AN AWESOME PRIVILEGE

Those early days in the year 1965 were quite wonderful as we were all young and innocent. Our backgrounds were as I varied as our faces, very divergent socially, economically, and culturally. But there was a common denominator: our goal was to obtain the best secondary education from a premium school under the masterful leadership of DJB and his fantastic team of teachers and administrative staff.

The first day remains ever fresh in my memory. We new students had just been dropped by our various parents and guardians and we were ushered to our various rooms by some old students. I was in Field House, the best of the four houses in the school. As expected, everyone looked for his old primary schoolmates and friends from previous schools or acquaintances from several interviews at some schools/colleges around. Just imagine the orderliness and level of organisation in those days!!

Then came the evening when we were to have our bath. Of course, we went in batches. While some of us were treading the ground softly, softly, some were more confident either because they were rascally or because they had brothers already in school! Yours truly belonged to the first group. Trust me; we had been given the lectures of our lives by our parents not to disgrace them under whatever circumstances. "Don't fight. Don't steal. Don't break rules. You are being sent to school to go and read: nothing else or less"

And we were there, chatting with one another as we were having our bath. Then the unexpected happened. For whatever reason there was a challenge fuelled by the rascals between two of us that apparently were the smallest and shortest in the group. The more outspoken of these two smallies underestimated the other one, who had been a rough area fighter. The former had a very senior brother he boasted about while the latter had none!!! To cut the long story short, the two locked in a wrestling match, and the latter floored the former, even hitting his head on the concrete floor! And everyone scrammed, except the two of us, wailing accusations and counter accusations. Some boys later returned with some senior guys though!

That was the first lesson. Because the injury required some treatment, the news spread around the house such that the latter boy became a marked man when all the old students resumed. He was taunted by Class 2 and Class 3 boys possibly because of his tough/rough attitude. To complicate matters, his tior (teacher) was a member of the "mafia". They were notorious, hard and wicked. Boy, they were like real gangsters!!! You had to fear them. The small "bush" boy was so detested by his tior that he never bothered to tell or advise him on how to get materials for the preparation of the house test. How the boy passed the test and in a good position was totally unbelievable, even to the tires gang!! But that broke the iceberg, because, from then on, he became his tior's pride.

Days became weeks, weeks became months, and months turned into years. We had become very admirable teenagers, well cultured and with great potentials in arts and science. Despite our differences, we saw ourselves as equals, no complex whatsoever. We were all Nigerians without any tribalistic undertone. We were taught to respect one another and to be our brother's keeper. The greatest foundation of life was built at the best school of all time in Nigeria - the Original GCI. THIS IS WHAT WE ARE CELEBRATING!!!

Things are completely different today. Nigeria, like any nation, has metamorphosed. She has had her highs and lows, times of great glory and times of utter shame. The military interventions, the Civil War, the dispensations of democratic rule have severely impacted on the fragile nation. Opinions differ on whether the olden days are far better than the present time, but I believe that change has always been and will continue to be. How we manage it is what determines whether yesterday is better than today or vice versa. But the glory of the latter house shall be greater than that of the former. Nil desperandum. Let's never despair. Yes, it is bad, so bad; but we must keep hope and faith alive. Believe, and never stop believing that tomorrow will be better. We shall overcome was the common song sung in the days of the great Dr. Martin Luther King. We are living witnesses of the truism and the actualisation of the American dream even though challenges have not relented. Surely, we shall overcome!

I am very privileged and proud to have had the unique opportunity to have attended GCI at its prime, and particularly to be a member of this very special 65/71 set. What aren't we blessed with? If Nigeria or, for that matter, the whole world were to be filled with multiples of this set, there would have been no ISIS, Boko Haram or terrorism, no corruption, indiscipline, injustice, breakdown of infrastructures, and so on. Are we perfect? Far from that, but we are thoroughbred, sane and highly disciplined. We've got true values, and are not easily compromised. Should I say more? Had I been a good writer like some of us, maybe.

Lest I forget, those two 'smallies' of those yesteryears are no longer smallies o!! They have since grown up. Though not endowed physically in the vertical dimensions, God has highly favoured them. One is a great servant and minister of God today and the other is moi.
God bless us all. God bless GCI

Lekan Saola (EZYU)