Don charges 85 alumni of Gbongan community high

A Professor of History at Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Professor Akin Alao has on Saturday charged members of the Gbongan Community High School Old Students Association 1985 Set to always be contented with whatever God has blessed them with.

Prof. Akin who was the guest speaker at the Investiture of directors and reunion meeting of the association in Ibadan noted that after leaving the school for 38 years there is nothing new to the members of the association that they want to achieve again.

Prof. Akin who was one of the teachers at the Gbongan Community High School between the years 1983 to 1986, while speaking with journalists about his experience as a teacher then and how he feels seeing his students after 38 years said, “this particular set graduated in 1985, so I taught them when they were in form 3, form 4, and form 5 when they graduated, immediately they left, the following year I left too, I was transferred to Olivet Baptist High School Oyo.”

“Before I left Gbongan Community High School, I had the opportunity of meeting with them and adopted some of them as my mentors, they’re all seated here, their senior boy and senior girls then are all here, so seeing them again after 38 years is a thing of excitement and joy for me, and when I was coming, I was coming with the intention of sharing my thoughts with them, you will agree with me that after leaving the school for 38 years there is nothing new that they want to do, I pray that the God should just give them the spirit of contentment so that they will be able to enjoy their lives and contribute their quota the society, they’re special to me in the sense that when I got to Gbongan in 1983 they were already in school and many of them naturally became very close to me and up till today we are still in touch.”

“When I got to the school, I was young and single then, I was like a senior brother to them but I saw in them the thirst for knowledge and I was able to resonate with their situation because I went into a similar school, out of town school where I was for five years without water and electricity, so when I got to Gbongan it was like I came out of a similar school like this so what can I do to improve the quality of the lives was my motivating spirit then, I was living in the campus at OAU and I was coming to Gbongan every day to teach and I had a car then but I was commuting.”

“I had the intention of improving the quality of their lives, I made up my mind that whatever I can do to impact them positively is what drives me then, so I was always excited coming around to teach them and to the glory of God today many of them are professors, so seeing them today I feel good, I feel excited and I feel fulfilled, the beauty of a teacher is to see your students coming up and becoming something in life, so I feel blessed seeing them today, that is the joy of teaching.” Prof. Akin said.

In his message to the newly inducted directors of the set, Prof. Akin said, my message to them is that they should not involve in any rat race, they should be contented with whatever they have, they should not be combative, they should not be competitive about life as it comes, they should trust God that he will cater for them.”

In his remarks, the Director General of the umbrella body of Gbongan Community High School Alumni Association, Mr Adekunle Adedeji said “The main role of alumni is to intervene in things that are need in our Alma Mater, 85 set is one of the alumni sets of our school, they’re here today inaugurating their boards of directors, I’m very glad to be here, this is what we have been looking for, we have been urging all sets to come together and be united and have something like this, this development will make our roles easier at the global level so I’m so happy to see this happening today”

In his words, Barrister Kayode Oyedeji, the general counsel of the Gbongan Community High School Old Students Association, said, “Ip left the school in 1983, that’s is about 40 years ago, and I thank God that I’m still alive and the school has produced a lot of professors, the present Vice Chancellor of Osun State University is an Alumni of our association, he was 84 set, I’m here as a lawyer to do the swearing-in of the excos for the 1985 alumni set and all I can say is that the atmosphere is very okay.”

“The umbrella body of the association encourages all the sets to have something like this for easy coordination, so I’m here to do the oath of office for them, these are responsible men and women in our society,” Kayode said.

Speaking with Nigerian Tribune, the head girl of the 85 sets, Chief (Mrs) Esther Olubukola Oni, said, “I’m so happy that we are still alive, we bless God for the gift of life, since 1985 that we’ve left secondary school till today, I was the senior girl of that school then and it was so challenging because I was so small and tiny then, I had to climb the big table to address the whole school but today it’s been so great, I’m happy to see my mates after 38 years to God be the glory.”

I’m happy to tell you that our set has been doing wonderfully well for the development of the school, before the school have been taken over by the government and we fought it, this set did it for the school then, we stood firm, we said we must take back our school and God really supported us and since then we have been paying salary for some of our teachers because the school did not have enough teachers, they only have like 5 teachers and we employed more teachers which we’ve been paying for since then and we thank God it has been successful.”

The school prefect of the set, Pastor Femi Ade Olojede said, “I’m an indigene of Gbongan and I attended Gbongan Community High School between the year 1980 to 1985 and fortunately I was the senior prefect of my set then, not that I was the most brilliant students but one of the most outstanding students, it was through the efforts of the Alumni that we were able to reach out to government and ICT unit was brought to our school and it’s our school that almost all the schools in Aiyedaade local government are doing ICT based examinations.

“So, it gladdens my heart that I belong to the 85 sets because we were like the same brother and sister from the same parents, we relate together like brothers without suspecting anybody. The love is there, the unity is still there and I can say that we are the second set to do something like this after the first set of the school, so it gladdens my heart that we are here together again today. He said.

Some of the newly inducted directors of the set are Prof. Oluseyi Olubunmi Fabiyi, Adekunle Oyewale, Mrs Funke Adetunji, Mr Mathew Yemi Adebisi, Aremo Olusegun Ajani among others.

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