The way old girls of Federal Government Girls’ College (FGGC), Benin City danced last Saturday, it was difficult to believe that they left secondary school 25 years ago.
The reunion, held at Rodizzio Restaurant and Bar, GRA, Lagos, was attended by more than 40 old girls resident in Lagos, Enugu, Port Harcourt and even London.
Many of the girls were meeting for the first time since leaving school in 1990. Though they had all changed physically, they still screamed with teenage excitement at seeing themselves after two decades.
The programme started with an introduction session, where the girls talked about themselves – marital status, number of children, school attended and course of study, and career path. The girls also sang old school songs laughed about fun reminiscences and took photographs according to the houses they belonged to back then (Amina, Emotan, Jaja, Moremi, Eweka and Tinubu). The also ate sumptuous lunch, cut the reunion cakes and burned some calories dancing to oldies and trending Nigerian music on the dance floor.
President of the group, Mrs Nkem Itanyi, credited the social media platform, Whatsapp, for making the reunion possible in three months.
She explained that since July, when she created the group, the set has been able to bond and assist one another. She noted that the reunion, and another one planned for Dubai next year, would give the girls the opportunity to catch up and decide on a project to give back to their alma mater.
“This is the 25th anniversary of the year we left secondary school and we have never come together as a group. It is really exciting. We are trying to help ourselves; that is the beginning; after we help ourselves, we’ll now give back to the society. Our plan is to go to the alma mater first of all to find out what they need,” she said.
Mrs Itanyi, who teaches at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said she was grateful she attended the school because of the independence she gained,” she said.
“Fediben gave me the impetus to succeed. Then sending your child to a federal school was equivalent to the best private schools available right now. Our parents gave us a good springboard. Having been there, being independent; having to do a lot of things for yourself, it gave the right springboard to succeed in life. Even when I went to the university, I was able to give myself individual study; because we were trained to learn; we were trained to have independent studies. I looked forward to go to class and I was able to come out with a 2.1,” she said.
Another old girl, Mrs Barbra Osobajo (nee Aluyi) said she cherishes the exposure the school gave her.
“When you go to a Federal Government school, I would say you get exposure. It gives you the opportunity to interact with different pupils from different class, different views. You know we came from different backgrounds,” she said.
Mrs Osobajo, who works for Heritage Bank in Port Harcourt, also described seeing her classmates again as emotional.
“Most of the faces I am seeing here today, I have not seen them in 25 years. When I walked into the hall and I saw most of them I was almost crying. Crying because I was so grateful to God we are alive, we are seeing ourselves I mean we have come so far. It is just God; it was awesome; it was an amazing time,” she said.
Mrs Leticia Otomewo, another member of the set, said Fediben, as their alma mater is fondly called, taught her to be confident. She urged the Federal Government to reverse the degeneration of the Federal Government Colleges.
“One thing Federal Benin taught me how to be independent, how to rely on yourself, how to be confident. In fact it was a training ground and earnestly I use to say to myself that my kids will go boarding school because of what I learnt from the school. But with the way things are in Nigeria presently, a lot of parents are worried and discouraged. I really hope the government can do something about that because federal schools in those days were a landmark to take your kids to because it made a difference in our lives and it made us into the women we have turned out to be. It was the starting point for moulding us into the women we have become,” she said.
