MY STORY (AKIN -DEKO)
Born in the late 1950s, I did my elementary school in the 1960s between Ibadan, Nigeria; and Accra, Ghana, as my father, after resigning as the Western Region Minister of Agriculture in 1962, moved to Accra to work as the Head of Mission of the United Nations - Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)
In Ghana, I attended an Anglican Mission School called Ridge Church School, which, apart from its excellent academic pursuit, put a lot of emphasis on the development of extra-curricular ..... Read More
MY STORY (Eggy)
You may be wondering what the connection between the egg and the head is; I didn't also think there was any rational or logical connection until I was admitted to GCI, and to my utter amazement, I became the subject matter and the link to rationalize the two.
The Eggy Story started in 1971 in Room 4, Swanston House, when we were in Form 2. Tunde Ogunnaike (Papa, 1965) looked at me one day and with his mathematical ingenuity aroused, he voiced an innocent observation, "do you know that your ..... Read More
JOF Falore: Ọmọ Ayékọ
By
_Kolade Mosuro_
He had a lot of stories inside him, many of which occasioned laughter and joy. JOF was jolly, a generally good-natured man.
His memory of GCI was encyclopaedic, and this always fed him stories. He belonged to the 1962 set and he was at a time the National Secretary of the Old Boys’ Association. Wherever you met him, be it in circumstances of work or leisure, he was always in a reminiscent mood about GCI. His commitment to the values fostered at GCI was total ..... Read More
MY STORY (ADEJUMO)
To compare GCI of my time to the present GCI would be unfair. GCI of my time had the entire ingredient to be an exceptional institution. The challenges that I had during my school days were how to cope with the high level of excellence amongst the students of the school. The ENDOs were great; having to take part in sports was also very memorable, particularly soccer.
Everything about the school influenced my life today, including some of my seniors and classmates - Captain Fatungase and Sina ..... Read More
MY STORY (SOKOYA)
Government College, Ibadan in January 1970. My senior brother was already in the school (Sesan Sokoya; Swanston House
1968). My first cousin was also in the School (Dewale Osipitan;
Carr House 1968). I was in Carr House and my leur was Gbemi Oguntula; the head of our family was the illustrious Kolade Mosuro(1964); Cricket Captain of the School.
In my second year, I tried to join the choir organized by Mr. Sanya Fasina (Music Teacher) so that I could be part of the combined GCI/Queens School ..... Read More
MY STORY (FATUNGASE)
Sometime in the year 1971 after the Afolabi brothers had said so much about their school, "GCI", anytime we met in the Bodija neighbourhood where we all lived then, I decided to change from my school - Baptist High School in Iwo, to this much-spoken about GCI of the Afolabi brothers (Dimeji, 1969) and (Lanre, 1971). I spoke all their
words to my mother- Mrs. Olusola Fatungase a.k.a. Iya-Ibeji.
Few days after speaking to my mum, she asked me to drive her to Apata in Ibadan. Little did I know ..... Read More
I am Bowling Sir
In Powell house, the toilets/bathrooms with water cistern (WC) were modern as opposed to the Pit Latrine (aka Bushy) we were hitherto exposed to. We also had dormitories with fans and terrazzo floors all in pristine condition. We had close access to the vendors who serviced the now-out-gone construction workers who built the complex and did not leave until the building was completed. One of them was nicknamed Iya Ibeji (the one selling Rice, Beans and Dodo) and Agataratta the Night watch who ..... Read More
NICKNAMES
Nicknames and slangs were the colourful embroidery which embellished the dreary fabric of school life to give it some semblance of colour. It was near impossible to pass through GCI without earning a nickname. The nickname defined many students while their real names struggled to be remembered. A student's nickname told a lot about his popularity; otherwise, it notified of his notoriety. Most nicknames would merely be a corruption of a student's real name, some subtly exploited a physical ..... Read More
HOUSE PUNISHMENT
The boarding House was about discipline - its acquisition and maintenance. Here in the boarding house, you were stripped of your
• parent's wealth, influence, and social background, and reduced to just a surname and a school House. If there were others in the House who had the same surname as you, then you became further downgraded with an extra title; you became Somebody I, Somebody II, Somebody III, Somebody IV, and so on, depending on your position down the line e.g., Koya I (Fifth form), ..... Read More
SCHOOL CULTURES AND TRADITIONS (1970)
Records would indicate that from inception in 1929, GCI was a boarding House orientated secondary school. Forty-one years later, in 1970, its boarding House facilities quartered more than six hundred students. The school compound also accommodated most of the school's teachers and junior staff. The students lived in clustered dormitory blocks. There were four of such clusters each defining a
"House". Thus, there were four Houses: Carr, Swanston, Field and Grier. Each new student would be ..... Read More