Stimulating Old Boys Support to CMS Grammar School

Mr. Olu Vincent is the President of Old Grammarian Society, CMS Grammar School, Lagos. He explained to some journalists including Funmi Ogundare how he has been able to galvanise support from the Old Boys to put up various projects for the development of the 162 year old school , as well as sustain the interest of the younger generation in its activities for the development of the school

CMS Grammar School is no doubt the oldest secondary school in Nigeria and has produced some of the country’s notable individuals who have played major roles in shaping its political and economic development.

With various multi-million naira projects in the faith-based school’s portfolio, its Old Grammarian Society (OGS) has continued to make concerted effort to give its alma mater its pride of place.

The OGS headed by the President and a former Director, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Oluwatoyin Vincent explained how it has been able to put up various projects through annual dues paid by the Old Boys in different sets and fund raising programmes, while ensuring accountability in the process.

According to him, “every set is supposed to pay a certain amount on an annual basis of N10,000 and we have about 30 to 40 sets as a group every year. Then, every old boy is supposed to pay his own personal individual dues of N2,000 every year. We made it so low so that those who came to the school and are still struggling to survive in life can still meet their financial obligation.

“But the main source of revenue is on true dedicated activity, like we have a fund raising programme, which is a of merit award where we raise funds annually. And it is a major source of income for us. Then we make pleas, we approach Old Boys who have big companies that can do CSR for us.

” There are some old boys on their own who can willingly decide to take up a project in the school and sponsor and run through with it. So that is how we have been able to do most of the things that we have done in the school.”

Asked if there had been clashes among the Old Boys in the process of contributing towards any project, he said this has never occur as the OGS makes it mandatory for sets celebrating a milestone, to execute projects.

“Every year, we have the celebrating set. For example, we are going to do the 162nd anniversary of the school. So what we normally do every year is this; we have those that will celebrate 25 years of leaving school, then we have those that will celebrate 30 years of leaving school. We also have those who will celebrate 40 years of leaving the school and those who celebrate 50 or 60 years. And for each year, the celebrating sets, must execute a project.

“However, for those celebrating 50 years and 60 years of leaving school, we exclude them from serious projects because they are old. And at times some of them on their own will just willingly pay some money to the purse of the OGS as their own contribution. So, when we have sufficient funds in the account of the OGS, we can pick a project and run through with it.”

The OGS has nonetheless, set up a project monitoring committee saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that the projects are of standard and to assist in the proper maintenance of the facilities in the school.

With the Covid-19 pandemic affecting global economy worldwide, the president said some of the projects the society had planned to execute such as its digitisation project was temporarily brought to a halt, due to paucity of funds, adding its America chapter came to its rescue when the economy picked up.

“There are two major projects that we are working on gradually, we are just looking for the funding. There is a digitization programme being sponsored by OGS America. It is a multi-million naira programme and there is a Landing Management System (LMS), which is the first leg of the digitization programme. Incidentally, we were just about to sign-off when Covid-19 started. And easily OGS America paid the money and we are able to deploy the LMS, so we are among the first set to start online training among the secondary schools in Nigeria.
“Similar to the digitization project, is power, because it is critical. We are working on a solar power system entirely for the school. Once that is done we will not need anything from government, we can generate our own power, ” Vincent who is running for a second term stressed.

Other impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic which the OGS experienced he noted, was the crash in the money market which incapacited the Old Boys from contributing meaningfully to development in the school.

According to him, “Some of our supporters could have done much, but for the fall and the crisis in the money market. We have somebody that pledged N250 million and the N250 million was placed in the money market. We were supposed to be spending the interest, but the treasury bill crashed from 15 per cent to about one per cent. That was a major blow to us. So what we are doing now is just to gather ourselves together and make sure that we raise funds to be able to do all the projects that we needed to do. Somebody had given us about N20 million for a football filed.

“We are working on the football field to convert it to a mini stadium. We are looking for about N300 million. We hope and pray that as we go forward, we will be able to raise the money. Like last year we couldn’t do the founder’ day and merit award which was one of the major source of income for the OGS. But now that the issue of Covid-19 is gradually being eased out, we are hoping and trusting God, that we should be able to hit the ground running this year and get things sorted out.”

Since he came on board since 2019, Vincent said he had been able to consolidate on the vision of his predecessor, by ensuring that at least 75 per cent of the staff are resident on the school premises so that they can better monitor the students, instill discipline and improve on their academic wellbeing.

The president disclosed its plans to kick-off the commemoration of the 162nd anniversary in May this year. As part of the activities, a prize-giving day ceremony will be held and award of performance would be given to teachers.
Other activites he noted include; instituting scholarship for brilliant but indigent students at the point of entry, mentoring of students, human capacity training for the teachers and incentives depending on how well they are able to ensure the success of the SS three students.

“Just this last week, more than one million naira, was given to the school for scholarships for some indigent students, and two weeks ago, OGS UK and Europe decided to give scholarship to the best students at the point of entry, so that we can get the best of the best to develop ourselves. Then we are doing mentoring for the students too by asking the old boys to come around and talk to and encourage them that the sky is the starting point not the limit for them. So they have no reason to fail in this school.

“We are in talks with the management of the school, the principal gives us a report every month when we meet. If the report is not good enough we tell the principal. In fact, we ask for the redeployment of some teachers. In other to encourage the teachers especially if you are teaching SS three and your student gets a distinction, you are given N5,000, so if you have 10 students getting a distinction, you get N50,000 bonus. So the teachers must be motivated.

“As part of our own activities too, we organise on an annual basis, human capacity training for the teachers. There is a project for that, and there is an Old Boy that gives us one million naira annually for that particular project. We had five million naira invested in treasury bills for capacity training. We were getting about N200,000 . So the teachers are rotated for the capacity training, “

The president disclosed his administration’s readiness to set up a foundation that will further strengthen the society and also address the challenges of unemployment among Old Boys who are currently unemployed. This, the president noted, would be achieved by approaching those who have viable businesses to help its graduates, adding that those who have skills are also encouraged.
The move, he added, will help to bridge the gap between the older and younger generations.

“Rather than giving you fish, let us teach you how to fish. I can tell you that there is one that we need to celebrate, he had a spinal cord injury and cannot walk. By the OGS constitution, every set is supposed to have a chairman, the secretary and one other person at the CAC committee which is the highest policy making body. So every set has a voice in that committee and that committee comprises of all the sets and those in Diaspora. He got across to his set, and he said he is not ready to go to the street and start begging that he wants something doing.

“So we got him a wheelchair. He said he needed a house, and we got a place, a very big compound where he was doing poultry and rabbitry. We got him a place for N500,000 per annum. He is currently running the poultry and the rabbitry in Ife even while moving on a wheelchair and he is happy. Unfortunately by the constitution of OGS, we cannot use our funds for such things, we had to generate money internally. So one of things we want to do now going forward is to create a foundation that can address those challenges.”

He ascribed the commitment of the Old Boys to their passion for the school song especially the last stanza which he said is a source of strength for most of them, adding that they believe that the African continent shall rise and ensure its maximum potential.

“So we are all looking forward to see Africa rise. We have a hope for the future, so those are the words that keeps us going, that Africa will surely rise. And that is the source of our strength. So if we are looking forward to Arica being great, we must start from Nigeria by investing in education. It is the greatest asset any nation can have. So that is what keeps us on. And for every old boy, it is a passion, you feel proud and you feel happy.”

The OGS who emphasised on his plans if re-elected for the second term, said he would amend the constitution of the society to address challenges such as dispute resolution and electronic voting.

“We want to entrench the processes that we have in place and make it as part of our constitution so that nobody comes in and change,” he said.