Christ’s School Ado Ekiti is the very first school to start Homecoming in Nigeria. This is a week-long program that provides an interface between past and current students.
Several schools faced a lot of neglect sequel to an act of government that took over the management of all secondary schools in Nigeria. The resultant dilapidation made the Alumni body very sad.
At a meeting in Abuja in 2000, Baba Ijo Olusegun Ogunkua was asked to head the committee on how we can figure out a better management system for our school.
A plan to take our school back from the government and return it to the Diocese was the most acceptable to the Alumni. The Report produced was named “Project Christ’s School Renewal”.
There was no action taken on the submitted report for 4 years. A CSAANA member saw the report and brought it to the reunion in California in 2004. CSAANA unanimously adopted it as a comprehensive working paper. At the end of that Reunion, the National seat of CSAANA was moved out of Washington DC for the first time to Atlanta.
We could not fathom what great change would come during our tenure in Atlanta. Baba Ijo Ogunkua’s daughter got married in State College, Pennsylvania on October 15, 2005.
Our sitting CSAANA National President at the time, Mr. Olabisi Olawole (Sinbad) thought it a good gesture of Alumni appreciation if 2 people could attend the wedding in honour of a man who gave three weeks of his time to take care of CSAE matters. He came with the staff of the Nigeria Universities Commission to scientifically produce the detailed report that was submitted from which the working document emanated.
The departure of the wedding party created a room for fellowship among Baba Ijo, Sinbad and Mr. Samuel Iyapo. Baba Ijo shared his experience of how nothing had been done to the report produced.
Baba Ijo Ogunkua promised to contribute financially to ensure the implementation of the project. He said the project needed a lot of finances and above all, it needed people with committed support. They continued sharing their thoughts until they came to the idea of Platinum Club. It was simply a graded-giving plan that would go from zero to one million Naira. Any donor hitting the million Naira mark is grouped as the Platinum Club.
They parted with a promise from Sinbad that he would present it at the Atlanta Chapter meeting coming up the following weekend on Saturday 22nd October 2005 in Macon GA.
It was a unanimous yes with a loud shout of agreement when Sinbad presented it at the Atlanta Chapter meeting. The committee was set up immediately and meetings began in earnest.
We now have auspices and people. We needed to sell it to the national body, we, therefore, asked Baba Ijo to be our Special Guest at the Reunion 2006 thereby giving him a platform to present his idea.
He was the Federal Permanent Secretary, the Ministry of Finance at this point. This Reunion clashed with a federal assignment that he delegated to another officer so he could attend to Christ’s School issue.
He is one of the unsung heroes of our alma mater. His presentation resulted in a complete buy-in by CSAANA and we gave him a go-ahead on our support.
We called it Platinum Club and held the first meeting on the grounds of Agidimo Hill in December 2006. This was a group more focused on getting things done. Some Elders welcomed us with open arms of approval. Among them were Chief Deji Fasuan, Dr. John Aina, Elder Adelodun Aina and Elder Allen Alebiosu.
The sitting National President in Nigeria was Justice Olajide Olatawura; he handled the situation with tact and wisdom. He sent his welcome speech through Prince Aladejana because he was travelling overseas that very weekend. We were told never to append the name of Christ’s School Alumni to the programme. We were comfortable with the name Platinum Club.
It was meant to be a one-time event, but the approving elders insisted that we must do this every year until we complete rebuilding CSAE. Baba Ijo and his indefatigable wife Mrs. Bola Ogunkua funded and organized the first Homecoming. In spite of Mrs. Ogunkua being an alumna of Mary Immaculate, she keyed into her husband’s vision and ran with it. She worked tirelessly. She was simply awesome.
The request dropped on our laps meant there needed to be an organizer for the next one. Prof. Kola Sonaike quickly accepted the responsibility on behalf of his set for 2007. Justice Olatawura came in person to deliver his own speech.
Alas! On the morning of the third Homecoming in 2008 Justice Olatawura was dressed for the event, but developed a brief illness that took him from us. We were greeted with sad faces.
Baba Justice Olatawura left a good legacy that must continue. The Homecoming continued and we did not envisage any problem since we had asked 1975/80 to help us organize the 4th Homecoming for October 2009.
It was decided on that day that there must be an election because four members of that executive had passed on before the President’s demise. They had been in office for 13 years at that point. The 1975/80 Set was therefore asked to add the publicity of an election slated for March 2009 to their tasks. They delivered on it very well. A six month (October 2008 – March 2009) at alumni disposal created room for the most unethical practice in our Alumni history.
Non-alumni people were brought in to vote. There were so much anger and young people walked away with pent-up feelings against the elders.
Homecoming for 2006 and 2007 took place in December. Many people missed their flights and either arrived on the last day, the day after or not at all. We, therefore, presented the problems of traveling close to Christmas.
May and October were considered and a vote on the 3rd week in October passed. Homecoming continued to take place in the 3rd week of October since 2008. Having messed up the March election, we comforted ourselves with the upcoming Homecoming in October 2009.
Our practices were:
1. Anyone is free to attend which included friends and family. There is no delegate; everyone participated freely and this made Homecoming very popular.
2. The sponsors should collaborate with sets and various identifiable groups to set the agenda ahead of the programme.
3. Sponsors must provide lunch on Friday and Saturday. There must be one meeting on Friday and two on Saturday.
4. Sponsors must record minutes of the meetings; Alumni Secretary is strongly advised to do so as well. This is why there must be food, we do not want attendees to disappear because of hunger.
5. Organize registration and collect a fee of N1,500.
6. Choose someone to preside over the meeting if the President chooses to leave after his welcome speech. Remember this was taken as CSAANA event in the beginning.
7. Bank leftover fund in the Platinum account (now dormant) should be deposited into the endowment accounts.
8. Submit the minutes and attendance to the Webmaster to upload on CSAANA website where everyone can access the report.
*Donating a project is optional as it is not part of the sponsorship requirements. Feeding the attendees is compulsory and this is the sponsorship.
There was a misunderstanding with 2009 National Executive in Nigeria (nicknamed Worldwide).
The host Set of 1975/80 Alumni Association did not want to altercate with elders and so submitted a sponsorship resignation letter. As a result of this, Homecoming 2009 could not hold and there was no room to pick Homecoming 2010 sponsors. There was an interlude in the beauty and tradition newly created.
In all those years, there would be newspaper adverts and billboards in Abuja and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It was not lost on other schools that quickly imbibed this idea. Christ’s School became a cynosure for every eye and a secondary school to beat! Sighs like “this Christ’s School sha” rented the air. This made many schools get their acts together.
We fired that Alumni energy in Nigeria and the nation is the better for the competition. Many schools today, hold annual Homecoming.
I came into the Office of CSAANA National President in July 2010. I placed a call to the sitting Principal, Prince Wole Akinyede that we will hold Homecoming in 2011 as October 2010 was too close to get anything tangible organized. All dissenting voices were invited back into the fold to calm frayed nerves.
The Archbishop was called in for arbitration. CSAAUK decided to step in to sponsor 2012, then Lagos Branch in 2013. During the church service in 2013, Venerable Adekola pronounced divine judgment on anyone that will disrupt the peace of our beautiful school again. Everyone said Amen and quickly went to make up. It was the end of the 5-year hullaballoo and misunderstanding.
In all of these, Chief Deji Fasuan was a regular attendee. 1970/74 set sponsored Homecoming 2014, the 1960/64 set celebrating 50th anniversary decided to join force with them. At the Saturday meeting, Baba Fasuan brought the suggestion that we should saddle the set that is in the 40th year of graduating from CSAE with the responsibility of organizing Homecoming for us all.
This afforded the host Set celebrate their set and yet accomplish the objectives of the Homecoming. This is to ensure we do not run out of sponsors which was voluntary up to that point. The Set of 1971/75 therefore became the first set that must compulsorily organize the Homecoming. Homecoming became acceptable to most elders when they attended for the first time. From that point on, they suggested that the title “Platinum Club” was a misnomer and should be abolished and this was generally accepted and everybody was happy.
Homecoming has come to stay and it is well worth the initial misunderstanding and eventual settlement. Everybody is now on the same page.
I wish you a beautiful Homecoming and many healthy years of service to humanity.
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