Kunle Adelabu
More former students of the premier college in Ikorodu Division – Oriwu College, Ikorodu, have continued to share their experiences and impacts of the school on them, as the school celebrated its 75th anniversary.
A former member of the Lagos State House of Assembly representing the Ikorodu Constituency II, Hon. Gbenga Oshin and Mrs Ogunmefun Feyintola, an award – winning teacher with the Lagos State Civil Service Model College, Igbogbo, both of whom are former students of Oriwu College, Ikorodu, took their turn to speak about their days in the foremost college, and how the school impacted on them.
They spoke with THE IMPACT during the ‘A – Day with the students of Oriwu College’, which was one of the activities held in commemoration of the milestone celebration of the school.
Hon. Oshin, who served as a state lawmaker on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a member of the 1984 Class set of Oriwu College Old Students’ Association of Nigeria (OCOSAN), speaking on the old students’ association’s impacts, said:
“It’s been a great thing to have the old students’ association of this school. In our days, I don’t think we have such thing. I mean the old students coming together to relate with the present students.
“Things like that have not happened before. Today, we see that old students are now giving back to their source and the current students are happy. You see their enthusiasms. They are happy being students of Oriwu College.
“The spirit of giving back has been built in them and I believe by the time they also leave the school, they would think of what to give back to the school. That is exactly the message behind coming together with the students”, he said.
Narrating how his father insisted that he would not honour another school’s admission but that of Oriwu College, Hon. Oshin said that the premier college was regarded as the University of Ikorodu, in those days.
“Let me tell you a story to emphasis that Oriwu College is the University of Ikorodu then, and every parent wanted their children there. In the 1970’s, precisely 1977, I had the opportunity of writing common entrance twice, but I did not gain admission here, rather, at Remo Secondary School, Ogun State.
“My father insisted that I must attend Oriwu College, But I wasn’t picked which means that I had to write the common entrance again. I was picked twice at Remo Secondary School, but my father insisted that it must be Oriwu College.
“So, the next time I wrote the common entrance in 1979, I was lucky to be picked… Oriwu College is a school to be reckoned with in the whole of Nigeria, and being a student of Oriwu College is a blessing and I am happy to have passed through the school”, Hon. Oshin recalled.
Hon. Oshin commended the Oriwu College Old Students’ Association of Nigeria, for its efforts in sustaining the glory of the school and charged the government, especially the Lagos State Government, to live up to its responsibilities by ensuring that necessary infrastructures and amenities required in a model school, are provided in the school.
Another former student, Mrs Ogunmefun Feyintola, who is the first runner – up in the Best Teacher in the Senior Secondary School category in Education District II, Lagos State and recipient of NUT Ikorodu award, sharing her own experience, said:
“I am proud to be back at my alma mater. Coming back to this school brought a lot of memory. Seeing old class mates, school mothers and school fathers, brought back a lot of good memories. So, I am glad to be back in the school”.
She said that she is what she is today because of the impacts of Oriwu College on her.
“Oriwu College brings back lots of good old memories. My stay here brought me to where I am actually, because whatever l had learnt here has taken me far and I am still going far.
“The school has really helped me. Oriwu College is a great college, and the teachers really motivated me to be who I am today. The collection of awards started from here for me, and whatever l had learnt from here has taken me so far to where I am today”, she said.
