The Old Students of the Federal Government College Odoogbolu (1976–1981), set in their efforts to ensure a conducive learning environment for every girl child in the school, as well as complimenting the government’s commitments to delivering affordable and quality education for all and sundry irrespective of their status, commissioned a newly refurbished girls hostel in their Alma Mater.
Addressing journalists shortly after the cutting of the tape of the newly renovated girls’ hostel, the president of the 76-81 set of old student associates of the college, Mr Ayoola Olaitan, noted that it is very important to take good care of girls’ children.
He said, “These are young girls that have left their parents; I think we owe them a duty to put them in a comfortable environment. They will have this kind of mentality that they are comfortable, and they have to shun all vices we don’t expect them to do. There are certain things we’re expecting them to be doing right now, like focusing on their studies, and by providing this kind of conducive environment for them, I’m so sure it will really have a positive impact on them.”
“As a father of girls myself, I believe that if you don’t give your girl child what they need, somebody else will give them, and when they do, it will come with a condition, and we don’t want our girl child to grow up like that,” Ayoola said.
While speaking on the motivation behind the project, the 1976–1981 set president said, “The motivation behind the project is that, as a set 76–81, we take particular interest in the girl child, and we think we can make their environment in the school more conducive to learning.”
“We came to the school and we met with the principal, and I must say the principal has tried a lot for the school because when we were here it wasn’t like this; it was more barbaric than this, so we decided to improve the facility. The federal government is busy with other things, so we decided to assist and keep assisting because, like I always say, we can’t wait for the government to do everything for us, so this is one of the beginnings of many things to be done; this is like a deposit of the many things; we will still do more both as a set and as the national body of this great alma mater of ours.”
“The project is a total renovation of the girl’s hostel; what we are standing on right now used to be a piece of earth, but it’s now a brand new floor with painting. My classmates decided to do all these things for the girl’s hostel here; this is a quadrangle where they can play and read their books; the ambience is nice; this will surely assist them positively.”
Mr Ayoola however, advised well, meaning Nigerians on the need to always remember their Alma Mater, He said, “I think, we all need to realize that the government cannot do everything we are seeking for if you go to a school for five years or a University for four years, It must have passed through you, and you’re obliged to give back one way or the other, except you’re an ingrate, Federal Government College Odoogbolu was a very good school to all of us, we had a very good Principal then, who was like a father to all of us, though we are very troublesome then, but he took good care of us, the school is much better now, you can imagine when we were here, our drinking water came from tankers, and we have to get our water from the reservoir, so it’s better now, the school has tried, so, it doesn’t really matter whether you have money or not, if you can’t give money, give time, but give back to your Alma Mater.”
In his remarks, the chairman of the renovation project, Eguarekhide Longe, called on Nigerians to join hands with the government by coming up with an initiative like this with the aim of transforming the public school system.
He said, “Government is us, and we are the government, so when you think about the banters that we have in our old school WhatsApp platforms, we need to translate this into this kind of action, so for us, this is a deposit; it is a better initiative to transform the public school system, to renovate the public school system.”
“I’m so sure that many of us that have attended these schools are in places of authority and influence, and financially, we can also support these schools. If we can coordinate ourselves properly and we organise an effective public-private partnership strategy, we will be talking about something different as far as our public schools are concerned in our country today, and I think for any country, it is your weakest link that you’ll elevate, such that the person who knows nobody can go to school in a very conducive environment and can come out and aspire to be the biggest in this country, that is what this initiative is about, nothing else.” He said.
In his contributions, the project engineer, who is also one of the members of the 76-81 set, Engr. Adesoji Adeyemi, said, “I represent the 1976-1981 set of the Federal Government College Odoogbolu, and my classmates made me the project engineer for this renovation project.”
“When we got here, we realized we needed to do complete renovations of the hostel, so professionally what we did was to came up with a cost estimate and the budget of the entire project, we did estimate for every single item and we got specialists for every single item, we got the painters, we got the plumbers, we got electricians and everybody we needed for the job, the whole work has been done, including the drains, external drains, and it also included this beautiful floor, and painting of the whole premises, we also ensured that all the mosquito nets are replaced, all the electrical and plumbing jobs are being done, so this building is being done almost like brand new, and we are setting an example for other sets to follow,” Adesoji said.
While commending the donor of the Project, the Director/Principal of the College, Mr Akinpelu Amos also called on other stakeholders to come on board and assist the government in the provision of basic amenities that the school is currently lacking.
The principal also uses the medium to solicit help with the procurement of the 32-seater Coaster bus for the school.
He said, ‘The school has various stakeholders, but the government has the highest stake because of the fact that they’re the owner of the college. As stakeholders in the college, this particular set came in, interacted with me as the head of the college, and we agreed on the areas of needs of the college, which happens to be this structure, and I want to say that taking it from where they’ve started to what we are seeing now, it’s what is really commendable; it’s just something that is so commendable that one can say this is a pacesetting for old student contributions to the educational system of the country.”
“We also have other areas of need to be considered, when I came in as a principal of the college, we did what is called the need assessment of the college, under which we had about 32 items listed, then we’ve been addressing all these items from number one in order of priority, as at today we have few of them that are still outstanding, the major one that I would have love anybody to come into is the issue of a nice 32 seater bus for the college, though there are still other areas to be touched, all the hostels can actually be brought to this level we are seeing here now, this aesthetic is a function that contributes to the character of the children, but the major one right now is the the school bus, 32 seater coaster bus, other hostels could still be given facelift just like what we have here,” Akinpelu said.
The principal also charges the students for the need to maintain the newly renovated structure.
He said, “I do say that what we give children is exactly what we are getting back from them; now we’ve given them something of aesthetic value, and we expect that to reflect in their general conduct, and that I can assure you will happen because, as of the time I came here, we had issues of conduct with the students, which I traced to the deplorable state of the lives of the children, and along with God’s help with budgetary provision from the federal government, we were able to address many of these areas of need, and that has really affected the behaviour of the children. So, I can assure you that those who have been given the privilege to be here because they already know themselves are going to reflect in their conduct, and of course, the issue of maintenance will not be a problem. Moreso, we’ve also been able to extract a further commitment from the donors, the set of 1981, that they will adopt the project, and if there is a need for further attention, they will be ready to do that for us.”
The students, especially the direct beneficiaries of the newly renovated structure, could not hide their joy as they rolled out the drums, clad in cultural outfits, and, with the support of their house teachers, entertained the donors with soul-lifting music just to express their gratitude. They also promised to make good use of the hostel.
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