By Goodluck Ikiebe
Old Boys Association of St John’s College Fugar, Edo State, is planning a reunion meeting to launch N100 million Project fund to rescue alma Mata from Dilapidation and neglect.
The Organising Committee chaired by Dr Jay Osi Samuel says the Reunion Meeting is scheduled to hold on the 18th of November, 2023 in Lagos.
St John’s College, Fugar, was a prestigious institution that exemplified excellence in academic and social performance and a good moral standard like few other ones in Edo North.
It was an institution that was among the top choices in the 1960s to early 1990s by Parents, who valued quality Education and Discipline.
Old boys of the school that have become successful in their different areas of lives, trace their successes to the sound academic and moral training they received from the school.
It is for this reason the Old Boys making waves in different strata of the society have also decided to lend a rescuing hand to save their alma mater from total decay.
The National President of St John’s College, Fugar Old Boys Association, SJCOBA, Mr Ignatius Aigbokhaode, noted that of recent, the school had faced neglect by the government, with dilapidated hostels, classrooms and facilities.
“The problems in our alma mata are diverse and varied; dilapidated classrooms, dilapidated hostels, dilapidated principal’s quarter and staff quarters, empty library, bushy school compound, very bad conveniences, laboratories in very bad shape”, he noted.
Mr Ignatius Aigbokhaode, explained that the Old Boys Association embarked on the rescuing effort with a plan to raise a N100 million project fund in their forth coming reunion scheduled to hold from 17th – 19th of November, 2023 in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.
According to the National President, the funds will be used to renovate Classroom blocks, hostels and Staff Quarters as well as pay some of the teaching Staff Members.
“The current student population is about 150 students, with over 50 of them new students that came last month – September 2023.
The steady growth in student population from 22 students in 2018 to the current over 150 students in enrollment was due to our intervention under the ‘Project Dry Bones shall rise again’ fund raising”, Aigbokhaode added.
“All efforts to make the government address this appalling situation have so far failed. Same applies with attempts to have the school handed over to the previous owners, the Catholic Church”,
The Chairman of the Reunion Meeting, Dr Jay Osi Samuel, summarized the major problems of the school as follows, “Decaying and/or absence of required learning facilities, Poor hostel accommodation/ facilities, Lack of qualified teaching staff and Lack of funding by the government”.
To keep the school afloat, the Old Boys have resolved to as a matter of urgency take on the following projects:
Employment of Qualified teachers and payment of meaningful wage; Renovation of Classrooms, Laboratories, Staff Room, Staff Quarters and Hostels for Students.
The Old Boys intend also to buy a small tractor and slasher for grass cutting, build an Assembly Hall as open-field Assembly is no longer fashionable and light up the entire school compound using Solar Technology.
Mr Ignatius Aigbokhaode, Dr Jay Samuel, along with some Old Boys of SJCOBA, have set the ball rolling with contributions to raise the N100 million project fund, while appealing to their friends and associates to support them during the proposed reunion to enable them sustain and maintain the School pending when the government would be alive to its responsibilities.
