M. G. Ejaife
| McNeil Gabriel Ejaife | |
|---|---|
| Senator of Western Region | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1912 Okpara Inland, Ethiope East LGA, Delta State, Nigeria |
| Died | 6 March 1972 |
M. G. Ejaife (born 1 June 1912 – 6 March 1972) was an Urhobo nationalist from Okpara Inland and the first principal of the premier Urhobo College Effurun, Warri. He was one of two recipients of scholarship awards from Urhobo Progress Union during World War II years. (The other recipient was G. N. Igho.) He returned to Nigeria after his graduation with a B.A. degree of Durham University in 1948, thus becoming the first Urhobo graduate. He then became the founding Principal of Urhobo College, Effurun. He brought that famous secondary school to its great heights in many fields. Mr. Ejaife later served in many other capacities in Urhobo affairs. He was Urhobo's first Senator, serving with distinction in Nigeria's Upper Chamber during the country's First Republic.
McNeil Gabriel Ejaife was born 1 June 1912 to Utujoh Ejaife of Okpara and Temienor Akpowhowho of Eku at Okurekpo in Agon, an Urhobo Clan in Delta State of Nigeria. Okpara Inland is a community located in the Ethiope East local government area of Delta State Nigeria. This community is a progeny of the Agbon Kingdom. He was one of three siblings. The oldest was a woman. His two brothers were Frederick Obodeti Ejaife, a lawyer, and Johnson Jakovo Ejaife, a medical doctor. He also had three other brothers from a different mother. One of them James Madedon Ejaife, a tailor who lived at the Ejaife house at Okpara Waterside. He was named McNeil after the captain of a British ship with whom his mother did some trading business.
Okpara was mainly a farming community when Ejaife was young, the crops grown there such as yams, okra and cassava were cultivated largely by families and clans. His father was a hardworking peasant whose ancestors were all highly respected members of the community.
He attended Anglican school at Okpara and then went to St Andrews Teacher’s training college Oyo, in Oyo State. Some of his contemporaries at St Andrews were: Dr S Taiwo, a former federal permanent secretary of education; chief Ajasin, a former minister in the Nigeria federal government; the Rev Alayonde former principal of the international secondary school at the University of Ibadan. Following graduation from there in the early 1930s, he went to Warri where he taught at the CMS elementary until the latter part of the 1930s.
He later moved to Ibuzor in Delta State where he was to teach at St Thomas’s teacher’ training College until returning to Warri in 1943. During that time he devoted himself to extramural studies and sat for and obtained his London Matriculation, as it was then called. At about that time, his hard work studiousness were recognized by the Urhobo People, particularly Chief Mukoro Mowoe. Under the latter’s leadership, plan were being made to create a secondary school. Because of the potential seen in McNeil Ejaife, he was awarded a scholarship to study abroad.
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