Igbobi College

Igbobi College in 1932 was a follow-up to the 1926 Education Code, which was itself an attempt to revise and improve upon Lugard’s Education Code of 1916. In the relative economic boom of the late 1929s, the government followed up the Education Code with the establishment of a number of colleges around Nigeria. In 1928, the CMS and the Wesleyan Methodist Mission cooperated in founding one Teacher Training College for women in Ibadan called the United Missionary College. Its success led to the agreement to cooperate on another venture, a secondary school for boys in Lagos that would take account of the criticisms of existing secondary schools. The Ingredients of Quality

The aim was stated simply as “to give a well-balanced secondary education to boys in an environment adequate for the purpose”. There was a growing demand in Lagos for improved secondary education as preparation for higher education and professional training. The objective of the Anglican(CMS) and Methodist planners was to show that improved education could best be established under ecumenical christian influence provided “an environment adequate for the purpose” could be located. This meant emphasizing residence for both pupils and teachers, and land spacious enough to cater for this, as well as providing fields for sport, craft, farm, etc. It was a novel concept for secondary education in Lagos. Hence the search for a 32-acre (130,000 m2) plot that used to be part of the kola plantations of the family of Madam Tinubu. It was from this that it derived its name, “Igbobi” College. One could sense the excitement of the founding fathers. They asked staff and students from the CMS Grammar School and Methodist Boys High School to volunteer and they carefully selected students for each class from Forms 2 to 6, and admitted a new set of students for Form 1. Thus the new school started with six classes in place. There were 55 boarders and 95 day students in all, averaging 25 in a class, such that everyone, staff and student, knew every one else. The selection was based on academic merit, discipline and good behaviour. There was no discrimination on grounds of religion and it is noteworthy that some of the students came from prominent Lagos Muslim families, like Abinas, Elias and Fashola. To ensure recruitment from different parts of the country, entrance examination centres outside Lagos were introduced. The boarders were put in Aggrey House (blue), and the day students in Freeman House (green) and Oluwole House (gold). Soon the position was reversed. The boarders became the majority and formed the core of each of the three houses, with the day students added on. The founders carefully selected a team of high powered teachers. Waterton of the CMS Grammar School was made principal. Allen Angus, Principal of the MBHS was appointed as Vice-Principal, but had to take over as the principal three weeks later when Miss Waterton’s health necessitated a quick departure to Britain. Allen Angus remained principal for 12 years. He later became Education Secretary of the Christian Council of Nigeria and then the Chairman of the Western District of the Methodist Church. Porter was his Vice-Principal. Consider the calibre of the African staff: Rev. Lahanmi,who was the most influential Principal of the Ilesha Grammar School; Mr. Fadipe who became Senior Tutor and remained in the College for 12 years before he went to study law and later became President of the Grade A Customary Courts of Western Nigeria ; Mr. Okubadejo, who also remained till 1944 before going to study law and later set up a lucrative law firm; Mr. Oyediran, later Principal of MBHS and later becoming an Ambassador; Mr. Ihenacho, who later became a famous legal practitioner; Mr. E. Bassey, Art master and well-known lawn tennis player; Mr. Briggs, who later studied medicine, became known as Dr. Ona Oruwariye, an erudite scholar, founder of Oke–Ado Hospital and famous police surgeon. Consider not only the calibre but also the commitment of these initial staff, as evidenced by the length of stay and stability and continuity in the life of the school and we begin to have an idea of the ingredients that made Igbobi College what it was. This tradition was maintained as evidenced by such giants who joined the staff in the School’s first decade: N. Birthwistle; N. P. Morris, an exciting history teacher who later became the Principal of Government College, Keffi; and Leslie Murby among the expatriates; and among the Nigerians, Revd. (later Bishop) S. Odutola; Mr. S. Ogunlesi, the self-taught history graduate, and meticulous teacher of Latin and Mathematics, who later pioneered Adult Education in Western Nigeria; and Mr. Talabi Esubiyi (aka Pa Esubiyi), the famous Science Teacher and longest serving Vice-Principal who has become part of the legend of the school. The first decade from February 1932 to December 1941 was a period of pioneering and steady growth. It was to be followed by half a decade of testing and trials. In this pioneering work, Igbobi was paving the way for other schools on the Lagos Island which soon began to look round for spacious ground on the Mainland: CMS Grammar School, Baptist Academy, Queen’s College, Methodist Girls High School, St, Finbarr’s and others, though none was to find anything comparable to the Igbobi College campus. At the beginning, Igbobi College was truly the “School in the Bush”. There was the main block with classrooms, laboratories and Principal’s office and store on the ground floor, and dormitories on the first floor. The Principal’s house and other staff quarters were under construction. The nearest neighbour was the equally isolated Infectious Hospital. There was no Ikorodu Road at the time, no Orthopaedic Hospital, no Military Hospital. The Yaba High College was still to come, Yaba Bus Stop was the Terminal and part of the fun of being day students was walking or jogging in groups through the 2 kilometres of bush between the bus stop and the College. The Principal led the staff and students to lay out playing fields, orchards, lawns, roads and develop the compound to the adequate environment the Founders had in mind. Sports, games, crafts, debating and literary societies were all part of school life for every child. For day students, tuition fees included lunch and the day did not end till after games or sports and other extra-classroom activities. The School Assembly every week day, closing on Friday afternoons, collection of Self-Denial Fund in class for support of charitable activities from whatever pocket money the boys had, discipline not only by the staff but also the prefects and senior boys, all contributed to an environment in which the Igbobi College tradition of high standard of liberal education combined with moral training was developed. The growth was steady in the years of worldwide economic depression of the 1930s. The numbers in each of the six classes was kept to between 25 and 30. This made for a very select group. When there was depletion through boys being sent down or having to repeat a class, no effort was made to reach even the 25 mark. As the number of boarders increased, a “temporary” wooden block of 3 classrooms was provided to relieve congestion in the main block and plans were made to build separate boarding houses. Initially government regulations required the boys to sit for the School Leaving Certificate in Form II (or Standard Six) and many also took the Junior Cambridge Examination in Form IV. These soon gave way to the School Certificate Examination or Senior Cambridge Examination in Form IV, which became the goal of every child, and determined the school curriculum in the upper classes. Here, the school maintained a high standard except that the laboratories allowed for the teaching of Physics, Chemistry and Biology only to the level of General Science and not as individual subjects; and Elementary but not Additional Mathematics was offered. The outbreak of World War II in Europe in 1939, which soon turned into a global conflict, had its impact on the development at Igbobi. The movements of expatriate staff became difficult. There were prolonged absences of Principal Angus; Mr. Murby had to act until 1944 when he formally took over as Principal. With the fall of France to the Germans in 1940, West Africa became important in the conflict between Vichy France who supported N**i Germany and free France under Charles de Gaulle in exile. Freetown and Lagos harbours and airports became important staging posts in the Allied plans to regain Control of North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea. In 1942, the British Army looked round for a base in Lagos and decided that Igbobi College, along with the Higher College, must evacuate their compound as a contribution to the colonial Win-the-War effort. They wanted the compound without delay. While arrangements were being made to put up prefabricated buildings on the site in Kudeti, Ibadan (where Yejide Grammar School is now located), Igbobi College had to pack up school property in crates while classes were held for six months in a huge building at Abeokuta Street commandeered from the reformed Ogboni Society. The boarders were disbanded and the teachers had to find temporary lodgings. The arrival at Kudeti in February 1943 after the ordeal of the transition was great relief. The three years at Kudeti was an important landmark in the development of the Igbobi tradition.