Today marks a historic milestone in the life of our great iconic educational institution as we gather to celebrate 100 years of its founding.
This institution has contributed immensely to the socio-economic development of Northern Nigeria, in particular and the Nation at large.
Your organization, KAOBA, is grateful for the unflinching support of its two pillars, Lt. General T. Y. Danjuma and the Emir of Lafia, Alhaji Mustapha Agwai 1. They have opened their hearts, doors and pockets so that our great institution, Government College Katsina-Ala may continue to survive. We are not surprised; they were both prefects of Sloan House; arguably the best House in the College. After all, I enjoyed my life as Senior Prefect of Sloan House.
Our chief host, who in less than a year in office, granted audience to nearly 100 members of KAOBA on 8th August, 2015, under the leadership of the Emir of Lafia. We informed him of the situation at the College. A machinery for redressing KAOBA complaints was instantly put in motion. In addition, he donated N5 million to mobilize KAOBA towards achieving its long term goal.
We are most grateful to the Governor of Nasarawa State, Alhaji Umaru Al-Makura, who though not a member of KAOBA, has shown great interest in our activities. He too, made a donation of N5 Million towards the Centenary Convention. We are indeed very grateful.
We are grateful to all KAOBA elders and the young ones who invested their time and resources in assisting the EXCO raise the status of Government College Katsina-Ala, to a new level. We thank both the Convention Planning Committee, and the Local Organizing Committee for creating an environment that brought old memories afresh.
The Host Community, the people of Katsina-Ala, have been very supportive of this institution. They tolerated our generations’ youthful exuberant days. More than that, they resisted three attempts to relocate the College away from Katsina-Ala.
Your Excellency, our host, permit me to speak on behalf of all KAOBANS young and old on the sorry state of our great institution. It has been degraded to a level that the college has become unrecognizable. Our land has been grabbed. Our landed properties, teachers’ houses, including that of the principal have been sold, leaving the students unsupervised. The environment is no longer conducive for learning and the development of character, the twin objectives of our beloved college. These objectives Your Excellency, made it possible for our Chairman, LT. General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, to blaze the academic performance trail in obtaining Division II in the school’s first attempt at the Cambridge School Certificate Examination. He was followed by our first Division one student, Mr. Vincent Okwu in 1959. These are our role models. Subsequent classes did not disappoint.
Now, the story is different. Please rescue this center of great enlightenment in Northern Nigeria and make it a center of excellence that it had once been.
We do not need to brag. Any institution that provided those who fought assiduously for the rights of minorities in Nigeria and for the emancipation of the Talakawa in Nigeria has definitely made its contributions.
Sen. Dr. J. S. Tarka, was President of the United Middle Belt Congress; leader of opposition, Northern House of Assembly, Shagbaor Isaac Shaahu; Ambassador Yahaya Abdullahi, Secretary General, Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) and Yahaya Sabo, leader of NEPU in Benue. We provided leadership in the Armed Forces and the Police; we occupied eminent thrones in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba States; we provided two eminent jurists of the Supreme Court of Nigeria; not to mention thousands of technocrats at various levels in both public and private sectors.
Your Excellency, Government College, Katsina-Ala, belongs to the Government of Benue State. KAOBA, intends to partner with you, through its N500 Million Development plan, to resuscitate the institution, and make it a center of Excellence for the five states, Benue, Plateau, Kogi, Nasarawa and Taraba States, which it had catered for in the past.
Your Excellency, our request, we believe are within your power to grant.
1. Assist to bring back our land and properties.
2. Construction of perimeter fence around our landed property to prevent further encroachment.
3. Support the launching of our N500 Million Naira Development plan, by involving stakeholder Governors and President of Nigeria in resuscitating the College, making such Alumni/Government joint venture effort worthy of emulation Nationwide.
4. Immortalizing our girls of 1947, who went to become pioneer students of Dala Government Girls Secondary School Kano by making the school a coed institution.
5. Reconstruction of student Hostels, making them habitable in order to attract more boarding students.
Dear fellow KAOBANS, our gathering here today is auspicious. I urge you to show your commitment and willingness to partner with the State Government to resuscitate our great institution. No amount of support in this gathering will be too little to help in achieving our objectives. And remember the big launch of the N500 Million Naira is coming up at the end of the year.
This KAOBA assembly of loyal old boys, and old girl gathered here is enough testimony of the schools contribution in moulding the youths of yesteryears to run the affairs of this great nation at all levels and in both public and private sectors.
We are gathered here today to meet and socialize with our elders, our contemporaries and those who came after we had played our parts and left this institution. It is a day of merriment. Sadly it is a day that would never repeat itself in our individual lifetime. So, please let us make the best of it. Let us call each other by the nicknames we reserved for ourselves, as classmates and the junior ones dared not refer to it in our presence. Let us remember the pranks we used to play on the way to the river; as we swam in the River; as we fetched water in the heavy headpans we used to carry; as we rampaged sugar cane farms when the owners were not in sight, but occasionally some of us got caught; as we malinger and connive with town dispensers to refer us to either Takum or Mkar Hospitals to escape the sometime tasteless school menu; the nocturnal visits to some joints in Agahyande; and such other pranks practised by each generation gathered here.
It is such happy moments of our adolescent lives that we are to recall and laugh about. As we do also, we will realize that no matter the position that we currently occupy, we are those boys and girls of yesteryears. As we return home, we will remember this day as the most memorable in our lives.
We will also find out as we ask that some of our mates are no longer with us. All the same you remember the part each of these played in your intellectual and social developments in the school. You remember also your teachers as you mimicked their walks, their mannerisms, their intellectual achievements, and their behaviours in the town.
You will also recall how you finally chose your profession. As I recall, in my first year, I knew, I was not cut for woodwork and or metalwork. When I was given my piece of wood by Mr. Onazi, to plane, within a few minutes, I had planed the piece of wood until there was no more wood to plane. I went to Mr. Onazi, the woodwork master, and jubilantly informed him that I needed another piece of wood. Where is the one I gave you? He asked; I finished it; I replied. He laughed. He had a strange way of laughing, Mr. Onazi, unlike Mr. Crampton, whose laughter was a riot.
I developed the profession I enjoyed here in Katsina-Ala. I reported a match between Government College Keffi and Katsina-Ala. The match was tied. Keffi attacked the referee and the match was stopped. That night I wrote the story and secretly posted it to Nigerian Citizen which published it and it was pasted on the Notice Board. I was so excited and confessed to the captain Ateraki Tseayo. He, too, was excited and told Mr. Crampton, the Principal. The Ministry of Education in Kaduna, queried the Principal of Keffi, for the students’ misbehavior.
The Principal, Keffi, informed Crampton about their displeasure. And whoever wrote the article should be punished. Soon, I was paraded before Mr. Crampton, who congratulated my English Teacher, but banished me from lessons for a day. But Crampton ordered me to join the football team to travel to Okene and report the clash between Katsina-Ala and Offa Grammar School. I missed most of the match since I had to take Jerome Wuam to Hospital and stayed with him. He had collapsed after an aerial collision in the midfield. Later, as a journalist, the Crampton incident repeated itself in real life in 1984.
We all have such stories to tell. Today is the day to tell it all, to the younger ones to inspire them.
This celebration should be seen as an opportunity to network. Collect phone numbers, e-mail addresses, Whatsapp, ask people about their professions, seek opportunities – there would never be a day like this, in our lives again. Old boys should uplift old boys; find places for them and mentor them. This is the spirit of KAOBA.
I thank you for listening to my welcome address. I thank you for electing me, your National President not only in Absentia, but unopposed. My Presidential Report is inside the Programme which should serve as the handover note of my indefatigable EXCO, to the next EXCO at the end of this Convention.
Thank you
This is a welcome address by the National President of Kaoba, Dr. Haroun Adamu, to the convention and centenary celebration occasion at Government College, Katsina-Ala on May 7, 2016
Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.
