My Life At Government College Ibadan

When I was at the School, life was generally quite secure. The only financial obligation was three pounds per annum which in 1945 was raised to four pounds per annum for students.

The first year was always a difficult one in a boarding house. In Grier House, the Head of House was Ogunbanwo, while I was the privileged �fag� of the boss of the dormitory. My bed was next to his. This esteemed bed was located at the corner of a large open dormitory with a population of thirty boys. Other prefects in the dormitory were E.A. Ifaturoti who later became the Chief Minning Engineer in the Federal Ministry of Mines and Power.

The Head of School, Audiferen was in Swanston House. Fadahunsi, Ukpoma, Obembe, the Verger, were other big names in that order.
I had a singular disadvantage of being branded a �grammar school� boy from my very first day. This was synonymous with being a truant. As such, many of the prefects decided that I was to be specially disciplined in order to �trim� me down to Government College standard.

To us small, new boys, the sight of huge men on their way out into the world. Their words were law in the school compound. They had a right to punish the juniors, send them to cut grass, do dining room duties including washing up of the plates and dishes after meals, but no one, except the House Master and the Principal, could apply corporal punishment.

I had a few rounds of grass cutting and a more regular return to the pantry for washing up for some minor offenses. Only once was I caned � one stroke, but that was a severe punishment in those days in the College. Every House had a conduct book with headings ranging from personal hygiene to behavior.

If a student failed to score 100 percent in the conduct grading, he had to report for discipline at the house master�s office during break on Monday morning. The list of the offenders was pasted on the board. At the appointed time, all offenders were marched to the �office� like men awaiting trial in a law court. The school assembly, listened in grave silence as the cane came down on the offenders.

The gathering took note of the �convict�. A stroke of the cane was a conviction as bad as going to jail. It had such a terrible stigma that one would prefer to be sentenced to cut grass for a week to having a stroke of the cane. The awe created around the cane was such that all of us struggled never to be so sentenced. This helped to set the tone of discipline in the college.

In the dining-room, those of us from the hinterland learnt to use the fork, the spoon and the knife by watching the bigger boys use them. Each house had a dining-room and all meals were taken on a house to house basis. Each house had two cooks and a steward. The washing up and the cleaning of the dining-room and pantry was the duty of students who, while on duty, were called �mess boys�.

Washing up plates provided no thrill at all, particularly, if it had been beans for breakfast, or okra stew for lunch. The plates for beans are very oily while the plates for okra are very slimy. Such mornings and afternoons were good occasions for punishing offending boys by way of mess duties.

On the whole, the first year was for initiation into college life. By the end of the year, I was already �one� from the college. The year also marked the forging of friendship among the classmates. I made close friendship with two of my mates namely Ayo Williams, now Chief Ayo Fasanmi, a former member of the House of Representatives, a former Senator, and now the Managing Director of Bamidupe Chemists, Osogbo; and with Frederick Jaiye Falodun who was a Chief Statistician, in the Federal Public Service. Ayo became an accomplished footballer on the College side for two years and played briefly for Nigeria in 1945 as an outside right.

Frederick had the distinguished athletic career of breaking the Nigerian record for the year 1947. The bond of friendship tied in 1942 still remains firm till this day. In later years the three of us shared our experiences � our sorrows and joys and got together to work our way through school.

We always went together for the usual Sunday evening stroll to meet the KGS and the UMC girls. One must however admit that Falodun was less adventurous than both Ayo and I. If my judgement is right, Ayo alias Offa boy, was perhaps the biggest rascal of our day.

Academic life was directed to give general education in the first three years of college. Although preparing the basis for future examinations, the emphasis was to build a cultured man. We studied ancient history mainly the civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, and early English history up to the time of the Norman invasion of England. There were very few books on African History. Tropical Africa in World History was the title of the latest textbook then.

Literature and English were stimulated by history and we were all encouraged to read tales of ancient Rome and Greece, the gladiators, the revolt led by Spartacus, stories of the renaissance, of the Papacy, and also stories of the Kings of England, and the gallant knights. Legendary novels like She and Ayesher by Rider Hargard, King Solomon�s Mines , gave a background to African history and outlook. These acquired fancies sent us young folks having nightmares with wrestling tournaments at which the old Gagool presided. I have found these studies extremely useful in later years, particularly in the study of comparative philosophy and Marxist political economy.

Classes III to V years were oriented towards school Certificate Examinations. During these years, we studied the history and geography of the British Empire and got to know how �great� the British were and how humble our own relative positions was.

The 1944 � 1947 years were stormy years in Nigerian History. They were the years of rising nationalism which witnessed the birth of the Zikist Movement by one of the old boys of the College � Kola Balogun. Kola was two years ahead of me. He and S.A. Agboola on their own volition left Government College in Class IV and the following year passed the coveted London Matriculation Examination � LM, which was as good as a degree in those days. They were not the best in their class and certainly Government College had no poor students in those days. Their performance led college authorities to experiment with classes V and VI taking the school certificate examinations at the same sitting in 1945. The result was a hundred percent pass. Since then, the School Certificate Course had been reduced to five years in Government College.

There was no doubt that if we were allowed to take the examination in Class IV, the result would have been the same. I was not a poor student. In the Cambridge school leaving certificate examinations, I was second in the class with Grade one pass and an exemption from the London examinations.

Science studies apart, history and literature influenced my thought particularly the book, Strife , by Galsworthy. This was a play which relates to the struggle of British workers against capitalism, the ruthlessness of capitalists, and the sufferings that capitalism brought to the common folk. Looking back, I think this was the literary source of my initiation into the struggle against capitalism and my struggle for socialism.

Ayo Williams used to act the part of Robert, the leader of the strike, and a great �rebel� he has been ever since. Ayo was the best boy in history and literature. I was his close second as the results of the Cambridge school certificate examinations later confirmed.

Boys like Kola Balogun and Abiodun Aloba were already at school showing signs of budding nationalists and newspapermen of the future. In fact, the germs of Zikism developed at the College as some of us used to read Nnamdi Azikiwe�s speeches like the Gospel from Mount Sinai. Some of us began to put a Nigerian, anticolonial content into history and literature. But we were quite a humorous group.

I remember, after a cricket or football match with King�s College Lagos, we held a get together with our guests in the school premises, At that time, young Sam Akpabot was an ace in King�s College team. He was already a budding musician but it was as an actor and as one who mimicked Zik that we enjoyed his performances most. Sammy knew most of Zik�s speeches off head and would present them as if Zik was really dishing out his stuff. There was no doubt that we also learnt to laugh at our hero although this did not diminish our admiration for him or our zeal for the struggle for independence for our country.

Sports was always a link factor among schools. I played cricket for the school for three years and did athletics for two years. I had therefore an ample opportunity to meet sportsmen from other colleges and to take part in the First Nigerian Athletic Competition in which Adeola, then a Commissioner of Police, figured as the �flying policeman�.

In the early forties, Igbobi College was stationed at Ibadan and as a close neighbor, we had sports and literary activities together. I still remember boys like Teddy Nelson, and H. Harper on the sports field. Adeboye Babalola, now a retired Professor in the School of Asian and African Studies in the University of Lagos and a Nigerian National Merit Award winner, was a keen debater. We nicknamed him �today is not my day� which was an expression he used during an inter-collegiate debate while urging the Chairman to grant him some extra time.

Life was not always rosy at the College. In January or February 1947, we went for the Grier Cup Competition at Benin �City. During the week, there was a dance styled �Versatile Six Dances for Grier Competitors� . Some of us decided not to take permission from our gamesmaster, Mr Deko, as his refusal would bar us completely from the dance. We took a chance with the excuse that the dance was advertised for Grier Cup competitors and as such we were the guests. So we strolled into the dance hall in our Sunday best.

The going was good until some masters started having difficulties in snatching girls from the boys. For one reason or another, some of the girls were keen on the young athletes. This contradiction led to a series of misunderstandings and the atmosphere in the hall became a little tense.

The Masters decided to use their whip. We, the students who could axe escape, were rounded up and each was reported to his school authority.

Omotosho and I were involved on the Government College side. Omotosho, later a structural engineer in the service of the former Lagos City Council, was a weight lifter fondly called �ten, ten� after his weight of ten stones ten pounds. Back at College, we were arraigned before the Principal for misbehavior. It took a few staff meetings to alter the verdict of dismissal to cutting grass. As final year students, we certainly preferred this to being caned.

Fortunately, the results of the Cambridge School Certificate Examinations came out about a month later and in the midst of the jubilation our sins were forgiven. Atake, once a judge in the High Court of the Old Mid-West, was one of the victims of the Benin incident. He was then at the Ibadan Grammar School and I later understood that the Benin boys had a more raw deal than we had. After the pardon, I was restored to my position as a house prefect and Head of Fadayiro dormitory.

Our final year was spent mainly in doing advance work on Science and Mathematics in preparation for the entrance examination into the Higher College, Yaba. Before the end of the year Ohiro, Tsekiri and Williams left for the Pharmacy School, Yaba while some others left for the Public Works Junior Technical School, Lagos. That year, I myself took the entrance examination to Yaba Higher College and was successful. My admission along with that of others was transferred to the University College Ibadan. We were billed for entry as foundation students in October 1948. The interval gave one a chance to find some job and some money with which to prepare for university life.

A few factors influenced my character formation, and personality development during my stay at the College. There was the general atmosphere of disciplined life with every minute allocated to doing something creative. There was the ability to study and do research in order to bring out new facts so as to score high marks. There was the fear, the distaste to be �booked down� in the conduct sheet and to appear before the housemaster or Principal for any question. This encouraged everybody to be at his best behavior at all times and to accept certain standards of dos and don�ts. There was the development of the spirit of sports � to play a good game, to be happy winner and a cheerful looser � and there was the encouragement to do physical labour and to be proud of it.

The atmosphere of Government College in those days was that of a small commune. Everybody wore the same uniforms which were all supplied by the Government. Everybody ate the same food and lived together in real brotherhood. The rich could not show off their riches, the poor their poverty. You just had to be yourself and opportunity was equal in every respect. Then there was the large scope afforded to students to manage their own affairs, this developed a high sense of responsibility in the individual. At any point in time, each student was in charge of something � dormitory, food, clothes, laundry etc and each student had to give an account of his stewardship.

Two events have left an indelible mark on my mind. The first one occurred when I was in class III. An uproar initiated by me occurred in the classroom. I threw up a piece of paper and my classmates started to scramble for it. Our teacher, Mr Okafor, was then away to the Principal�s office. There was so much noise that I knew that trouble was bound to come. I escaped to the clay shed. By the time our teacher came back, I had made my exit. He wanted to know why there was so much noise and who was responsible. He got no answer. The highly experienced teacher that he was, he rightly concluded that I must have been at the root of it all. I was picked up and rebuked. From then on, I learnt to weigh any action before taking it, and having taken it, to stand and face the consequences squarely like a man.

Another event of note was the love that I developed for history, English literature, politics and the arts. The prescribed School Certificate Examination literature textbooks were Strife by Galsworthy, As You Like It by Williams Shakespeare and Eothem by King Lake. These three books influenced my life in different ways. Eothem influenced my essay writing; As You Like It introduced me to the English way of life and English drama which I found expression when I was at the University College Ibadan, and in London where I was a regular visitor to the Old Vic, the theatre renowned for Shakespeare�s plays. Strife was my introduction to class struggle. It exposed capitalism as a system of exploitation and wage slavery.

Culled from A Humble Beginning written by Tunji Otegbeye