Missouri, United States of America based Dr Tony Dehinde Fagbemi was among prominent sons and daughters of Egbeland, Kogi State conferred with Merit Awards during this year’s edition of Egbe Unity Day. The events took place in Egbe, Yagba West Local Government Area on October 12, 2024.
The award was in recognition of Dr Fagbemi’s meritorious contribution to the development of Egbeland.
The name Tony Fagbemi rings a bell, most especially to his students in Titcombe College Egbe in the 1980s. He was at various times, Art Teacher and School’s Games Master. While his earliest youth days were spent in Isanlu, Yagba East Local Government Area, where his father served meritoriously as a school headmaster, Tony Fagbemi had a firm grip of his attachment to his hometown, Egbe.
A son of a teacher and a headmaster, Pa Fagbemi Adu and mother, Mrs Abigail Fagbemi, a business woman, Pa Adu Fagbemi was born at Etijakuru, Apoto, Egbe.
He did his elementary and primary education at Isanlu, East Yagba Local Government. As q result of this, he missed his growing and formative years at Egbe. He went for his high school education at Igbaja Teacher’s College. However, upon graduation, he requested to be posted to Egbe. His main reason was to learn and understand the culture and language of his people and be able to speak it. He was posted to salvation Army Elementary School, Egbe where he taught for three years. At the end of the third year, he gained admission into College of Education, Kano, affiliate of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.
Upon completion, he was posted to Titcombe college, Egbe where he taught for two years and thereafter, he proceeded to the University where he completed his Bachelor’s degree (BA Hons). Dr Fagbemi returned to Titcombe College, Egbe for another four years.
He had a Federal Government of Nigeria’s scholarship to study abroad, in America, precisely for two years where he obtained his Master’s Degree, M.Ed, at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He returned to Egbe to serve for two more years. This marked the end of his long stay at home and in Nigeria.
Thereafter, he was awarded an American University Post-graduate Scholarship for his Ph.D. at Ohio University, Athens. Upon completion of his degree in 1994, he joined the American workforce, which gave him the teaching privileges to teach at all levels of American System of Education up to the University level.
Dr Tony Dehinde Fagbemi is married with children. He loves Egbe with a passion, in his words “May be because I missed my childhood and formative years growing up there. It is for this reason that I shall continue to donate or contribute from my God-given resources, materials and intellectual, towards making Egbe, the shining city on the hill”.
