It was a gathering of passion, purpose and reflection as teachers from across Ekiti state at the weekend converged on the Alfa Belgore Hall, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, ABUAD for the 2026 Let There Be Teachers Conference themed “From Record to Reform: A National HOPE Attempt for Teachers.”
The conference, convened by Dr Oluwaseyi Anifowose and hosted in partnership with Afe Babalola University, moved advocacy for teachers from celebration to concrete reforms bordering on welfare, professional development and national honour.
Ekiti State Coordinator of the movement, Mrs Taiwo Babawale, who set the tone for the event, described teachers as the true architects of Nigeria’s future and the light that guides society from darkness.
“I am standing before you today, because a teacher cared. That is the power of our profession. That is the weight of your calling,” Babawale said, recalling how a single sentence of encouragement from a teacher changed the trajectory of her life.
She said the conference was not a talk shop but a deliberate shift from celebration to commitment, noting that Ekiti, as the Fountain of Knowledge, was the right place to begin a national conversation on teacher reform.
Delivering the keynote address, the Vice-Chancellor of ABUAD, Prof. Smaranda Olarinde, said teaching remains central to nation-building, yet the profession continues to sit far from the centre of national priorities.
“When I received the invitation to deliver this keynote address and considered the theme, I did not see merely a topic. I saw a mirror, and I saw a mandate: Let there be teachers, let there be light!” Olarinde said.
Olarinde said Nigeria has a mixed record, with teachers producing generations of doctors, lawyers and leaders despite poor conditions, and warned that delayed salaries and lack of dignity have made many young people hesitant to join the profession.
She proposed a national HOPE framework standing for Honour, Opportunity, Professional Development and Empowerment, stressing that welfare, prompt salary payment, sustained mentorship and restoration of social honour for teachers must anchor any serious reform.
Convener of the conference, Dr Oluwaseyi Anifowose, said the gathering was inspired by the 2025 Guinness World Record feat where over 15,000 teachers assembled at Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, for the largest gathering of teachers in the world.
“The Guinness World Record was never the destination but it gave us something powerful: a platform from which to speak, a reason to gather, and an opportunity to make the voices of teachers louder,” Anifowose said.
Anifowose, who was joined on stage by his family, said the 2026 edition would move from state to state including Lagos, Kano, Edo and Abuja, to ensure that policies for teachers are shaped with teachers and not without them.
He said society must stop romanticising the suffering of teachers and treating passion as an excuse for neglect, insisting that teachers deserve decent salaries, housing, healthcare and dignified retirement.
Closing the Conference ,the Founder of Afe Babalola University, Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, described teachers as “the most enduring architects of national greatness”, noting that despite producing generations of leaders with little more than chalk and conviction, they have continued to work under poor welfare and delayed rewards, “and must now be honoured not just in heaven but on earth through better pay, sustained professional development and restored social dignity”.