Yesterday, thousands of teachers from Africa, North America, and Europe joined us for The TeacherFIRE® Revolution 2025, our annual global gathering held to celebrate World Teachers’ Day.
It was not just another conference. It was a re-commitment to a vision that was born out of pain, purpose, and personal encounters, encounters that shaped my life and destiny.

I grew up in a village school. I met teachers who blessed me, and I met teachers who bruised me.
One teacher, a woman of faith, taught me a song at age seven:

“Good news, good news, Christ died for me…”
I have never forgotten that song. She planted eternal truth in my heart.

But there was another, a teacher who called me “devil” at age ten and made my classmates avoid me. That wound stayed with me for years. I learned early that while teachers can shape, they can also shatter.

Then came Mr. Tugbobo my English teacher in secondary school. At seventeen, I could barely speak English. He saw my struggle and, without collecting a dime, took me under his wing. He tutored me after school. One year later, I earned a distinction in the very subject that once humiliated me.

Today, English is my tool of trade, the language in which I advocate, teach, write, and serve nations.

That is what a teacher with a heart can do.

Why the Revolution Began

In 2010, I asked myself a troubling question:

“How do we talk about protecting children without protecting the teachers who shape their daily realities?”

Teachers carry a divine and national assignment, to educate, nurture, and mold destinies, yet many are demoralized, underpaid, and invisible.

We demonize teachers when they fall short, but we rarely empower them to stand tall.
And so, the TeacherFIRE® Revolution was born,  a movement to restore the dignity of teachers, renew their sense of purpose, and remind the world that the rights of teachers are inseparable from the rights of children.

For nearly 15 years, the Revolution has visited schools, trained and reached over 25,000 teachers, and inspired a culture where values meet knowledge, and discipline meets compassion.

From Lagos to London, from Abuja to Atlanta, our message has remained the same:

When we pay peanuts, we hire monkeys, but when we honor teachers, we raise nations.

The Teachers Who Made Me, and the Nation We Must Become

On this World Teachers’ Day, I celebrate every teacher who believed in me, and by extension, every teacher who still believes in a child today, despite the odds.
You may not always have perfect classrooms, but you have the perfect instrument: your heart.

One of The TeacherFIRE® Creeds says:

“Care with your heart, the real definition of passion and patience.”

That kind of caring cannot be taught in a conventional classroom. It is modeled by people like Mama Ekundayo, who for forty years cared for abandoned children, not for recognition, but for love.

It is embodied by Steve Mariotti, who taught entrepreneurship to poor children in violent neighborhoods and changed their lives forever.

It is immortalized in Tai Solarin, who believed that “education must prepare the mind for freedom and the hands for service.”

These are the kinds of teachers who ignite revolutions without burning bridges.

A Nation’s Call

A nation that does not respect its teachers cannot claim to respect its children.
Every classroom, every child’s future, depends on the emotional, social, and professional welfare of those who teach.

So today, my call is simple yet urgent:

1. Honor teachers. Pay them what they deserve.
2. Equip teachers. Give them training, tools, and trust.
3. Protect teachers. Stand with them, not against them, when they act in the best interest of the child.
4. Celebrate teachers. Not once a year, but every day, because every child’s tomorrow is built in today’s classroom.
5. Locate the welfare of teachers within the national question.

Gratitude

To every teacher who joined us yesterday, thank you.
To every parent, principal, and policymaker who stood with us, thank you.
To every heart that burns with the TeacherFIRE®, thank you.

Let us keep the flame alive until every child learns from a teacher who is valued, respected, and free to teach with passion and patience.

Final Word

The TeacherFIRE® Revolution is more than a program; it is a movement of hearts and a call to conscience.

When we strengthen teachers, we strengthen children.

When we protect teachers’ rights, we protect children’s futures.

When we celebrate teachers, we rebuild nations.

Happy World Teachers’ Day 2025.
May your fire never burn out. 🔥