EKSU ex-VC harps on alma mater development

Former Vice-Chancellor, Ekiti State University (EKSU), Prof Dipo Kolawole, has urged ex-students of Christ Apostolic Church Grammar School, Efon-Alaaye, Ekiti State and those of other schools nationwide not to forget to give back part of their resources to their former schools that produced them.

He said that was one of the ways to show their appreciation for producing them and also to join governments in providing quality and quantitative education to the people in the host communities and the country at large.

The former VC gave this admonition on a sideline at a launch of the endowment funds and award ceremony organised by the CAC (CAPOSTO) Grammar School Efon-Alaaye Alumni Association held in Lagos last Saturday.

The event was put together to honour Prof Kolawole and one other, Mr Lucas Daramola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who are both high-profile alumni of the school.

Kolawole, a 1967 set of the 64-year-old school, pointed out that it is glaring that government at all levels in the country, especially during this period of economic crisis, cannot all alone provide adequate educational needs for the citizens, hence, the need for private sector at individual and group levels such as alumni associations to join hands in taking up the responsibilities.

He, however, thanked the alumni association members for the CAPOSTO Hall of Fame honour conferred on him, promising to continue to contribute to the growth and development of their alma mater.

Giving lecture at the event, Mr Gbenga Oluwaniyi, also an alumnus of the school, who spoke on the theme, “Reconnecting CAPOSTO to the National Grid,” said it is important that every former student of the school, who is yet to join the alumni association, does so without delay
and also be active in its activities.

According to him, there is lots of work to do in our alma mater to lift it and we must all accept that this responsibility is for everyone of us and not for a certain group of individuals.

He noted that virtually all public schools not only in Ekiti State but across Nigeria suffer government neglect, reason many of them are in poor state and lack even basic infrastructures.

In his welcome address earlier, the president general of the association, Dr Adekunle Ojo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, commended the efforts of the alumni association for changing the face of the school positively.

He listed some of the upgade interventions carried out by the group to include and not limited to library, class and staff rooms, science laboratories, sports pavilion, assembly hall, lavatories, entrance gate, and perimeter fence,  buying of drum set as well as giving of scholarship and prizes to exceptional students during school debate and quiz competitions.

“So, I thank you all for these great interventions to   restore the glory of the school and also make teaching and learning more impactful to both the teachers and students,” he stressed.

He noted that the next projects to be carried out by the group are school clinic and solar energy and also to build an alumni house where the photographs of CAPOSTO Hall of Fame inducted members and those to be honoured in the future will be displayed permanently.

Ojo therefore urged all members not to relent on their oars as the journey to make their alma mater a world-class secondary school is not completed yet.

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