Giving Succor to Alma-mater

Oluchi Chibuzor reports that the Old Students’ Association of Army Children’s High School, Ikeja, Cantonment has brought remarkable infrastructural development and entrepreneurial initiative to the school, which was once devastated by the 2012 bomb blast

On Sunday, January 27, 2012, an armoury at the Ikeja military cantonment in Lagos, Nigeria, containing “high calibre bombs” went up in flames at about 6.00 pm local time, resulting in series of explosions in and around the cantonment.

The explosions caused damage to a number of buildings in and around the cantonment, resulting in displacement of persons and loss of properties including residential buildings, offices, business centres and schools.

The explosions affected up to 50 kilometers away from the cantonment and one of such casualties was the Army Children’s High School. It was so bad that nine years after, the school is yet to recover from the aftermath of the deadly disaster, moreso for the set of students who witnessed the catastrophic collapse of the school.

Active Role by Old Boys

In a bid to leave indelible marks on their alma mater, Old Students of ‘Association of Army Children’s High School, Ikeja (ACHSOSA) having passed through the four walls of the school decided to come together as a group to play an active role as a critical stakeholder in the infrastructural development of the school that has produced a Lagos State one-day governor.

Speaking at the 40th anniversary of the school, which was founded in the year 1981, the President ACHSOSA, Mr. Julius Ojo, a pioneer student of the school, said the school started with what was then called the Jakande block classroom.

He said the school started with humble beginnings as the first high school in the cantonment, with borrowed blocks from the military on September 18, 1981.

He also said the school was established by the Lagos State government to take care of the children of the soldiers within the cantonment and after a year the leadership of the late former governor of Lagos State.

“Lateef Jakande built a block for us in the cantonment, until the Lagos State government came to our aid thereafter to build a befitting edifice for the school. But, with the unfortunate incident that happened in the year 2012, the bomb blast, it blasted the school and nearly silenced the school.

“But to the glory of God the school still continued to be in existence even though it was operating from a neighbouring school like Wasimi, and some other temporary building. But after that, the Lagos State government brought this building for us here as our permanent site for the senior and junior high school,” he said.

However, he expressed satisfaction on how the school has progressed over several years to produce the first one-day governor under the administration of then Governor Babatunde Raji-Fashola, which earned the college a prestigious price of hummer jeep.

According to him, “this achievement saw the government come to our aid then, but we still have some of our sets that have been coming to do one or two things to assist the school in the area where the government cannot quickly intervene.

“In 2017, we now found it imperative to organise a central body to bring all the sets from inception, which by the grace of God I happens to be among the first set of the school in 1981.”

Ojo revealed that since then they have been able to do some few things in providing sports materials, jerseys, footballs, and learner’s furniture for both junior and senior schools.

“We also bought executive chairs for the principals and some printers for the school to use and some other things. We have been able to renovate about 24 conveniences and put everything in place to ensure that pupils and teachers are well taken care of in terms of their sanitary needs within the school.

“We also bought nine magnetic white boards for the junior school because they are lacking in that aspect and again the project is in stages, but then we still need the help of a corporate organisation because the state of our junior school is nothing to write home about.

“When you go there now, you will see all the ceiling in the classroom they are gone, the students are learning under hardship; the floor, in fact the environment is not conducive at all and we want to renovate the old building, their science laboratory and home economics laboratory to quickly come to the aid of the student.

“We do not want to wait for the government, it is our school and so we want to make sure our children learn under a conducive environment and that is one of the reasons that brought us together today to give thanks to God for keeping the school,” he beckoned.

Catching Young Entrepreneurs

For him, the BOT Chairman of ACHSOSA, Jude Onohwusa, helping students develop vocational skill sets remain sacrosanct to a committee dedicated towards professionally training young students in the school.

He posited that the committee was teaching youngsters how to produce pastries, soap making and other things because they want them to be engaged after school.

He maintained that most of them grew up in the cantonment and “when we are about their age we used to help our parents to hawk and so on, but times have changed.

“We want to give them a lifetime such that when they are out of college waiting to be admitted into university they have something they are doing and not loafer around depending on their parents and getting involved with vices.

“As I speak to you now the training is ongoing and we will certify them as there will be a follow-up so that we see them really productive.

“We are trying to see how we can begin to mentor them into being entrepreneurs, so that they can be independent to themselves and to their parents”.

According to him, these are the reasons why the committee was put in place adding they are doing a great job, “and if you look by your side these are materials for the vocational training and some are inside the classroom. Basically we want to empower them and that is what we are doing.

Improving Facilities

On improving facilities in the school, the BOT Chairman also said: “We have answered several calls to see how we can better the school, improve the facilities of the school in terms of the classrooms both interiors and exteriors”.

However, he noted that their project in the college was in two stages as they intend to do the ceiling, roofing and painting eventually.

“The classrooms we have completed and both the plumbing and electrical for the toilets and as the boards have been removed and replaced with what is generally accepted.

“We want the children to have the best, because we did not enjoy all of these, but things have changed and things are trending in the 21st century. We want the best for them.”

Trust Fund for Scholarships

With the majority of the students from middle class families, the BOT Chairman stressed the need for a trust fund where students can be given a scholarship based on their academic prowess.

He explained that with the scholarship, ACHSOSA will be putting money together in a trust fund account to take care of the mentorship of these children.

According to him, they want to see how they can motivate, prepare and see how on merit basis help those selected through their university studies.

He further explained that some of the old school association members are employers of labour and are waiting to see some of them come out of school to be fixed into various sectors of the economy.

“The trust fund will be done in such a way there will be competition in the school; all of that we do not see anymore because no engagement, determination, hard work and drive are no longer there.

“We want to use this to get them back to studies, hard work, and of course when there is a trust fund that is going to give scholarship you will work hard. The scholarship is going to be strictly based on merit.

Synergy

On harmony between the school management and the old school association, he expressed satisfaction with the synergy that has yielded fruit with the various interventions. “We visit the school from time to time as the school principals know us and each time we come we observe a hole to plug,” he revealed.

Painting a clarion call picture, Chairman planning committee for the 40th anniversary, Segun Ajala, also a pioneer student reiterated the need for more urgent infrastructural intervention to raise funds to build a dignified learning environment.

“Since 2016, we came together to close gaps in the school, because we also see what is happening in other schools when their alumni are doing great things for their alma mater.

“We thought our own case should not be an exception by coming out to do something reasonably. Many of us have been making individual efforts but by coming together we have achieved more for the school.

“This we begin by touring the school to ascertain exactly what the school needs, after this we sprang to action. In 2016, we saw that students were sitting on bare floors to learn and we said to ourselves was this not the school we attended?

“After the 36th year anniversary, it was observed the school was not in the right state; that was why we initiated the various projects we have undertaken.

“When you go up to the last floor of the junior high school, all the ceilings are all gone, so we are going to fix that but it is a gradual thing which we are going to do,” he decried.

Right Sex Education

Mrs. Morolayo Oladipo, who spoke on sex education and child molestation, told the students that one in four girls and one in 10 boys experiences sexual violence before the age of 18 in one way or the other.

According to her the major causes includes, absentee parents, parents who do not observe, when the kids are not informed about sex education, what they watch and indecent dressing worn by young people and parents.

She stressed that most students are caught through grooming, baits, emotional, financial, gift, familiarity and respect and child grooming and must shout, run, and report any body that touches their body indiscriminately.

She advised on the possible signs to show that a child may be abused to include, isolation, aggressiveness, constant anxiety and fear, difficulty in walking, a sudden drop in academic performance, poor social interaction, slightest provocation and so on.

“It is very imperative that you teach your child the proper way of dressing as of course it will not stop molesters, but it will help curb the chances in its minimum opportunity. Teach them privacy. They must knock and seek permission before they enter your room. It is wrong to bathe them together irrespective of sex,” she noted.