SAYS Igbobi College had strong traditions and a great culture
My family is an Igbobi College family. Four of us went to Igbobi College-my oldest brother Bolajiwho left the school in 1979 (79/81 Set) and lives in the US; my immediate elder brother Bidemi who is of the 80/82 Set who also lives in America but is frequently in Nigeria; I left Igbobi in 1981 (81/83 Set) and my Abuja-based junior brother Borior better known these days as Supobelongs to the 83/85 Set.
Our late father, Solomon Babatunde Agbaje also attended Igbobi College and played in the school’s football team. I think he was of the 1954 graduating class. He was also a Senior Tutor at Igbobi College and we lived in staff quarters on the college campus until 1973 when he left to become Vice Principal at Oriwu College Ikorodu and later principal in other schools. So you can understand when we proudly define ourselves as an Igbobi College family!!!It was a minor
family tragedy that our youngest brother Femi could not attend Igbobi!
He was still in primary school in 1979 and thereafter attendance
at Lagos State-owned secondary schools was merely allocative on
the basis of no other criteria except proximity. In effect people who lived in Somolu could
be allocated to Igbobi College while residents around Ilupeju may
be dispatched to Baptist Academy-and that could be any of the
four, five or more schools created on those college campuses!!! One of the
genuine tragedies of public policy especially in the field of education is that
those of us who benefitted from first-class missionary education could no
longer send our own children to those schools… I was still in Igbobi
College in 1979 when the government of Alhaji Lateef Jakande in
Lagos State decided perhaps with some good intentions, to attempt
a defacto decimation not just of Igbobi, but the entire qualitative
public secondary school system in Lagos-CMS Grammar School,
Methodist Boys High School, Baptist Academy, St. Gregory’s College, St
Finbarrs College and others were all first-class boys high schools
equivalent to the standards in the United Kingdom and the USA
but none of them left the Jakande era in the state they
were prior to his administration.
The great girls’
schools fared no better-Methodist Girls High School, Holy
Child College, Raegan Memorial Baptist Girls School, Our Lady of Apostles,
Lagos Anglican Girls Grammar School all suffered from the
misguided educational policies of that period. The exceptional mixed school Maryland
Comprehensive High School was also a victim. It seems the Catholic
Schools-St Gregory’s, St Finbarrs, Holy Child and Maryland
Comprehensive and others fared slightly better than the others due to
the fierce resistance of the Catholic Mission under the then
indefatigable leadership of Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie. The main
school proprietors who suffered the inexplicable strategy to essentially
“destroy quality in order to expand access” were predominantly Christian
Missionary owned but the policy also affected a few prominent Muslim
Mission owned schools and some others owned by private individuals.
Some people believed Jakande bore resentment against elite
secondary schools due allegedly to some personal experiences during his stint
at Kings College, Lagos, but the same policy was deployed in
other then “UPN” states in Ogun, Oyo, Ondo and the
former Bendel State.
Jakande and the UPN
governors generally did a lot of good-in housing, roads and other
infrastructure, transportation, tertiary education, broadcasting, rural
development etc. but I don’t count the attempted subversion of quality public
secondary education as one of them. It was possible to create new schools and
expand access to free public education to the poor and the masses without
essentially destroying the good legacy secondary schools that were privately
owned. The outcome was that there were no models and education quality in Lagos
and the other Western States has not fully recovered since
then. Thanks to the government of Governor Bola Tinubu, his
policy and transition advisers and his then Commissioner for Education,
Professor Idowu Sobowale who implemented a policy of returning private
secondary schools such as Igbobi College and the others I have
mentioned in this article to their prior owners. But for that policy, there
probably would not have been any Igbobi College in the sense we
knew it and I most certainly would not be celebrating the schools’ 90th anniversary
now! That policy gave the Methodist and Anglican Missions,
who jointly founded Igbobi College and the Igbobi College
Old Boys Association (ICOBA) who are in effect the greatest
stakeholders in the school an opportunity to rebuild what was destroyed. And
yes, glory be to God, we have rebuilt that great school.
When my
classmates and I entered Igbobiin 1976, we resumed
with a new principal, MrTheophilus Akintunde Ojo (T.A Ojo) who was
taking over from the long-serving Chief J. O Olatunbosun. Mr Ojo was
perhaps fortuitously to depart Igbobias my set left in 1981
essentially defining him as “our” principal. It was fitting as we
returned to Igbobiin 2021, our 40th
anniversary of leaving the school to honourOjowith the
naming of T. A Ojo Street, the road leading to the principal’s
office after him. We also, led by the current executive, completed a renovation
project in the school’s Reverend Angus Memorial Hall at the same
time. It was my privilege ten years after we left Igbobi College in
1991 to become the first “President” (now Chairman)
of my set and to be re-elected twice such that I served three terms as leader
of that class. That class set has since become one of the most formidable and
vibrant sets in Igbobi with several projects that were recognized by ICOBA
during our recent fundraising dinner. It was also my greatest privilege
in 2019 to receive the cherished ICOBA National Merit Award
for Professional Excellence.
Igbobi College had strong
traditions and a great culture. We were brought up to be strong, disciplined,
courageous, diligent and independent and yet serious, focused and to seek to
make an impact, a positive one on society. We were also tough boys. We also
enjoyed ourselves tremendously. One of the great traditions of ICY were
the valiant and emotive songs we sang whenever we went to play football
matches- "We are the boys of the great IC, We are the boys of the I. C. Y.
Omnesunum in domino, All are one in the Lord, Our boys be of good
courage, Victory lies ahead, Our boys, be of good courage, Victory shall be
ours. U.P I. C UP IC”.Igbobi boys still feel very strong emotions
even today when we sing this and other songs. The irony is it didn’t matter
whether we won or lost those games! At Igbobi College, we
inherited a deep affinity for the girls at Methodist Girls High School and
it is not a coincidence that, like many Igbobians, my wife of 30 years,
Oluwatoyin nee Adeosunis an ex-MGHS girl!
At IgbobiI played football and captained my class’ football team;
I won a table tennis championship; I ran 800 and 1500 metres
in athletics for Aggrey House during the Inter-house Games in
Form 4; I won a prize in a dancing competition at MGHS;
I served as a class captain in our two final years in the school, and by God’s
grace I went straight into Great Ife’s Law Faculty from form
five. Of course, I was caned a few times in school by MrOjo, Chief Zachaeusand
other teachers. Strangely I still cannot believe I got away with
winking at a pretty, young teacher whose name I will not mention, without any
punishment!
Igbobi College has been lucky
with its alumni, or perhaps it is not luck but great input plus excellent
preparation and diligence-Late Chief Justice Teslim Elias, Professor
AdeboyeBabalola, Professor Oritsejolomi Thomas, Professor
J. F Ade-Ajayi, the Ibru brothers, Professor
KwakuAdadevoh, Justice Adefarasin, Admiral Aduwo…at
one time during the Babangidaera, members of the federal cabinet-Chief
OluFalaeand Professor BolajiAkinyemiwere old Igbobiansin
addition to many Commissioners across many of the states. The
list of old Igbobian Vice Chancellors and Professors,
Judges, senior lawyers and other professionals, bankers like OtunbaSubomiBalogunand
MrTundeDabiri, businessmen and corporate lawyers like Chief
Chris Ogunbanjoetc. is long and sparkling. Today, Vice President
YemiOsinbajo, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi
Gbajabiamilaand former Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola SAN are
all old Igbobians.
It was with
great disillusionment that we experienced the influx in 1979 of
boys into Igbobi who did not take any entrance examinations and in many cases
who couldn’t speak English! I can never forget my classmates
and I called one boy and asked him a few questions, in English of
course. His response was heartbreaking and I could never forget-” mi o
gbo oyinbo ni Sir!!!” The poor boy didn’t understand English not
to talk of speaking it. Thank God the missions and the old boys of
Igbobi had a second chance to rebuild Igbobi. The lesson for
society is that we should never take our legacies for granted and must
courageously protect our socio-economic legacies and institutions. There is
nothing that cannot be destroyed! Igbobiboys are up to the task,
and we are assured that in ten years, in 2032 when we celebrate Igbobi
College’s centennial anniversary, it will be the pre-eminent boys’
school in Africa. Maybe then we can send our grandchildren and
great-grandchildren to ICY!
It is
appropriate that I close this tribute to the great Igbobi College on
its 90th Anniversary on February 2, 2022, with the
words of the first stanza of our school song and the refrain…“Teach me thy
best, that all the world may know, What it is, to have come from thee. Teach me
that I, into the world may go, Struggling ever for thy fame Igbobi.
Give me a torch which shall shine. And pour on all afar and near its radiance
divine, Let hill and vale these tidings bear
Wherever there’s
an Igbobian, There also is a noble Nigerian,
OpeyemiAgbaje is
the CEO of RTC Advisory and former Head of Department, Lagos Business School,
Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Social and Political Environment of
Business and Business Law
0 Comments