Government College Umuahia, or GCU, is an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
secondary school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...
for boys located on Umuahia-
Ikot Ekpene
Ikot Ekpene, also known as The Raffia City, is a historic town in south-southern state of Akwa Ibom. It is the political and cultural capital of the Annang ethnic group in Nigeria (Nair, 1972). The town is located on the A342 highway that par ...
road in
Umuahia, Nigeria.
Twenty years after the establishment of Kings College, the first government-owned high school, by the British colonial government, three similar public schools were founded in 1929. These three institutions, Government College Umuahia (GCU),
Government College, Ibadan
Government College Ibadan (founded 28 February 1929) is a boys' secondary school located on the hills of Apata Ganga in Ibadan, Nigeria.
History
The founding fathers of Government College Ibadan were Selwyn MacGregor Grier, Director of Education ...
and Government College Zaria (now
Barewa College
Barewa College is a college in Zaria, Kaduna State, northern Nigeria. Founded in 1921 by British Governor General Hugh Clifford, it was originally known as Katsina College. It switched its name to Kaduna College in 1938 and to Government College, ...
), were designed to follow the traditions of British
public school
Public school may refer to:
* State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government
* Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...
s such as
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
,
Harrow and
Winchester
Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
. The GCU was known as the 'Eton of the East,' at that time because it was located in Nigeria's orient and was known for its elite standards and selectivity.
Rev. Robert Fisher was the founding principal of GCU.
On December 22, 2014, a Deed of Trust was signed with the
Abia State
Abia State ( ig, Ȯha Abia) is a state in the South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, it is bordered to the north and northeast by the states of Enugu, and Ebonyi, Imo State to the west, Cross River State to the east, Akwa Ibom State to the ...
government, thereby vesting the Fisher Educational Trust with all legal interests, rights and power pertaining to ownership, management, operation, control and funding of Government College Umuahia. The trust was set up by the Government College Umuahia Old Boys Association.
History
In 1927 the British Colonial Government in Lagos started three new secondary schools for boys, namely a school in Ibadan (
Government College, Ibadan
Government College Ibadan (founded 28 February 1929) is a boys' secondary school located on the hills of Apata Ganga in Ibadan, Nigeria.
History
The founding fathers of Government College Ibadan were Selwyn MacGregor Grier, Director of Education ...
), in Zaria (now
Barewa College
Barewa College is a college in Zaria, Kaduna State, northern Nigeria. Founded in 1921 by British Governor General Hugh Clifford, it was originally known as Katsina College. It switched its name to Kaduna College in 1938 and to Government College, ...
) and in Umuahia (Government College Umuahia).
King's College, Lagos
King's College, Lagos (KCL) is a secondary school in Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria. It was founded on 20 September 1909 with 10 students on its original site at Lagos Island, adjacent to Tafawa Balewa Square. The school admits only male students ...
had started twenty years earlier in 1909. These four schools were modeled after the famous English public schools – Eton and Harrow. The
Queen's College, Lagos
Queen's College, Lagos, is a government-owned girl's secondary (high) school with boarding facilities, situated in Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria. Often referred to as the "sister college" of King's College, Lagos, it was founded on October 10, 1927, when ...
(for girls) had opened that year. The onus for starting the Government College Umuahia fell on an English educator, mathematician, and Anglican priest, the Rev. Robert Fisher who had been a teacher at the
Achimota College, Accra, and education administrator in the Gold Coast, now
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
. He served as the first principal of the Government College Umuahia from 1929 to 1939.
Robert Fisher arrived in Umuahia in 1927 and acquired land of . On January 29, 1929 he opened the gates of the school to 25 students drawn from all parts of Nigeria and West Africa, but with catchment in Eastern Nigeria, and the
Southern Cameroons
The Southern Cameroons was the southern part of the British Empire, British League of Nations mandate territory of the British Cameroons in West Africa. Since 1961, it has been part of the Republic of Cameroon, where it makes up the Northwest Re ...
. The Government College Umuahia began in 1929 as a teacher training institute and in 1930, converted to a
secondary school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...
. Fisher ran this school until 1939 when, at the start of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he left for England on retirement and was replaced by W. N. Tolfree. The school was closed thereafter, and for three years it was used as a
Prisoner of War
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...
camp for detaining German and Italian prisoners captured in Cameroon by the British and the students and staff were suddenly dispersed to King's College, Lagos and to other mission schools east of the Niger.
Academics
GCU has drawn students from among the best performing from
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
and Southern
Cameroons
British Cameroon or the British Cameroons was a British Empire, British League of Nations mandate, mandate territory in British West Africa, formed of the Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons. Today, the Northern Cameroons forms parts of th ...
. It has classrooms and
laboratories
A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...
. Its students consistently achieve high scores in exam results at SSCE,
O-Level
The O-Level (Ordinary Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education. It was introduced in place of the School Certificate in 1951 as part of an educational reform alongside the more in-depth ...
and
A-Level
The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...
. All students complete core courses in the
Arts
The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...
and
Sciences
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
.
Students participate in sports like cricket, hockey, handball and football There are two standard fields (the Upper and Lower fields), cricket pavilions, seven lawn tennis courts, basketball court; and Olympic-size track field. It has a nine-hole golf course; a botanical garden, and an aquarium.
The English artist and archeologist,
Kenneth C. Murray, pioneered modern art education in Nigeria when he left Balliol College, Oxford and arrived Nigeria in 1927 to teach art. He taught art at the Government College Umuahia from 1933 to 1939 and started the
Art Gallery
An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...
which had in its collection, the works of
C.C. Ibeto,
Uthman Ibrahim
Uthman ibn Affan ( ar, عثمان بن عفان, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān; – 17 June 656), also spelled by Colloquial Arabic, Turkish and Persian rendering Osman, was a second cousin, son-in-law and notable companion of the Islamic prophe ...
, and the early charcoal drawings of
Ben Enwonwu
Odinigwe Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu MBE (14 July 1917 – 5 February 1994), better known as Ben Enwonwu, was a Nigerian painter and sculptor. Arguably the most influential African artist of the 20th century, his pioneering career opened th ...
. The gallery was looted and destroyed during the
Nigerian-Biafra civil war (1967–70), when the school was closed to serve as the General Staff Headquarters of the secessionist Republic of Biafra. K.C. Murray himself had left Umuahia in 1939 to become Director/Surveyor of Nigerian Antiquities, and the editor of the ''Nigeria Magazine'' from work he did at Umuahia.
The Government College Umuahia also had an
Officer Cadet
Officer Cadet is a rank held by military cadets during their training to become commissioned officers. In the United Kingdom, the rank is also used by members of University Royal Naval Units, University Officer Training Corps and University Air ...
Corps
Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was first named as such in 1805. The size of a corps varies great ...
that offered instruction camps in field drills, and adventure training. It produced professionally trained military officers before the Nigerian civil war including
General George Kurubo, first Southern Nigerian to be trained at Sandhurst and first Nigerian Chief of the Nigerian Air Force;
General Alex Madiebo, General Officer Commanding the defunct Biafran Army,
General Patrick Anwunah,
Tony Eze,
Tim Onwuatuegwu,
C.C. Emelifonwu,
Ibanga Ekanem,
August Okpe,
Col. (Dr.)Bassey Inyang, etc.
Government College Umuahia also produces an unusual high number of literary elite who influenced African Literature more than any other educational institution.
Decline
The Government Colleges had first class facilities; the best teachers, and a place like the Government College Umuahia had the feel of a typical English environment. In some ways, it was unsustainable, given that the students were socialized in enclosures that seemed generally to overlook the general condition of the rest of the country. But it was a great thing happening at Umuahia and such other places; it only needed, rather than its destruction, an upgrade of the standards found in these places in other places. In any case, the Government College Umuahia, like its sister schools soon came to suffer the Nigerian malaise.
GCU's quality declined substantially over the past 40 – 45 years. The decline has its roots in the Nigeria – Biafra civil war which was fought between 1967 – 1970. The school was closed for the period of the war, and afterwards things went progressively worse. The period after the war was one of desperation, deprivation and dearth of resources. The military administration eventually took over schools; discipline and merit were disregarded. These developments had grave implications for staff, students and the standards the school kept pre-war. Entry standards were no longer adhered to for all sorts of reasons. Nothing was spared, from library to laboratories, classrooms, dormitories, sports pitches, the well manicured lawns and the paved roads.
Starting from the mid-1980s, funding for such places as Umuahia dried up. The austerity measures, and the IMF rules, had as one of its great victims, such public schools; proper funding of public education, and for schools like GCU that once had special government funding became the first victims. The creation of states also reduced its orbit, as each state that inherited the school increasingly reduced it, from its international and national status, to provincial. Thus a great school was brought to its knees by policies of administrations, often the military administrations that deployed it to catchment, rather than to enduring quality.
Restoration
For years, Umuahian old boys – alumni of the school – had tried, out of great nostalgia to keep important aspects of the school going, and had often pressured the governments, to carry out certain functions with regards to the school. With its array of distinguished "old boys" the Government College Umuahia alumni could do this, but only to a limited scope.
Determined to put an end to the decline and restore the school to its excellence, th
Old Boys’ Association (GCUOBA)worldwide approached the government to hand back the school to it to restructure, fund and manage in a sustainable way.
On December 22, 2014 (after several attempts by the old boys) a Deed of Trust was signed with the
Abia State
Abia State ( ig, Ȯha Abia) is a state in the South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, it is bordered to the north and northeast by the states of Enugu, and Ebonyi, Imo State to the west, Cross River State to the east, Akwa Ibom State to the ...
government, thereby vesting the Trust with all legal interests, rights and power pertaining to ownership, management, operation, control and funding of Government College Umuahia. The Trust is duly registered, in line with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Reverend Robert Fisher, founding Principal of the Government College, had, at the end of the civil war in Nigeria, sold his earthly possessions, including his home in England, moved into a nursing home with his wife, and willed the money to the Government College Umuahia. This is the symbolic seed to the Trust, and through the Robert Fisher Trust Foundation, the old boys aims to demonstrate a commitment to the restoration of the school.
It is the dream of Umuahians that other children will have the benefit of an Umuahian education; one of the great foundations of their lives of numerous achievers.
Notable alumni
*
Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe (; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and ''magnum opus'', ''Things Fall Apart'' (1958), occupies ...
, writer, novelist, first winner of the Nigerian National Order of Merit
*
Mofia Tonjo Akobo, Nigeria's first minister of petroleum
*
Godswill Akpabio
Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio, (born 9 December 1962), is a Nigerian lawyer and politician. He is the former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs as he resigned on 11 May 2022 on the direction of President Muhammadu Buhari to contest at presidentia ...
, Minister of Health for Eastern Nigeria
*
Elechi Amadi
Elechi Amadi (12 May 1934 – 29 June 2016) was a Nigerian author and soldier. He was a former member of the Nigerian Armed Forces. He was an author of plays and novels that are generally about African village life, customs, beliefs, and religi ...
, novelist, mathematician, surveyor, soldier and public administrator
*
Kelechi Amadi-Obi, lawyer, painter and photographer
*
Anthony Aniagolu
Anthony Aniagolu was a Nigerian judge who served as Chief Judge of Anambra State from 1976 to 1978 and was a justice of the Nigerian Supreme Court from 1978 to 1987. In 1988, he chaired a Constituent Assembly to propose a draft constitution for Ni ...
, Supreme Court justice
*
I. N. C. Aniebo, novelist and soldier
*
Okoi Arikpo
Dr. Okoi Arikpo (20 September 1916 – 26 October 1995) was a Nigerian chemist, anthropologist, lawyer, politician and diplomat. He served as the foreign minister of Nigeria.
Early life and political career
Okoi Arikpo was born in Ugep in 1916. He ...
, anthropologist and Foreign Minister of Nigeria (1967–1975)
*
Nimi Briggs
Nimi Dimkpa Briggs (born 22 February 1944) is a Nigerian academic, scholar and Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Education
Briggs had his early education at Nyemoni Grammar School Abonnema and Baptist High School, Port Harcourt ...
, Vice Chancellor of the
University of Port Harcourt
The University of Port Harcourt is located in Choba in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, Nigeria. It was established in 1975 as University College, Port Harcourt and was given university status in 1977. The University of Port Harcourt was rank ...
*
Edmund Daukoru
Edmund Maduabebe Daukoru (born 13 October 1943) is a former Nigerian Minister of State for Energy and was Secretary General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2006. He became the Amayanabo, or traditional ruler, of ...
, doctor and Minister of Oil
*
Lazarus Ekwueme
Lazarus Edward Nnanyelu Ekwueme (born 28 January 1936), popularly known as Laz Ekwueme, is a Nigerian musicologist, composer, scholar and actor. He is one of the pioneer lecturers of music in Nigeria and also a prolific writer. He is a schol ...
, actor, professor, musicologist, winner of the Nigerian National Order of Merit
*
Dick W. Emuchay, medical doctor, educator and administrator
*
Okechukwu Nwadiuto Emuchay, diplomat
*
E. M. L. Endeley
Emmanuel Mbela Lifafa Endeley (10 April 1916 – June 1988) was a Cameroonian politician who led Southern Cameroonian representatives out of the Eastern Nigerian House of Assembly in Enugu and negotiated the creation of the autonomous region of ...
, former premier of Southern Cameroon
*
Okechukwu Enelamah
Okechukwu Enelamah (born 1964) is Nigeria's former Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment. He was nominated by President Muhammadu Buhari to join the Federal Cabinet in October 2015 and appointed to the Industry, Trade, and Investment portfol ...
, medical doctor and Nigeria's Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment
*
Nelson Enwerem
Nelson Enwerem known professionally as Prince is a Nigerian model, Actor, one of the fashionable men in Nigeria, brand ambassador/influencer, CEO and television personality who won Mr Nigeria 2018. He represented Nigeria at the Mister Wor ...
, model, television personality and winner of
Mr Nigeria 2018
*
Ben Enwonwu
Odinigwe Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu MBE (14 July 1917 – 5 February 1994), better known as Ben Enwonwu, was a Nigerian painter and sculptor. Arguably the most influential African artist of the 20th century, his pioneering career opened th ...
, modernist sculptor and painter and winner of the Nigerian National Order of Merit
*
Kelsey Harrison
Kelsey Atangamuerimo Harrison is an emeritus professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and former vice-chancellor of University of Port Harcourt, who contributed immensely to studies of maternal health, especially during pregnancy. As a researcher ...
, professor of
obstetrics and gynaecology
Obstetrics and Gynaecology (also spelled as Obstetrics and Gynecology; abbreviated as Obs and Gynae, O&G, OB-GYN and OB/GYN) is the medical specialty that encompasses the two subspecialties of obstetrics (covering pregnancy, childbirth, and t ...
, former vice-chancellor of the
University of Port Harcourt
The University of Port Harcourt is located in Choba in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, Nigeria. It was established in 1975 as University College, Port Harcourt and was given university status in 1977. The University of Port Harcourt was rank ...
, winner of the Nigerian National Order of Merit
*
Chukwuemeka Ike
Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike OFR, NNOM (28 April 1931 – 9 January 2020) was a Nigerian monarch, academic and writer known for a mixture of lampoon, humor and satire. He owed a little bit of his style to his Igbo cultural upbringing. He studied h ...
, novelist, university administrator, winner of the Nigerian National Order of Merit
*
Orji Uzor Kalu
Orji Uzor Kalu (born 21 April 1960) is a Nigerian politician and businessperson who is a Senator representing Abia North Senatorial District, He also serves as the Chief Whip of the House of Senate, Federal Republic of Nigeria. He served as the ...
*
Peter Katjavivi
Peter Hitjitevi Katjavivi (born 12 May 1941) is a Namibian politician who is the Speaker of the National Assembly of Namibia since March 2015 and the chancellor of the Namibia University of Science and Technology from 1992 to 2003. Previously he ...
, diplomat and politician
*
George T. Kurubo
George Tamunoiyowuna Kurubo (27 July 1934 – 2000) was Nigerian Air Force's Chief of the Air Staff from 1966 to 1967. Brigadier George T Kurubo was the third Commander of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), the first indigenous to hold the post.
He w ...
, brigadier and first Nigerian Chief of the Nigerian Air Force
*
Alexander Madiebo, Nigerian military officer
*
Victor Mukete, Nigeria's first minister of information and prominent Cameroonian politician
*
Obi Nwakanma, Nigerian poet
*
Okwesilieze Nwodo
Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo (Okwy) (born 28 July 1950 in Nsukka, Nigeria) is a Nigerian politician who was elected Governor of Enugu State in January 1992 during the Nigerian Third Republic.
Later he became the national secretary, national chairman, ...
*
Chukwuedu Nwokolo
Chukwuedu Nathaniel II Nwokolo (19 April 1921 – 18 May 2014) was a Nigerian physician specialist in tropical diseases. He was recognised for discovering and mapping out the area of paragonimiasis lung disease in Eastern Nigeria, with a study ...
*
Jide Obi, lawyer and pop star
*
Gabriel Okara
Gabriel Imomotimi Okara (24 April 1921 – 25 March 2019) was a Nigerian poet and novelist who was born in Bumoundi in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The first modernist poet of Anglophone Africa, he is best known for his early experimental ...
, poet
*
J.O.J. Okezie, Nigeria's first minister of health
*
Christopher Okigbo
Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo (16 August 1932 – 1967) was a Nigerian poet, teacher, and librarian, who died fighting for the independence of Biafra. He is today widely acknowledged as an outstanding postcolonial English-language African poet an ...
, poet and publisher
*
Chu Okongwu
Sonny Chu Okongwu (23 September 1934 – 12 January 2022) was a Nigerian economist and politician who was the Minister of National Planning (1985–1986), and then Minister of Finance (1986–1990) during the Babangida administration.
Life an ...
, Minister of National Planning and Minister of Oil
*
Domingo Okorie
*
Charles Onyeama
Charles Dadi Umeha Onyeama (26 April 1916 – 5 September 1999) was a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the first Nigerian Judge at the International Court of Justice, and father of Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, a ...
, World Court judge
*
Idah Peterside, keeper for the Super Eagles
*
Ken Saro-Wiwa
Kenule Beeson "Ken" Saro-Wiwa (10 October 1941 – 10 November 1995) was a Nigerian writer, television producer, and environmental activist. Ken Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority in Nigeria whose homeland, Ogonilan ...
, writer and environmental rights activist
*
James Iroha Uchechukwu
James Iroha Uchechukwu is a Nigerian photographer. He was born in 1972 in Enugu. He is known for his photography, his support to young photographers, and the passing on of his knowledge to the young. He is also regarded at the beginning of the 2 ...
, sculptor and photographer
*
Achike Udenwa
Achike Udenwa (born in 1948) was the governor of Imo State in Nigeria. He became governor after winning the election in 1999. Udenwa won re-election in 2003, and his term ended on 29 May 2007.
He is a member of the People's Democratic Party. Udenw ...
*
Jaja Wachuku
Jaja Anucha Wachuku (1 January 1918 – 7 November 1996), a Royal family, Royal Prince of Ngwaland, "descendant of 20 generations of African Eze, chiefs in the Igbo country of Eastern Nigeria," was a Pan-Africanist, and a Nigerian politician, ...
, lawyer, Nigeria's first Speaker of the House of Representatives and Nigeria's first foreign minister
References
Further reading
* The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays (2009) -
Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe (; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and ''magnum opus'', ''Things Fall Apart'' (1958), occupies ...
* THERE WAS A COLLEGE: INTRODUCING THE UMUAHIAN: A GOLDEN JUBILEE PUBLICATION, ed CHINUA ACHEBE - Terri Ochiagha
* The Umuahian: A golden jubilee Edition ed Chinua Achebe (Umuahia: Government College, Umuahia Old Boys' Association 1979)
* Achebe and Friends at Umuahia: The Making of a Literary Elite (2015) - Terri Ochiagha
* Christopher Okigbo, 1930-67: Thirsting for Sunlight (2010) - Obi Nwakanma
* The Shining Ones: THE UMUAHIA SCHOOL DAYS OF OBINNA OKOYE - Chike Momah
* The African Writers' Handbook - James Gibbs, Jack Mapanje
* Early Nigerian Literature - Bernth Lindfors
External links
The Government College's WebsiteThe Fisher Educational Development Trust's WebsiteGovernment College Umuahia, Old Boys website
{{Authority control
Secondary schools in Abia State
Boys' schools in Nigeria
Umuahia