Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has urged the Federal Government College Okigwe Old Boys Association (FEGOCOOKOSA) to continue to promote national unity and peace.
Atiku, who is the Grand Patron of FEGOCOOKOSA, made the call in his goodwill message at a dinner to mark the National Convention and Annual Re-Union of the association on Saturday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Atiku’s message was conveyed by his Media Aide, Mr Paul Ibe, who is also the National Publicity Secretary of FEGOCOOKOSA.
According to the former vice president, the essence of establishing Federal Government College (FGC), Okigwe, Imo State and other unity colleges is foster national integration and unity.
As products of Nigeria’s special educational institutions, I urge you not to lose sight of your special and crucial historical role in the quest for unity and peace in our country.
The unique thing about your alumni association is that your roll call is made up of names of persons from all the nooks and crannies of our vast country because of the attention paid to the admission process to reflect the nation’s diversity and prepare the young for life in diverse but united country.’’
He pledged his continued support to the association as it strived to improve the learning environment of the students.
Speaking in his own capacity as the FEGOCOKOSA’s National Publicity Secretary, Ibe said that there was the need to improve the funding of all schools and retrain the teachers.
Some of the teachers are not in tune with modern issues; we need to retool the teachers and the curriculum to fit in.
We should not just concentrate of grammar schools; we need to focus more on technical education to develop skilled manpower for the nation.
Funding is another issue that must be looked into; the schools need to be adequately funded.’’
Mr Okey Chikwendu, FEGOCOOKOSA’ National President, said that the association had equipped the Information Communication Technology (ICT) centre and the Water Reticulation Project for students hostel with a 35KVA generator.
He said that the association also lobbied the former Minister of State for Education, My Nyesom Wike to build and equip an e-library in the school.
Chikwendu, said the association had set up an endowment fund, adding that Atiku pledged to contribute N20 million to the fund out of which he had released the first tranche of N10 million.
Delivering a lecture, Mr Olusegun Adeniyi, Chairman, Editorial Board, Thisday Newspapers, said that a functional society was highly dependent on public schools.
He expressed displeasure that public schools had been neglected, saying the elite now rush to private schools.
Adeniyi called for intervention in the public schools with the provision of well-equipped laboratories, libraries, computers and teachers’ training and remuneration.
The highpoint of the convention was the election of Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, the Chairman, National Human Rights Commission as the National Secretary of the association.
Chikwendu was re-elected as the President of the association.
FGC Okigwe was founded on Oct. 28, 1977 after the creation of Imo State in 1976. (NAN)
