Endowment For Legacy: Building Generational Strength

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INAUGURAL LECTURE DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, IMMEDIATE PAST VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, TITLED: “ENDOWMENT FOR LEGACY: BUILDING GENERATIONAL STRENGTH FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NIGERIA” AT THE IGBOBI COLLEGE OLD BOYS’ ASSOCIATION (ICOBA) PUBLIC LECTURE COMMEMORATING THE SCHOOL’S 94TH FOUNDERS’ DAY CELEBRATION IN LAGOS ON THE 2ND OF FEBRUARY, 2026

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On this occasion of the 94th Founders’ Day anniversary of our great school, Igbobi College, we must pause to honour and acknowledge the remarkable foresight and generosity of its founders, the Anglican Communion and the Methodist Church of Nigeria, whose shared vision and resources laid the foundation of an enduring institution.

We also recognize with deep gratitude the generations of principals, vice principals, teachers, and house masters, whose selfless dedication to their calling shaped not only the intellects, but the character of generations of students. Through their discipline, care, and unwavering commitment, they built the strong pillars upon which our lives and achievements continue to rest.

We further acknowledge the invaluable work being carried on today by the current staff of the College, who guide the academic pursuits of our students and, perhaps even more importantly, mould their lives and values, and their role is perhaps more remarkable, as their task is undertaken in an era far more complex than the one many of us knew, an age in which young minds are pitched, as it were, against the relentless distractions of social media and the pressures of an increasingly complicated world. Their steadfast service remains a source of pride and gratitude to us all.

Then let me thank the Executive of ICOBA, led by our indefatigable President, Otunba Yomi Badejo-Okusanya, for the honour done to me by the invitation to give this inaugural Igbobi College Founder’s Day Lecture. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity. I am to speak on the topic: “Endowment for Legacy, Building Generational Strength for Educational Institutions in Nigeria.” It is a rather broad topic, and the greatest mistake you can make with a lecture is to give a professor a broad topic; chances are that we would not leave here till Tuesday morning. But I will not repay the generosity of ICOBA with the infliction of a long lecture; I have narrowed down to what I think may be more relevant to our gathering here, which is “Endowment for Legacy, Building Generational Strength for Secondary Schools in Nigeria.”

Just so that we are all on the same page, I think we ought to define what an educational endowment is; it is a pool of money or assets donated by individuals or corporations and set aside as a fund to financially support a school, college, or educational program for the long term. The principal sum of money is usually invested, and the school uses the earnings (interest, dividends, or a small percentage each year) to fund things like scholarships and financial aid, teachers’ salaries and research, building and maintenance of school facilities, libraries, programs, and operating costs of the school. In the context of our topic, legacy means the lasting impact and value that an educational institution leaves behind beyond its present generation.

So “Endowment for Legacy” means intentionally building permanent financial and institutional strength that allows Nigerian educational institutions to serve future generations with the same, or greater, impact as today.

Throughout history, societies that endured were not the ones that focused solely on the present, but those that took responsibility for the future. They understood a simple truth: we are temporary, but institutions are meant to be permanent. It was Edmund Burke who reminded the world that society is a partnership, not only among the living, but also between the dead and the unborn. These ideas converge on one powerful principle: legacy is a duty, not a luxury.

In Africa, we express this wisdom even more simply: we do not inherit the land from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. The same is true of our educational institutions; universities, colleges, and schools do not belong to current administrators, donors, or even governments that establish them. They are held in trust for generations yet unborn.

But the conversation about endowment of schools is not merely about provision of financial sustenance, it is also about sustaining cultures of standards, values and norms that sustain societies. It is not just about continuity, but continuation of an ethos and a worldview. And really, only sufficient resources can assure that legacies are sustained, and whether a school such as ours will remain strong when today’s leaders are gone, when economic cycles shift, and when tomorrow’s students arrive with dreams we may never personally experience. That is the essence of legacy, and that is the burden of every generation of beneficiaries of institutions or communities.

Many of the world’s most prestigious universities and secondary schools are backed by large endowments that sustain their operations over decades. For example, In the US, members of the Eight Schools Association, these are secondary schools, including Phillips Academy, Andover (endowment of $1.3 billion), Phillips Exeter Academy (endowment of $1.3 billion), St. Paul’s School (endowment of $747 million), and Hotchkiss School (endowment of over $500 million), that have amassed hundreds of millions to over a billion dollars in endowment assets. Middlesex School’s endowment is about $220 million, and other prep schools like Brooks School hold over $100 million.

In Europe, secondary schools are generally funded by the government, but those funded by endowments are the exception; a small group of historic UK independent schools rely heavily on endowment.

Eton College, which is possibly the most famous of these colleges in Europe, has an endowment of over £570 million (2024). Fun fact about Eton College is that 20 UK Prime Ministers of the 58 since the office was created attended Eton. Harrow School and Winchester College, both founded in the 16th century, each hold endowment and property assets running into the hundreds of millions of pounds, supporting scholarships, buildings, and long-term stability.

These endowments help such schools meet demonstrated financial need, enhance academic offerings, and maintain world-class facilities, but more importantly, financial independence enables schools to propagate a worldview, an ethos, standards and values that they hold dear. This is crucial; it is not just about maintaining the financial independence of schools or giving scholarships, it is more about the ability to propagate a worldview.

But even more instructive is that most of the funds were donated by old boys of those schools, alumni, friends and family of alumni.

Every serious nation, and every serious institution, eventually confronts the same question: what will outlive us? We are here today because this institution, Igbobi College, made a transformative difference in our lives. We proudly wear our ties, scarves, caps, cufflinks and pins, because we identify with the greatness of this institution.

This institution was not built by the government; it was built by an endowment. It was endowed by missionaries, Anglicans and Methodist missions, money from the sweat and tears of members of the missions. Although the school charged fees, these were well below the services offered, and the fees were not shared amongst themselves as the organizations were not-for-profit. Profit of whatever kind was ploughed back into the development of the school.

So, we were beneficiaries of an endowment by two missionary organizations. They subsidized not just high-quality education, but they also created the moral, ethical and civic environment that has shaped our outlook, our sense of right and wrong and our views on integrity to this day.

I served in several governments at various times, but I was never able to be obsequious or be a sycophant because ingrained in me is an abhorrence of “impre”, a pejorative word we used in those days for people who tried too hard to impress seniors and the staff. Not only did I abhor it, I also ensured that those who served with me did not get into the kind of praise singing that seemed so natural to others.  Yet we learned respect for hierarchy because we called even those who were a year ahead of us Senior this or that.

We also learnt balance, respect for others, and self-respect. Most Igbobi boys who served in public office had the same ethos, a high sense of integrity. So, aside from scholarship, the school provided the environment to develop a complete man, with a correct worldview.  Many of the closest friends and associates I have today were made in Igbobi, and my most important impressions of morality, service, and philanthropy were formed here. I must say, and I speak for myself and for many others here, that all of the inspiration that I derived in order to be who I later became was formed right here. This is the shared experience of most of us here today.

So secondary schools actually matter more than the credit we give them.  Leadership does not begin in government houses, parliaments, boardrooms, or cabinet meetings. It begins much earlier, in the discipline of a school timetable, regulated lights out, waking up at 5.30 am, inspection, detention, and cooperatives. Developing the ability to counter the views of others not with anger or bile but with reasoning and logic, in learning team spirit, fairness on the sports field, and in encountering authority that is firm, just, and consistent.

By the time a Nigerian child turns 18, their ethical instincts, intellectual confidence, relationship with authority, and sense of civic duty are largely formed. So those of us who passed through Igbobi know this intuitively. The habits that sustained us later in life were not improvised in adulthood; they were formed here. When secondary schools are unstable, underfunded, and unequal, the leadership failure of society is not surprising. It is in fact inadvertently engineered.

But many years later, especially after the takeover of schools in 1979, most of those high standards fell. Funding dropped sharply, and the pastoral care that was provided by teachers who knew that they had standards to maintain also fell. In a few years, the Igbobi that we knew had practically disappeared. In the years that followed, a lot of efforts were made, especially by our Old Boys’ Association, to sustain some of those standards, pay for some of the renovations, and for the improvement of facilities here in the college. Also, with the great work of teachers, principals and staff of this college, have done since then.

But perhaps the most important benefit of an endowment is the access it may give to quality education regardless of means. For Nigeria, as with many developing countries, there is a silent fracture: talent separated from opportunity. We educate millions of secondary school students every year, yet access to high-quality secondary education is increasingly determined by household income, geography, and connections.

Brilliance exists everywhere, but support does not. Many capable Nigerian children will never experience what we experienced at Igbobi. Teachers with time, authority, and dignity, world-class laboratories, structured leadership and moral formation and a stable environment that allows talent to flourish. The nation pays for this later in weak institutions, fragile public trust, and leadership that lacks depth. Nigeria already knows what excellence looks like.

Our early post-independence leaders did not emerge by accident. They were disproportionately shaped by a small number of secondary schools that were deliberately protected from volatility: Igbobi College, King’s College, St. Gregory’s CKC, Methodist Girls, Holy Child, CMS, Government College, Ibadan, Barewa College (this is the school that produced the late Rt. Hon. Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, General Yakubu Gowon, the late General Murtala Mohammed, President Shehu Shagari and the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua), Queen’s College.

When you look at these colleges, because of the sheer amount of investment, in terms of resources, in terms of teaching of our ethos, they are able to produce the kinds of leaders that can actually shape countries. We must always bear in mind that whatever we invest in the school is an investment in the future of the country.

These schools worked because they had stable funding, high-quality teachers, merit-based selection, and strong moral and civic formation. They were not perfect, but they were institutionally serious. When their own stability weakened, standards followed. Not because Nigeria has changed, but because systems of producing quality individuals have completely weakened and, in many cases, compromised.

So now what do we do? I think I have made the point that every good secondary school needs an endowment to give it the financial stability to propagate its philosophical objectives into the future. But today, I want us to focus on what having a substantial endowment will mean for Igbobi and how we can raise and maintain such a fund.

An endowment is not a one-time gift. It is, in a sense, capital that refuses to forget its purpose and objective. For a school like Igbobi College, an endowment means: attracting the best teachers and paying them well, scholarships awarded by merit, not influence, facilities maintained without emergency appeals, leadership formation protected from budget cuts, and academic standards and the Igbobi ethos insulated from volatility.

In simple terms, an endowment will turn our school into an intergenerational engine of excellence. Every one of us here today is, in some sense, a product of other people’s foresight. We benefited from teachers whose sacrifices we did not fully pay for, facilities built by donors we never met, and standards preserved by generations before us. We are, in many senses, a return on someone else’s investment.

The question now is how we in this generation give back. A ₦10billion professionally managed endowment can sustain Igbobi College indefinitely. It can open its gates to brilliant boys regardless of background and shape Nigeria’s future leaders in public service, science and technology, and the professions. It can educate generations that we, the donors, will never meet, but whose impact will be felt nationwide. The donors, of course, will be ourselves, Old Boys, including diaspora Old Boys, corporate partners and philanthropies that we are able to persuade to share a vision.

There are a few critical things to note: developing an endowment fund is not a one occasion fund raising activity. It is a well-planned long-term engagement with donors, usually alumni. It will involve setting up an office dedicated solely to the purpose of maintaining the endowment. That office would make frequent contacts with potential donors. I left the London School of Economics in 1981, yet every month, I used to get a hardcopy newsletter and now an email from the school, giving me updates and also making the inevitable request for a donation no matter how small. That is how to build an endowment.

The marketing is so consistent that you can’t ignore it. They let you know the progress the school is making, the laurels being won, the alumni who are making waves in business, the professions, public service, etc., the infrastructure being built, and you are made to feel part of an institutional success that has gone on for decades. Which is why many make provisions in their wills for regular donations to their Alma Mata when they have passed on.

I think it is important to note that it is not those who necessarily donate the big amounts who make up endowments, but rather those who donate consistently. It is this sort of intentionality that gets results.

An important point is the management of the endowment office; proven competence is crucial, and they must be capable of marketing the school effectively. These days, technology makes communication easier. The transparent management of the fund by well-known fund managers will also be critical. I think it is also important for us to reflect on the ethos or set of values that Igbobi established and represented, and which we intend must be sustained.

This is of great importance because the point of giving financial independence to our college is not just to provide high quality education and expand opportunity for those who would not be Igbobians because they cannot afford our fees, but perhaps more importantly to imbue all who pass through Igbobi with the high moral, ethical and civic values that we benefitted from and that we know are critical in nation building, in the market place and in private life.

What we may then do is to fully document these values and develop our curriculum and extracurricular activities which benchmark these values. We must be deliberate in the teaching and practice of the ethos of Igbobi. I am especially excited that the steering committee of our proposed Endowment Fund would be chaired by the former Chairman of KPMG Africa, Kunle Elebute, who will bring his well-celebrated knowledge and experience in financial advisory services to bear on this historic project.

Let me end by reminding us that Igbobi College helped make us who we are; now the future asks something of us in return. An endowment is how we whisper to the future that we remember where we came from, and we’d prepare a place for others.

It is time to build the Igbobi College Endowment.

Up IC!