EKOBA ’76: We Lobby for Infrastructure to Modernise School

Fadekemi Ajakaiye

The President of EKOBA ’76, Engr. Johnson Adegboyega Adeyoye, has said that the set of ’76, a Service Club of Eko Boys High School, lobbies government regularly to provide infrastructure for the school.

Engr. Adeyoye stated this at their 50th anniversary at the weekend.

“And when we say ’76, that actually signifies the fact that we passed out from the school in 1976. So, between 1976 and now is 50 years and that’s what we are celebrating.

He said although the government is still controlling the Eko Boys High School, “but we have an impact on it. For instance, the old boys, we call them EKOBA. The old boys are doing a lot of work in making sure that we modernise the school. We do a lot of things for the school.

We rebuild the school, refurbish the school, lobby for infrastructure for the school, and we do a lot to make sure that the current students are well positioned, even what we did not enjoy during our own time, they enjoy, because it is not a must that people must go to private schools. “We want to showcase the fact that if some of us went to public schools then, and we got to where we are now, Public Schools can still be maintained and can still be within optimal position. The significance of this event is that we are alive. You can see us. We are there alive, in good health. There are people who came from all over the world that you might not know. Some came from the UK, from the United States, from Canada. And we are here together celebrating. We’ve enjoyed the grace and mercy of God to be alive, some did not even make it to age 50.

He said the ’76 Set will donate a sick bay to the school, as soon as a building and space was made available by the school.

“For the school, we are going to donate a healing sick bay where first aid can be administered to students. We have told them that once they give us a space, in fact, we’ve been buying the materials, we want to set up a healing space for them so that there will be a nurse that administers first aid to students before any other thing.”

He said facilities in the school has improved because the old boys donate funds to acquire them.

“Old Boys donated money in 10s of millions of Naira to do tennis court, to procure tennis rackets. We didn’t see old boys, but they are seeing old boys now coming to their aid. We should not forget the alma mater, we are what we are today because of what those schools and what the generation then impacted in us. So we are thankful, and that is why Alumni Associations must give back to their schools, to the alma maters elite, so that we can complement and supplement government. You can’t replace the government, but we can complement and supplement what the government is able to provide, and that’s what we have to do, and that’s what we are doing.”

The pioneer President of the EKOBA ’76 services, Dipo Omoyele said, “When we started, it was just a few of us, maybe just five of us, and that was sometime in 1989. But over time, other members joined us, and we got ourselves together. We try to do a lot of bonding and get to know members, look into their welfare and in ways that we can help one another. We were doing that up to a stage that we thought that, it has gotten to a level that the school has been able to nurture us too and to make us what we are today. We started giving back to our alma mater. I remember during my days, we organised a career counseling for the students so that they can know the kind of career to follow in life. I remember at an occasion, we invited the late Dr Tai Solarin, to the school to talk to the student, inspire them, and we got some people to talk to them about different careers and courses they can pursue in life. We did that. There was a time that, I remember too, we had to go and refurbish the computer room in the school to get them some air conditioners, just to have an impact on the school. For this our 50 years anniversary, we donated a healing Bay, some people will call a sick bay, to the school, so that if there are some minor illnesses, they can go there. There are some old boys that are medical doctors and other healthcare providers that will be manning the healing Bay, and they will attend to the students there, if it’s a little bit serious that they may have to refer to some other health institutions, and we have been participatory too in some other projects in the school. Not too long ago, we built the school hall, our service club was involved financially. Any other project in the school that we think that is beneficial, we have always been involved. We do this because we know that the government cannot do it all, some other people have to come in to help the government. We all know that there are so many competing interests where government has to really intervene. They can’t do it all. We are very mindful of this, and that is why, in the area of having to buy some school uniform for the students, old boys association of Eko Boys has been doing that, and I made mention of shortage of teachers, especially for some key subjects like Mathematics and Science, we noticed that teachers in this area are in short supply, so instances, old boys had to recruit some Teachers just to fill the gap in the key subjects, and we pay them on a monthly basis, this we have done and will continue to do.”