By OLA ‘KIYA (Pen name), publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Stonix News, was at the Community Comprehensive High School (CCHS), Ogori, Kogi State, his alma mater, recently, and brings this heartwrenching report.
The virus eating up the educational system in Nigeria has not left my darling alma mater unravished. As of when I was admitted to the Community Comprehensive High School, Ogori, in 1983, the school ranked among the best things that ever happened to Ogori, our Small Jerusalem. Others across neighbouring communities such as AbdulAzeez Attah Memorial College and Lenon Memorial College in Okene and Ageva felt the heat!
Before its inception in 1979, the Ogori-Magongo Teachers College of blessed memory, owned by the Federal Government, had held sway. Its, somewhat, equivalence was CCHS, very indigenous to the people of Ogori whose passionate love for education remains undying.
Arguably, building on the onerous efforts of past principals, the school’s glory peaked in 1990 some two years after inimitable late Bishop Joseph Ajomo had superintendented over the school like a Colossus. He, conscientiously, upped the game in the areas of academic excellence, discipline, sound teaching, moral rectitude, and extracurricular activities such as intra and inter-school debates, quizzes, sports, infrastructure and farming, among others.
Like the Nigeria contraption, Kogi State and the Ogori community, 45-year-old CCHS is in a deplorable state in virtually all facets. This, however, does not discountenance seldom interventions by some generous alumni members of the school. Such efforts are, perhaps, the very reason the school is still standing and breathing.
With a childhood heartthrob and junior at school, Mrs Abiye Blessing Bello (Nee Alumu), who graduated from the school in 1991, I paid an unscheduled visit to the citadel of learning. Armed with an earlier warning that the road from the Civic Centre at Opa was unmotorable, taking the risk to drive down was a no-no. So, from the archetypal edifice of the Eminefo Royal Dynasty, we headed for the school on foot. This was morning of Monday October 23.
Needless to say we grew up to meet the road untarred. Today, nothing has changed. The road was created as a quick link to one of the Akoko Gbangiri tribes of Ososo now in Edo State. When we were young, it served as the route leading to our farms at Ukoo, Ojela, Uten, Emahin, Opokete etc. Subsequent regimes that came to power with promises to tar the road since the 70s in the then Kwara State, when there was a semblance of sanity in political leadership, never walked the talk.
The results are gullies of erosion, slippery and magnetic clay soil, mesmerizing any recalcitrant driver who insists on trying his luck with his vehicle. Even motorcycles and trekkers had to meander their way around the patchy road to reach the school premises!
Needless to reiterate that from the Civil Centre down to the school premises, it was a delicate and bumpy journey even on foot. In some parts of the road, shrubs and gullies have taken over. As a result, some teachers, including principal officers of the school, even if privileged with cars, have to resort to mounting commercial motorcycles or personally owned ones to school unlike in the 80s when a staff bus did the job. Nostalgic tears were our lots as we beheld the dimmed glory of our past!
From Ikumegbe down to the school premises, the twin entry and exit routes had almost blended into one courtesy of shrubs and erosion. The trees planted in the glorious days of Bishop Ajomo have become untamed, mammoth trees giving rest to wild birds.
When we arrived at the frontage of the school, the assembly was about rounding off. The population of students is still quite impressive. Some prying eyes picked up our presence from a long distance as I attempted to engage my cameras. To avoid distracting the assembly session, we had walked down straight towards the school hall as a starting point of our unsolicited tour before going to pay obeisance to the school authorities. We wanted to see for ourselves, first hand the situation, in case we would not be given the privilege to tour the premises. But we were wrong!
From the blues, a teacher, I suspect he’s an Ebira, hurried from behind and accosted us. “Please, who are you guys? You just walked into the school premises and started snapping without first reporting yourself to the school authorities?” he belched at us.
According to him, our action was suspicious because it was a period kidnappers were on the prowl. In fact, a few days before that day, a popular community leader from Eni Quarters had been kidnapped and later released after a ransom of N2 million was coughed up to appease the insatiable bowels of the marauders. We explained to the teacher why we approached the school in that manner and apologised, after which we explained our mission and headed for the principal’s office.
As it has been, the offices of the principal and the vice principals stand left and right opposite each other in a block of building in an seeming arc shape. In the building are also the staff room, office of the bursar, a library and others. Some pupils were filing up in front of the block and were being distributed into houses, we were later told.
Notable faces we were still familiar with included the principal, Mr Philip Ajikanbi who’s an alumnus and a record-holding 100m, 200m dash and high jump sprinter in his days. He was of the 1987 set. Another familiar face was Mrs Ruth Bakare (Nee Agbogun) my classmate of set 1990!
What we heard and saw
Besides the physical structures, the first thing that struck us was the semblance of rowdiness in the school. Being Monday, first work day of the week, some urgency to get cracking with lectures was expected. But this wasn’t to be as some students were seen being herded to some measured expanse of grass to cut! Some cacophony of noises had characterised some of the classes, and this was still at about 8:30 – 9:30a.m. Perturbed, I demanded from the principal, who had volunteered to take us round the school, why the bedlam. His repressed response was his effort to yell at the students to behave themselves. There appeared no more awe and respect or, is it fear for teachers, as of old! Who does one blame?
A science laboratory of rot
We followed the principal to the science laboratory where the likes of Pharm. Ajijola Makanjuola Arogunmasa, Arch. Nathaniel Mosisuga (Mosugu) and oil and gas mogul, Engr. Idowu Peter (the ones I can easily remember) and several others were baked to what they’ve become today in the society. Our hearts bled as the lab has become a shadow of itself and has become an enclave of rodents, lizards and cobwebs. No tables, no benches, no chairs, let alone chemicals, and all laboratory tools and equipment required in a 21st century school laboratory. Just a few blue-white plastic lockers were visible furniture. Of course, no water system for experiments; in other words, there’s a lab prefect without a facility to work in! There are biology, chemistry and physics teachers who have no Bunsen burner, microscopes, calorimeters, reagent bottles, beakers and more on ground to practicalise their theories before their students! Hence, it’s now “alternative to practicals” external examiners now run for a country in dire need of scientific research for development! We waste here!!!
Five classrooms used to be occupied by SSS Three students in Arts, Science and Commercial among the blocks of building harbouring the laboratory are unused and therefore drooping! The entire classrooms including the lab are empty!
Vandalised ICTs centre
We were led to an ICTs centre established for digital economy by the erstwhile President Muhammadu Buhari-led regime in 2020 under the National Information Technology Development (NTDA). The project, sunk in one of the classrooms standing adjacent to the principal’s office, was executed by the Royal Roche Nathaway Company Ltd. We were told that some ramrod hoodlums had burgled the well-fortified room and vandalised the solar inverters and batteries. On close observation, the new computers and their accessories were not tampered with. The principal said the incident occurred some time early 2023. The marauders, according to him, were only able to drag the heavy solar batteries and their cables yanked off from the solar panels into the nearby bush, but could not go far with them into the woods. So, the following day, he said a search party was able to recover the eight batteries and cables dumped by the window of the principal’s office.
Although the ICTs centre has been reconnected to public electricity, the restoration of the solar system must be pursued. The principal said the project executors and their sponsors have been contacted. We hope for a quick restoration before the plundered items begin to grow wings one after the other.
The vandalised solar panel batteries
Insecurity at the school
CCHS, as it was from time immemorial, has no perimeter fence. We had earlier mentioned how we had eased into the school premises almost unhindered! It’s a free-for-all entry and exit from the east, West, north and south. Ogori definitely has its fair share of the security porosity in the country. Before we embarked on the trek down to the school, an earlier warning had been sounded to the community to eschew going to the farm due to a security intelligence suggesting that kidnappers had laid siege to the route. Suspected Fulani herdsmen, definitely in connivance with some scallywags from the community, have made the sleepy community a den of kidnappers. The gruesome murder of a young and vibrant youth, Taiye Edahson, whose death was suspectedly linked to kidnappers, underscores the need for urgent actions. He was said to be an aide to the local government chairman and was a thorn in the flesh of kidnappers before he was attacked and macheted to death second week of October in broad daylight. Nothing has come out of the killing as of today except that the deceased’s remains have been interred in the famished soil of Ogori.
Felled Taiye Edahson
The landmass around CCHS is expansive. How the state and local government with the guidance of the Ogori Descendants Union (ODU), the leading sociocultural organisation uniting the people, can provide security for the school, night and day, is something that must be looked into in earnest. Recall that no commercial bank, not even a micro finance bank, exists in Ogori as we speak, years after our dear first generation bank was cruelly invaded and plundered with dynamites while the few policemen in sight were overpowered with a fatality recorded. Fear has not allowed any commercial bank to attempt siting their branch in Ogori since then.
The introduction of CCTV and other modern security devices may not be out of place including the recruitment and training of
It’s shocking that despite being a border community between Kogi State and Edo State, there’s only a scanty presence of policemen who could only be sighted near the local government secretariat at Akpafa. Why can’t the state government request a military formation in that border axis with enormous expanse of land being infiltrated by unknown gunmen in their number? Must the people continue to live in fear daily while the government wait for a tragedy of great proportion before securing Ogori and her people? Are there not many youths in the community needing empowerment in the area of employment that can be recruited into a formidable squad with intense training to curtail the marauders? We hope the insecurity situation in Ogori Magongo will not get to the point of gunmen yanking off folks from their sleep and being slaughtered before the state government and those who matter will act! A stitch in time saves nine.
Infrastructure needed
Both staff and students are in need of desks, the principal disclosed. He, however, appreciated the government for the provision of some plastic lockers and chairs some time ago, but added that more are still needed. “Some chairs and tables of our staff are broken down. Some of our roofs are leaking. We need more furniture,” he pleaded.
A new library edifice was seen being put in place when we got there. It’s a stone throw from the principal’s office. It was gathered that the project was being sponsored by the ODU and that they’re determined to see to its completion for the use of the students. We learn a lot of good books from donors are awaiting being stocked in the new library when completed.
Finance
It appears the school receives no allocation to run its activities from the government. Unlike before, rebate from school fees paid by pupils are no longer remitted to the school. These could not be immediately verified as the principal, being a civil servant, according to him, wasn’t authorised to do so.
He, however, pleaded for photocopiers for the school from individuals, describing the need as very urgent as none is available for use in the school.
Workforce
In the area of workforce, not all subjects available have teachers attached to them. An independent investigation carried out by us revealed that there are only 17 teaching staff in the payroll of the state government and five teachers in the payroll of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA). It was gathered that subjects like Basic Technology for JSS has no teacher attached to it. Chemistry as a subject, we also learnt, is suffering. A teacher for the subject is said to have been recently employed, but hasn’t really settled down to work. In the meantime, youth corps members are said to be helping out. Curiously, only one teacher handles both English Language and Literature-In-English from SS 1 to SS 3! The same teacher, a woman, combines the above brain and energy-sapping role with other administrative duties!
Sadly too, there’s only one non-teaching staff who’s the school security guard. Imagine one guard, more of a night guard, providing security for the entire school and over 300 students! Where’s such done? Do you now wonder the reason for the successful vandalism of the ICTs centre without any resistance? A noisy operation that took hours to execute without any resistance?
Discipline
Do you still wonder why discipline and academic excellence have take flight at CCHS? Our investigation also revealed that parents and their wards are largely contributing to the depreciation of academic and moral values at CCHS. Teachers, for a few who can still hold their heads high, are said to often look away when stern discipline is required because of some parents who often charged at them for reprimanding their children and wards. This was sadly corroborated by a parent who craved anonymity.
Lsf Awolumate presenting an award to a student
There appears a general mood of inertia and apathy. Motivation for excellence is absent. The morale of students is palpably low! We saw no enthusiasm, like in our days, to learn and dream greatness among the students. Some scoops from some of the students would not be palatable here. It’s, indeed, a season of anomie.
Most staff appear just marking time. For such, it’s a job of no other choice. The harsh learning environment helps no further. Students, in their navy blue skirt or trousers and sky blue, and their teachers, trek long distances to get to the school and very late, too, amid security threats.
Last line….
CCHS has churned out thousands of alumni across all walks of life. Many are well placed and blessed with enormous prosperity. While I apply my God-given gift and profession to bring to limelight the situation bedevilling our dear alma mater, it’s expected that our numerous alumni members will rise to the occasion. No one waits for the monuments called political leaders any more to lead the way to educational prosperity though that’s what they’re voted or imposed there for.
Yaya Bello and Usman Ododo
Alumni members of the school, worldwide, must have a retrospect of where they’re coming from. They should pay a visit to the school. More than ever before, there must be a deliberate collaboration to attract back to the school our time-honoured values and glory. Once again, we commend ODU, and some alumni members of various sets who have gone beyond the various social platforms, to rescue the school from further deterioration. A set was said to have recently bought ceiling fans to ventilate the school hall where external examinations are held. More of such gesture is welcomed.
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