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 government’s commitments in 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 cutting of the tape of the newly renovated girls hostel, the President of 76-81 set of old students associate of the college, Mr Ayoola Olaitan noted that it is very very important to take good care of girl child.
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 of doing, there are certain things we’re expect 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 positive impact on them.”
“As a father of girls myself, I have a believe that if you don’t give your girl child what they need, somebody else will give them and when they give them, it will come with a condition and we don’t want our girl child to grow up like that.” Ayoola said.
Why 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, we think we can make their environment in the school more conducive for 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 on 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 beginning 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 total renovation of the girls hostel, what we are standing on right now used to be a pieces of earth, but it’s now a brand new floor with painting, my classmates decided to do all these for the girls 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 need to always remember their Alma Mater.
He said,”I think, we all need to realize that 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 government by coming up with initiative like this with the aim to transform the public schools 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 more of better initiative to transform the public schools system, to renovate the public schools system.”
“I’m so sure, that many of us that have attended these schools are in places of authority, places of influence and financially we can also support these schools, if we can coordinate ourselves properly and we organized an effective public private partnership strategy, we will be talking something different as far as our public schools are concern 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 Engr for this renovation project.”
“When we got here, we realized we need to do complete renovations of the hostel, so professionally what we did was to came up with cost estimate and the budget of the entire project, we did estimate for every single items and we got specialists for every single items, 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 provision of basic amenities that the school is currently lacking.
The Principal also use the medium to solicit help on procurement of the 32 seater Coaster Bus for the school.
He said, ‘The school have various stakeholders but the government has the highest stake because of the fact that they’re the owner of the college, as a 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 that 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 contribute 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 charge the students on 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 at the time I came here we had issues of conduct with the students which I traced to the deplorable state of the living of the children and along God helped with budgetary provision from the Federal government where we were able to address many of these areas of needs and that has really affected the behavior of the children. So, I can assure you that those that have been given the privilege to be here because they already known themselves is 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 further commitment from the donors, the set of 1981 that they will adopt the project that if there is 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.