GCI Tradition of Naming Places as Memorials
Government College Ibadan is a place of culture and traditions.
The Houses were named after individuals who played roles in the education system.
Swanston House after Mr E R Swanston - The Inspector of Education.
Grier House after Sir S. M. Grier - Director of Education.
Field House after Captain H T C Field the second Principal of GCI.
Carr House after Henry Carr - the first African Director of Education, a mathematician, philosopher and musicologist.
Powell House after Mr V ..... Read More
Major Akinloye Akinyemi (1954 - 2012): A Man of Courage and Transparency
All through my over forty years of keeping in contact with Akin, he was always truthful, dutiful and compassionate. My first encounter with him was towards the end of the 1960s. This was during a military training bush camp in Igbo Ora.
Then a slightly built teenager, Akin had attended the camp from Government College, Ibadan (GCI) where he was a secondary school army cadet.
The happenstance of Akinloye and I first meeting must have come about because of a bridge builder who then ..... Read More
Reflections Upon A Sound Colonial Education
REFLECTIONS UPON A SOUND COLONIAL EDUCATION
I was not a very large young man - which is to say I was quite slight, miniature with my collarbones sticking out from under a neck which was constantly craned to survey my breathtaking new surroundings; the neck on top of which was attached a substantial skull, with bulbous eyes in it for gawking at the gargantuan edifices which constituted but a moderate part of GCI and environs, and which accommodated the College's strapping, striding ..... Read More
Femi Ojo-Ade (1941-2019): Lessons from a People's Professor
Students and colleagues knew him for student-centred teaching, even before the theory or principle became infectious across continents.
On March 19, Professor Femi Ojo-Ade, University of Ife�s first professor of French (and Nigeria�s second after Abiola Irele) and first Professor Emeritus of French and Francophone Studies at St. Mary�s College in USA, died. On June 7, family members, friends and colleagues, former students, and members of the community of writers will assemble ..... Read More
Soccer Team of 1973/74
Arise, Arose, Arisen....the complete team list of the All Conquering GCI 1973/74 Session Soccer team - as narrated by the Goal Keeper Awe, 1969, Powell House
I hope the curator of the GCI Museum is taking notes. Pls put this team list in the museum and kindly interview members of that squad for posterity. We were in Form 1 in September 1973, the exploits of that team in the Principal Cup, allowed us to travel to various locations as the team progressed from preliminaries to the ..... Read More
To the matter [of the TBS showdown]
To the matter [of the TBS showdown] - Salami II (75 Powell)
The 73-set players started arriving and I am sure I felt a lump in my throat after seeing how fit some of them looked. Being a very sharp small-boy at GCI, I thought that our set should start praying but I saw that they also had Pastors on their side. Okay, maybe pray for rain�but the Sun shone even brighter. I then proceeded to �dobale� to Ojay [Ojo, T.], Otegbeye and Slow [Akande, I.] thinking that that would appease them and ..... Read More
Reminscence
By January 1967, when I went to Ibadan to join the third form at Government College, Ibadan it was against the background of personal and national crises.
-- extracts
I settled easily into GCI and generally the environment posed no great cultural shocks. GCI was cast in the tradition of the other 'government colleges' except that the physical infrastructure was of an older vintage than at Owerri.
The same white colonial school master was alive and well at Ibadan as John Garrod had been ..... Read More
SWAN BLUE: In Honour of all Matters BLUE
SWAN BLUE
Irrespective of the ancient years past
The ideals of Thee House remain foremost,
As this forum serves to refresh and uphold.
Within the low lying hills of Apata-Ganga,
GCI crest rests centrally at the Main Gate.
With manicured lawns either side of the road leading into Thee School.
From time immemorial,
School of our pride, Built on the Rock,
Created excellent pastures, polishing boys into men.
For students, ascending the heights,
Brought forth desire of ..... Read More
Youth Christian Circle Tribute To Late Emeritus Prof. O. O. Akinkugbe
YOUTH CHRISTIAN CIRCLE TRIBUTE TO LATE EMERITUS PROF. O. O. AKINKUGBE
�of all the wonders that I have heard, it seems to me most strange that man should fear seeing death, a necessary end, will come when it will come�
(Act II, Scene 2) William Shakespear, Julius Ceaser.
Emeritus Professor Oladipo Olujimi Akinkugbe, CFR, MD, FRCP, NNOM, was a colossus and proud member of the Youth Christian Circle of St. James Cathedral �the Great�, Oke Bola, Ibadan.
The YCC or Circle was ..... Read More
Celebrating Wole Soyinka at 86
Celebrating Wole Soyinka at 86
Africa�s most iconic literary maestro and one of the world�s most influential citizens is 86 today. With his ageless physique, it is almost difficult to acknowledge that our own Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka, affectionately called KONGI by his numerous admirers, is 86! Even though 86 might not be a remarkable milestone, it was in 1986 that the Nobel Prize came, hence the reason for this remarkable reckoning and why it's worthy of celebration.
For me, WS ..... Read More