90th Anniversary Of Igbobi College & Fundraising Gala Night

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REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF IGBOBI COLLEGE IN LAGOS ON THE 29TH OF JANUARY, 2022

 

PROTOCOLS

 

The Honourable Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, and his lovely wife, my sister, Mrs. Salamatu Gbajabiamila, who is your saviour today, Femi! As I heard the Right Honourable Speaker tearing me apart, the only nostalgia I felt was that, well, think of the good old days. I was in Form 5 while he was in Form 1. Think what I could have made of him on a night like this back then in Igbobi! I would have just said, “Gbajabiamila, go to the lawn, (the one between Agric and Townsend), kneel down there, put up your hands, and close your eyes”, and I will go to sleep! I won’t hear of him again till the next morning. (General Laughter)

 

Thank you very much everyone for making this evening, and I must thank the 90th Anniversary Planning Committee and the Board of Governance of the College ably led by Senior Folusho Philips and Mr Femi Olubanwo respectively, for the excellent organization of this event. I must also thank some of our friends who are here from GCI, Gregs and the rest.

 

Like most of us here, old boys of Igbobi, we owe a lot to Igbobi. Who we are, our personalities our values, our worldview, were all shaped at Igbobi College. The secondary school one attends is incredibly instrumental to who one is.

 

When I introduced myself properly earlier this evening to one of my colleagues, I said, “I am Osinbajo II of Townsend house, present here is Osinabjo I, my elder brother, Femi Osinbajo also of Townsend house. Then, there’s Osinbajo III, my younger brother, Akin Osinbajo, who is also here. Then, there’s Osinbajo IIII, Tunde Osinbajo, the last of the boys in the family.

 

It was in Igbobi that I realized that I had a strength in the Arts. It was also here I realized that I could never be a sprinter or a footballer, it was very obvious at that point!

 

In Form One A, Mrs Elushade, our class teacher, got us to write essays every week and the best essay would be posted on the notice board. Dapo Alli’s essay was declared the best; neat and good punctuation. Then she said, there was one that was very imaginative, although not as neat and didn’t have the right punctuation marks.

 

She read out my essay, the whole class clapped. Instead of one essay on the notice board, there were two, the best essay and my own essay. That encouragement stayed with me, it gave me so much confidence going through school from then on. It is important to mention that because the role of teachers is so crucial to what we become.

 

I can never forget the way Mrs Olusade carried on and what she did at that point made a whole difference in my perception of myself, my abilities and how I eventually turned out.

 

I watched seniors Femi Delumo,( Henzo), Daru Owei, Senior Tunde Nzegwu and Chris Borha debate and I knew I wanted to debate. I debated for the school also, but those seniors who were ahead of me were the absolute inspiration for what I would then do for years to come.

 

Because Igbobi placed a value on academics, sports and literary achievement, you were called up on stage to receive your prize during assembly and you were recognized.  If you excelled in sports or academics, you were recognized. But on that same stage, you could be publicly whipped for extremely bad behaviour. Reward and punishment on the same stage taught you very quickly the difference between good and evil.

 

Igbobi celebrated neatness, order, honesty and self-denial. Anyone caught stealing became an outcast, there was just no excuse. We won prizes for contributions to the Self Denial Fund. There was no special treatment, it didn’t matter whether you were from a wealthy or prominent family, the khaki we wore daily was essentially a leveller.

 

What was admired and celebrated was high achievement and exemplary character. It shaped our world view, money was just not that important, but character and achievement were more so. Excessive display of wealth was discouraged.

 

I made my closest friends in Igbobi and our friendships came from all manner of circumstances. I have a friend, Ade Asekun, who became possibly my closest friend and is now the Nigerian Ambassador in Canada. I met him for the first time in a queue in front of the library, a quarrel started. I can’t remember what started the quarrel, he either stepped on my foot or I stepped on his. Everyone gathered there as soon as it was happening and we decided that we had to go out and settle it with a fight.

 

There was a particular place we used to go fight and on our way, there, we met with another colleague of ours who was in Form 1 too, Fayemiwo, who then dissuaded us from fighting. Of course, we (Asekun and I) had no real reason to fight and I wasn’t sure whether he would give me a beating or I would give him a beating. Anyway, I decided to let the matter rest and since then, we have been great friends.

 

To maintain such high values,  solid teachers were required. These teachers were not impressed with anything but performance and good behaviour, and avoiding any offence that might get you into trouble especially with Baba Esubiyi.

 

Doing anything that was so bad that made you end up getting into Baba Esubiyi’s office was the beginning of common sense. If you didn’t have any common sense before, you would discover it very quickly if Baba caught you!

 

As someone said earlier, not only had he caned our fathers, before us, possibly our grandfathers too. He had the canes there ready to give you a thorough beating.

 

You learnt English because grammatical slips were expensive. For each one (grammatical mistakes made) you heard, “papa papa, o re bon.” Your English had to be good. You hated eye service because you could be teased for “impre”, trying too hard to impress, especially to impress the seniors. From those days, you just hated “impre” and even now I still hate “impre.”

 

Igbobi produced the brightest and best, we owe generations to come that same opportunity. When the founders of Igbobi College all those many years ago, decided to fill a gap they saw in the education of boys, they not only created an environment that transformed the lives of the first 150 boys that walked into its Yaba campus in 1932, they triggered a legacy of excellence and integrity that has produced a retinue of young men who have gone on to set great examples in almost every sphere of human endeavour.

 

The notability of our alumni speaks for itself. In many ways, Igbobi College is a testament to what committed and visionary leadership can accomplish. When people come together to serve a purpose greater than themselves the results are far-reaching and long-lasting.

 

And so even as we roll out the series of events marking this 90th anniversary, we will do well to honour the legacy of the founders. The first set of teachers and administrators whose selfless commitment laid the moral foundation of the school and set it on its path to greatness: Mr. N.A Birthwistle and N.P. Morris, Leslie Murby and Bishop Odutola, Mr. Ogunlesi and Baba Esubiyi. All of these men who started our school were a profound influence on all of us even years and years after. In a sense, these men still form the biblical cloud of witnesses guiding and inspiring the succession of administrators, teachers, alumni and students who have come after to keep the flag flying.

 

It is this thread of dedicated service, exemplified and strung from one generation to another that ties society together as a strong, cohesive whole. Every generation from Igbobi College, since its inception, has produced an array of outstanding leaders. Pioneering businessmen and exceptional statesmen who have served at every level of public service and governance; clergymen with national and global influence; thought leaders and intellectuals with indelible footprints in academia, journalism, and many more in different other fields of endeavour.

 

What is sometimes unseen beneath the surface of their individual achievements is the wider societal impact of each of these men: the values transferred within their families and immediate constituencies, the number of jobs created, the forward-thinking public policies they have been instrumental in crafting, and the number of people inspired by the laurels they have won in their respective fields.

 

If there is anything Igbobi College has taught us, it is the difference a single person can make by taking responsibility for their own little corner of the world, and the duty we owe to pay it forward.

 

A relay team is only as strong as how well each person runs their leg and how successful they are able to pass on the baton. Igbobi College is still going strong today because its founders, and those who came after them, understood this, and have been successful in empowering generation after generation of young men for 90 years. This poses a challenge to those of us who are still here and still running our respective races, we cannot afford to be the weak link.

 

This is why the task we have set as part of this year’s 90th-anniversary celebration, to raise N1billion for infrastructural improvements and further educational upliftment of the students our dear alma-mater, is imperative. I am certain, that given the calibre, pedigree and commitment of our alumni, this is a goal that we can reach very easily.

 

I am told that we have close to N200million today and I also know from what I have heard, that we should expect another N100million today. I hope that those of us here will, especially after listening to what Senior Folusho Philips has said, consider a regular endowment. Payment into an endowment fund so that we can truly contribute the kind of money that will make not just a difference today, but will make a difference into the future.

 

We expect that all those who are here will make a sacrificial commitment, and I hope that commitment will not just be for today but we will be able to do it on a regular basis.

 

We have the future counting on us to make a difference in the true spirit of our forebears, and we must not let them down. Our future will be proud and grateful that we bet on them and made a down payment through this fund.

 

Thank you all very much. Up IC! Shekewa shekewa!

 



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Igbobi produced the brightest and best, we owe generations to come that same opportunity. When the founders of Igbobi College all those many years ago, decided to fill a gap they saw in the education of boys, they not only created an environment that transformed the lives of the first 150 boys that walked into its Yaba campus in 1932, they triggered a legacy of excellence and integrity that has produced a retinue of young men who have gone on to set great examples in almost every sphere of human endeavour.