary school because no one would pay his way. That was when the impact of the loss of his father hit him.

Since he could not proceed, his mother sent him to live with her brother, who she had sponsored to learn tailoring, in Ilesha. On arriving Ilesha, Lambo decided he wanted to learn photography.

“I was less than four feet, at that time they used this tripods which were heavy. My uncle took me to two good photographers and they declined to take me on as apprentice, that I could not even carry that tripod. I started crying, and my uncle consoled me, and said he would try get me a job as a shop attendant at Adeti which was a popular area for buying clothes.”

A clothes seller who was initially reluctant to employ him due to his small size, again, eventually did after he saw Lambo’s adeptness in calculations. He received one pound five monthly, in addition to five shillings which his uncle gave him as pocket money. He lasted six months there, and quit.

“He, the shop owner had some children who were in modern school. Those days there were no toilets, so people eased themselves into bowls, and in the evenings, the faeces is emptied into gutters. Either him or his children were doing that. So one day, he asked me to help him empty the faeces. I refused, and ran to tell my uncle. I said I will not do it and I will not go back to that shop. My uncle was not happy, the man apologised, but I refused to return just for the fact that he could suggest that to me when he had his own children.”

His uncle found him another job with another clothes trader where he worked for six months before getting another job, for two pounds monthly, working for a prominent Ilesha chief who was married to his aunt.

Back home in Isanlu, his father’s brother discussed with the manager of schools who promised to give Lambo a job as a teacher. So he was to return home; he had saved 21 pounds from working in Ilesha and his tailor uncle used part of the money to make seven khaki shorts and shirts, with three sandals, so he could dress appropriately as a teacher.

He returned home proudly with his new wardrobe in a newly purchased wooden box.

“I met the manager of schools, he took a look at me, he was a stammerer and said ‘baba ba...baba, ko...is eni to le gba eleyi si ise teacher,’ (baba, no one can take this one as a teacher) he is too small”. He said the inspectors from Kaduna would fire him. I burst into tears”

After a sleepless night, the manager agreed he would employ him, but would post him to a place, Boonu, where the inspectors would never visit, because the road there was really bad and vehicular transport was available only once a week.

“I went there, and we had to trek for about 42 miles, two days with my box on my head. By the time I got there, I had abscesses and for a whole month, I could not do anything. To show how small I was, the headmaster from the school who went home to marry and was returning with his new wife, was the one I travelled back with. They were going to give me a room in their house, they loved me and pitied me, instead of letting me stay in a room by myself, while I was in pains, I was sleeping in their room, they put their mattress on the floor, and put a mat and blankets on the bed frame so I slept on that. Imagine people who just got married, who needed all the privacy. It was after I recovered that I moved to my own room, and the wife was cooking for me. I was getting three pounds five monthly, and giving her one pound for my feeding.”

In between bouts of laughter, he described how since he was smaller than his smallest pupil, a bench was placed in front of the chalkboard for him to stand on, so he could write on the board. His pupils however liked and respected him, but nicknamed him “teacher kekere” (small teacher). He stayed in Boonu for seven months, and since he was cut of from ‘civilisation’, he could not take the entrance exam into secondary school.

“Luckily another manager of schools came to Isanlu, and this new one was from Ayetoro Gbede, and my uncle spoke with him and he transferred me to Ayetoro Gbede where I taught from 1957-1958. It was there I took the entrance exam to the Okene Teacher’s College. I wanted the college because it was free and the students even received an allowance of one pound monthly, and five pounds when going on holidays.I figured I could help my mother from that.” Lambo so much that he pulled strings to get him, Lambo a one year waiver from the two year period where the students were supposed to teach before returning to complete teacher training. When he returned, he became mates with his seniors.

He was posted to Ayetoro, again, for the teaching year. There he met one Mr. Omoshele, an advanced level student at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology in Zaria, who advised him to take GCE O levels instead of becoming a Grade one teacher.

“He guided me, he was God sent. By the time I went back to do Grade Two, I was now studying for my GCE o levels and concentrated on that, registered for eight subjects. I finished Grade two in December 1963 and stayed behind to write the GCE in January 1964, results came out and I passed all papers. Results of Grade two came out later and I had the best result in the North.”

“I decided to do my A levels, I bought books, crashed studied for the exams, and passed the exams. That was how I went to study Economics at the University of Ibadan on Northern Nigeria scholarship. I did not want medicine because I did not want to see blood.

By the time I finished, I already got a scholarship to go to the US, University of Rochester, New York. Later I came home to marry.”

He got his doctorate degree in 1980, in Operational Research from the University of Lancaster, United Kingdom, completing it in less than three years and becoming the first African to be granted a Fellowship of Operational Research in England.