The Nation Newspaper

Tag: King’s College

  • Glamour as KC old boys mark 20th anniversary

    Glamour as KC old boys mark 20th anniversary

    The King’s College (KC) Assembly hall was transformed into a palace of whiteness for the 20th anniversary of the 1991-1997 set last Sunday.

    White drapes hung down three sides of the hall from the ceiling to the wooden paneled floor; overhead, about five white drapes formed a fan-like canopy from stage down the length of the hall.  White petal tablecloths were draped over round banquet tables.  On them sat huge white flowers placed in metal vases.  It was a venue fit for kings to wine and dine.

    And kingsmen (as the old boys are called) of all ages, teachers, past and present, as well as spouses, honoured the call of the 342 old boys that make up the 1997 set to celebrate two decades of completing their secondary school education from the school.

    There was enough to eat and drink as the old boys re-connected with one another as well as their teachers.  But the anniversary was not all about merrymaking.  As a way of giving back to the 108-year old college and the society, the 97 Set inaugurated a digital classroom, facilitated the construction of a cricket pitch and donation of equipment by the Lagos State Cricket Association, and secured the release of 30 prisoners who had been unlawfully incarcerated.

    Chairman King’s College Old Boys Association (KCOBA) class of 1997, Mr Akin Rotimi said in his speech that the old boys also organised a health programme for the school’s host community and planed to pay the hospital bills of some patients who could not afford them.

    He said the class would continue to intervene in the social sectory.

    “A hospital visit is also planned to secure the release of a number of patients who are now well but held because of their inability to pay their hospital fees.

    “We recognize that though these interventions are far reaching, they are still tokens in comparison to the challenges. We are determined to grow our capacity to intervene and advocate for such issues as Justice Sector Reforms; Free and Qualitative Healthcare; as well as Qualitative Education, starting with KC. We are determined to step up to the plate and position ourselves for greater positions of authority in politics and governance; commerce and enterprise; and indeed every sphere of human endeavour. As has been said, ‘f not us, then who? If not now, then when?’”

    Highlight of the event was the presentation of awards to teachers who taught the 97 set; cutting of the anniversary cake, remembrance of 12 members of the set who have passed on, and goodwill messages by senior kingsmen among other dignitaries.

    Alhaji Femi Okunnu, an old boy who gave the keynote address, praised the old boys for their initiative and urged them to play positive roles in the development of Nigeria.

    Acting Principal of the college, Mrs Elizabeth Ibezim, thanked the 97 set for throwing their invitation open to all teachers rather than just the principal officers of the school.  She also thanked the old boys for donating a clinic to the school.

    Mrs Roseline Okereke, one of the former teachers honoured at the event, described the school as unique.

    “There is no school like King’s College.  I had three kids that went to KC.  Wherever they go, they stand out.  The can stand up for their rights and they are disciplined.  As for teachers, even when we have left here, we still keep in touch.  I thank the 1991-1997 particularly.  When I celebrated my birthday, they made me proud,” she said.

  • Photos: Kings College Annual Dinner

    Photos: Kings College Annual Dinner

    Kings College
    L-R Representative of Principal Guest of Honour, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Mr. Olawale Edun; BOT Chairman, Chief Philips Asiodu; President, King’s College Old Boys’ Association (KCOBA)Alhaji Kashim Ibrahim Imam and his wife, Fatimah Imam during the 2017 Annual Dinner to commemorate the 108 Anniversary of the Founding of the College. PHOTOS: OLUSEGUN RAPHEAL AND ADEJO DAVID
    Edun reading Tinubu's speech on fixing Nigeria
    Representative of Principal Guest of Honour, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Mr. Olawale Edun delivering Asiwaju’s message

  • Kings College Old Boys celebrate 118th Founder’s Day

    The National Executive Council of the Kings College, Lagos Old Boys Association and members are celebrating the school’s 118-year anniversary with an array of events. The association, currently led by Hakeem Bello Osagie as president, has four vice presidents that include the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Dr. Leke Osunniyi, Kelechi Mbago and Rotimi Aladesanmi.

    One of the vice presidents, Rotimi Aladesanmi took time to highlight the achievements of the association and the activities lined up for this year’s celebrations: “Kings College Lagos was founded in September 1909 and so we try to maintain the tradition of celebrating that anniversary every year. The Old Boys Association is a very formidable organisation. We use it as a forum for old boys and also guests from different walks of life. They come to celebrate with us and this year’s celebration would span some days. We already kicked it off yesterday and we had one of our old boy’s based in Liverpool, England, Mr. Tayo Aluko, a renowned stage actor in attendance. He was at the MUSON Center to do a play called Just an ordinary lawyer, which was well received. ”

    He added: “We are also going to have a Founder’s Day lecture, which would be delivered by an eminent personality. We would have the Jumaat service here in Lagos and the Founder’s Day dinner. That dinner is a very high point in the celebration every year. In Kings College, we cherish formal dinners; you dress formally and observe all the dinner etiquettes. We are going to have guests from different professions, different schools.”

    In addition there would be the Annual General meeting, the congress of all Kings Men as they call the Old boys. “This would take place in the school premises and the meeting would culminate in elections.”

    Aladesanmi stressed that the Old Boys strongly believe that there is strength in number and unity. “It is the first unity school that took people from all over the country, irrespective of background; all you needed to do was to have the academic excellence and brilliance and you would be there. For, the Christians, we are also going to have a thanksgiving service at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina being the foremost Anglican Church….”

    Aladesanmi pointed out that it is this merit-driven society and unity that the nation needs at this critical time. The association will also be holding a novelty cricket match. He revealed that the President of the Cricket Ball Association is an Old Boy; same for the chairman of the Lagos State Cricket Association. He boasted that King’s College is a formidable force in the sport of cricket in Nigeria. “The match would be between the Old boys and the Lagos State cricket team. We also had hockey and football. Kings College is a world renowned brand, I remember when we launched the UK chapter; it was a very wonderful experience; ditto when we launched the North American chapter.”

    “We are also going to have a family fun day where Kings Men would bring their families to interact together and get to have real fun together. We believe that the family is the first and foremost unit in society. Any society where the family is dysfunctional is a dysfunctional society.”

    Secretary of the association, Lucky Idike, talked about the importance of improving the standards of education. “The falling standard of secondary school education in Nigeria is something that Kings College is worried about. We have been at the forefront of canvassing for a change in the way secondary school education in Nigeria runs. We have been asking government for a while now to allow us to run by public private partnership model, something that allows a lot of stakeholders in the private sector to work with government to deliver services through the secondary schools. About four months ago, we met with the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who incidentally is a Kings’ College Old boy and we told him that there is a crisis in education and you need to do something urgently about it.”

  • Sterling Bank lifts ‘Keep Kings College Clean’ campaign

    Sterling Bank Plc has donated 35 branded overalls to the management of Kings’ College  to identify its ‘Keep Kings College Clean’ campaign.

    The items were presented to the Principal Mr Anthony Oluseyi Thomas at the school premises.

    The campaign aligns with the bank’s environmental makeover programme, which promotes the quality of the environment, the bank’s Chief Marketing Officer Henry Bassey said on the partnership between the two parties.

    Receiving the items, Thomas noted that both parties shared same cleanliness ideals.

    He said: “We are delighted to partner with Sterling Bank on ‘Keep Kings College Clean’ campaign, which seeks to improve sanitation and hygiene in Nigeria’s Federal Government college. We welcome the support from the bank, which would ensure that our cleaners are well-kitted and could do their job  with pride.”

    Oluseyi urged corporate bodies to toe Sterling Bank’s line via private sector participation.

    “Private sector support is required to complement government’s effort at ensuring continued access to quality education across the country. This is important because quality education provides opportunities for children to improve their life chances and therefore should not be left for government alone.”

    “We want the best for every Nigerian child and have prioritised their well-being by championing the cause of a clean and safe environment, Bassey said in response to Oluseyi.

    “This explains our commitment to the campaign which promotes sustainable living actions and a clean school premises for pupils and staff,” he added.

    Sterling Bank has committed over N500 million to the Sterling Environmental Makeover (STEM) programme in the last five years. The programme is its corporate social responsibility initiative which promotes practices that contribute to the quality of environment on a long-term basis. It covers partnership and provision of uniforms to street cleaners in 14 states, tree planting in Bauchi, Gombe and Plateau states to address the challenge of desertification and a national cleaning by employees of the bank.

  • King’s college ASCSN begins strike

    Members of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) will today commence a five-day warning strike.

    The strike followed a notice of strike on March 20 to the Principal of Kings College. The union, in a notice pasted in the school, said it is surprised that the Ministry of Education failed to pay February salaries to its members as demanded.

    “In view of the above, the National Secretariat of the union hereby directs all members of the association to embark on a five-day warning strike with effect from March 27,” the statement said.

  • Land grabbers murder plumber in Ogun

    Land grabbers murder plumber in Ogun

    Suspected land grabbers on Saturday murdered a plumber, Wale Taiwo at Magboro, along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

    The hoodlums were said to have stormed an uncompleted building situated close to the Mountain of Fire and Miracles (MFM) prayer ground were the deceased was working and killed him.

    It was gathered that the bungalow building belonged to a Vice Principal at Kings College, who allegedly had a disagreement with the land grabbers.

    Although the woman was said to have erected the structure in 2013, the land grabbers were said to have stormed the property furious that work was ongoing while the owner was yet to ‘settle’ them.

    They allegedly hit the plumber with an iron on his head, killing him on the spot.

    According to the deceased’s brother, Muyiwa Taiwo, the hoodlums abandoned their victim in a pool of his blood and fled.

    He stated that even the two labourers his brother had contracted to work with him fled the scene, abandoning the victim.

    “We believe the incident happened on Saturday because that was the last time he communicated with his wife. They spoke around 8am on Saturday when he wanted to confirm if there was environmental sanitation. It was the sanitation exercise that delayed him, otherwise, he would have left for Lagos that morning.

    “We heard that the Omoniles came to the site and they called the owner of the building. It seems the owner did not give them a good reply and they took it out on my brother who was just doing his job.

    “They hit him on the head, he fainted and died there. Even the labourers, two Abokis who were working with him fled. We have gone there to remove his car and the car has been moved to the police station. The woman who owns the building did not come but her husband was with us,” said Taiwo.

    A source said it was the victim’s family that discovered the body after his wife went to the owner’s college to get the address of the property.

    “The deceased and the owner know themselves very well. The deceased used to be a teacher too before he got another job and left. So, it was the woman who contacted him for the plumbing job and while he was at it, the Omoniles killed him.

    “His wife came to the college and demanded for the address of the building. She was worried that she has not heard from her husband who was supposed to come back on Saturday. I do not really know if she went there herself or someone else did but that was how he was discovered dead and the police invited,” said the source.

    When contacted, the spokesman for the Assistant Inspector General of Police  (AIG) incharge of zone II, Muyiwa Adejobi confirmed the murder.

    He said: “I can confirm that a plumber was murdered there but I cannot day at the moment if it has to do with land grabbers. But be rest assured that the murderers won’t go unpunished. The AIG, Abdulmajid Ali has vowed to deal with criminals in the zone and this is a capital offence. Investigation is on and the culprits will be fished out and death with.”

  • FG bans PTAs from collecting levies in Unity colleges

    FG bans PTAs from collecting levies in Unity colleges

    The Federal Government has banned the collection of development levies by Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) in the 104 unity colleges across the country, the Federal Ministry of Education says.

    The ministry in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday said the ban, aimed at alleviating the sufferings of parents, would take effect immediately.

    The statement was signed by Mr Bem Goong, Deputy Director, Press, in the ministry.

    “No PTA of any unity college is allowed to initiate any development project in any of the unity colleges without the express or written authorisation of the Federal Ministry of Education.

    “The new measures are aimed at arresting the shocking trend where development levies imposed on parents by PTAs are becoming higher than the school fees charged by government which established the unity schools,’’ the ministry said.

    The ministry said that the Minister, Malam Adamu Adamu, had noted excessive PTA levies in Kings College, Lagos, and Federal Science and Technical College, Yaba, Lagos.

    It said that in the two schools, fees charged for JSS1 in the first term was N69, 400 while the PTA collection was N70, 000 at Kings and N74, 000 at Yaba.

    “This brings the total paid by parents in these two schools to N139, 400 and N143, 400 respectively.

    “With the reduction on development levies and ban on charges for new projects as well as pegging of the development levy to a maximum of N5, 000, parents of JSS1 in these two schools will now pay N88, 000.

    “I acknowledge the complementary roles played by parents and the support provided by the PTA to the colleges but I will not allow the PTAs to constitute themselves into a government within a government at the level of unity schools and at the expense of parents,’’ the ministry quoted Adamu as saying.

    It said that Adamu expressed concern that PTAs in unity colleges had formed themselves into national associations and said that running additional organisations, such as National Parents and Teachers Association of Federal Government Colleges (NAPTAFEGC), increased the burden on parents.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that NAPTAFEGC recently rejected an alleged 300 per cent increase in school fees of unity schools.

    Dr Gabriel Nnaji, National President of NAPTAFEGC, had told newsmen that the alleged increase from N20, 000 to N75, 000, was unacceptable to parents.

    He said that an average parent with more than a child in unity schools would not be able to afford the cost.

    However, Adamu on Tuesday denied knowledge of the increment in fees.

  • KING’S COLLEGE ALUMNI HOLDS END OF YEAR SOIREE

    IN its way of ushering the yuletide season, the alumni of Kings College, London, on Sunday, December 13, brought their members together at King George Hotel, Lagos, to chart a way forward in an end-of-year dinner.

    The celebrations which culminated in a carol service, according the members of the group, was to bring its members together in a meet and greet.

    Welcoming members of the alumni to the dinner party, the President of Kings College London Alumni, Prof Olumide Ajose, said that some of the goals the association intends to pursue in the New Year is to look at how it can contribute to solving the problems of this country. “For example, Kings College London is very much known for its exploits in law, medicine and for its war college. But we know that there are certain things that we can contribute to this country. We will be doing a lot of that in the coming year,” he said.

  • Obaji nominated for 2015 African Achievers Award

    Obaji nominated for 2015 African Achievers Award

    Nigerian education and children’s rights activist, Philip Obaji has been nominated for an African Achievers Award 2015.

    In short-listing Obaji, the organizers recognized the activists continued effort towards the development of Africa.

    Obaji, who was recently named a Global Partnership for Education champion and founder of 1 GAME Campaign, is known for his activism for rights to education for Children, especially in north-eastern Nigeria, where the Islamist group, Boko Haram forbids western education and has targeted schools, education campaigners, teachers and students among others.

    The African Achievers Awards is recognized by FORBES as one of the most prestigious honours in the African continent.

    The awards ceremony is aimed at recognizing excellent individuals and organizations that have distinguished themselves while contributing to the growth and development of Africa.

    The focus is to motivate all African leaders, including prospective leaders and the youth by recognizing individuals and organizations that have contributed remarkably to the development of Africa.

    The first African Achievers Awards, held on October 21, 2011, was presented to Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu in recognition for his fight for Human Right, Justice and Peace during his 80th Birthday celebration hosted by Kings College, London.

    Similarly, the 2012, 2013, and 2014 events were held in London, Nairobi, and Accra respectively.

    Former President of Malawi, Joyce Banda, and the late former President of Ghana, John Atta-Mills, are among previous winners of the Award in different categories.

    This year’s event is billed for July 25 at Sandston Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.

  • King’s College PTA condemns protest

    Chairman of the King’s College Parents/Teachers Association (PTA) Emmanuel Oriakhi has described a protest by some parents last Sunday as bad.

    Oriakhi, who addressed reporters in company of the Head Teacher, Otunba Dele Olapeju, and the School Based Management Committee Chairman, Samuel Olufemi, said the parents were overreacting to the cancellation of the visiting day by the management.

    Sunday’s protest was aired by some television stations, which showed parents complaining about lack of potable water, good toilets, electricity and hostel spaces.

    Oriakhi said rather than cause disturbance, the parents should have taken their grievances to the appropriate authorities.

    He said: “A group of parents, who have constituted themselves into a political party, has been attempting to distract the college and the Parent Teachers Association (PTA).

    “Pupils had just returned from a mid-term break. The college management felt that, having just resumed and with examination in sight, the visiting day was not really necessary.

    “But members of the group sent contrary messages to parents. They started sending SMS, calling on the parents to disregard the directive of the college. They even went as far as carrying placards which betrayed their intention.”

    Oladele described the protest as a coup d’état. He wondered why of the 6,000 parents in the school, only 30 members carried out the protest.