By Kehinde Bamigbetan The boy in green shirt and brown knickers brought the right hand on his forehead down sharply to salute. His mates, equally dressed in the uniform of the Boy’s Scout of Nigeria followed suit. They began a military parade turning left and right and finished the exercise to the excitement of the audience. After the Boys Scout, the members of Red Cross , dressed in their white uniform with the organisation’s name in red letters stepped forward to perform a similar drill. Both clubs were well rewarded with deserved applause. The boys were put through the training by senior officials of the Boys Scout and the Red Cross just a few days before the event held on Friday April 28, this year. The venue was the football pitch of St John’s Grammar School, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.The audience comprised the 1977 set of the school’s alumni, the officers of the national body and wellwishers. One man made it happen. His name Adeniyi Ademiju, a pilot of over three decades who currently flies chartered operations. Ademiju was passionate about the need to stem the declining moral standards among the youths. According to him: “⁸the culture of respecting elders was disappearing.” The trigger for this intervention came from a recent tragedy at Chrisland School in Lagos. His words: “It was the incident of the girl that was electrocuted during sports at Chrisland College in Lagos that got me worried. According to the reports, despite dying from shock, they were pouring cold water on her. I felt if there had been students who belonged to the Red Cross in the school, they would have given the victim proper first aid that might have saved the girl. So I called the secretary-general of our alumni, Debo Adefisan and asked if the school still had a Red Cross club. He told me it had died. I felt sad because I used to belong to Boys Scout as a student and we worked with the Red Cross to handle such accidents during inter-house sports. I also remembered that Wednesdays preparatory period was set aside for […]
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WATER IS LIFE : DR. FESTUS ODUNAYO OSHOBA.
By Debo Adefisan Dateline: Saturday, June 24, 2023 at about 4.42pm, the development of the Borehole sunk to pump 10,000 Liters of water per day for use in all areas within St. John’s Grammar School, ILE-IFE was concluded. Water was pumped non stop for 45 minutes as a proof that this well will not dry up either intermittently or ‘sine die’ like that of the 2 Manual pump boreholes earlier provided by the Government. You will recall that we drank water from a Concrete underground water reservoir as Students of this great School. Our Toilet was a pit system where water was not supplied. We used improvised devices to fetch water from the reservoir in front of our Library and some of our Seniors confiscated such Water for their use???? The need for Water in such an expanse of human community cannot be over emphasized. Reverend Father Fabian Cloutier dug a Well in front of ‘Baba Agric’ Quarters which was fitted with a surface pump and reticulated using booster pumps to places within the School Compound. Three of the Eight Staff Quarters and the Adminstrative building initially had water reticulated to their closets. Mr. A. T Aremu, Mrs. Harrinder Sutton and Mr. Raymond Babatunde all enjoyed water in their Quarters until a certain time in 1979 when there was a disruption that couldn’t be easily addressed. Water became an essential commodity within the School and the Well was opened. Oke Atan community as at then had very few productive wells suitable for potability. So, they flocked to St. John’s to fetch Water in droves, polluting the well, driving conflicts and misgivings until locks were fitted on the Well again. That Well does not dry up either in the dry or raining season but it is largely unsuitable for drinking. This was the situation in St. John’s Grammar School until Chief Dr. Olusola Oyeyemi intervened by drilling a Borehole currently in use in the School. The challenge of the noble effort by Dr. Oyeyemi is the hard igneous rock on which the entire school land sits. According to the reports of […]
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Distinguished Senator Iyiola Omisore celebrates with other Johnians at the 60th Anniversary Celebration of the school
Distinguished Senator Iyiola Omisore celebrates with other Johnians at the 60th Anniversary Celebration of the school, St John’s Grammar School, Oke-Atan Ile-Ife. Captured @ the Event
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Johnians spread diamond campaign all over the world
Old boys of St John’s Grammar School, Ile-Ife are marking the alma mater’s diamond anniversary by showing how tech-savvy they are. They are spreading the news of the 60th anniversary of the school by posting their portraits on their social media pages. Titled “Proudly Johnian“, the portraits show the face, the name as the current achievement of the old boys. Campaign manager and publicity secretary Kehinde Bamigbetan said the awareness strategy started like a flicker but has now caught fire. ” The request from members for the “Proudly Johnian” portraits is amazing. Despite advising members that they can actually do it on their own and post on their pages, many still prefer getting their portraits from. where it all began.” Over 150 portraits were done by the graphic designers in the first 10 days of the campaign and individually designed portraits are about 50. Bamigbetan thanked the old boys for embracing the campaign urging set leaders to spread the word until it goes fully global. Proudly Johnian
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Johnians launch “Proudly Johnian” Campaign on air and ground
The much-awaited diamond anniversary of St John’s Grammar School, Oke-Atan.Ile-Ife took off with the launch of the “Proudly Johnian” campaign last week. The campaign features portraits of the old boys of the school decorated with the anniversary logo and the Proudly Johnian concept. In the first stage of the campaign, hundreds of old boys posted the branded “Proudly Johnian” portraits on their social media pages announcing their excitement on the occasion of the school’s 60th anniversary. The second stage took the campaign to the streets as banners were used to decorate the Ife-Ibadan highway up to Mayfair. The originator of the “Proudly Johnian” concept and publicity secretary of St John’s Old Boys Association, SJOBA, Kehinde Bamigbetan said the banner campaign will stretch from. the old Toll Gate at Ajebandele to the premises of the school to create awareness in the community. ” We are just starting. It is going to expand to billboards, radio and television. We started from social media. This pre-event is to sensitise the general public and it will increase in intensity as we approach the anniversary week that begins on Monday, January 17, this year. Bamigbetan called on old students to identify with the alumni’s massive infrastructural facelift of the school. He said the ultimate objective is to encourage the government to release the school to the church and the alumni so that the standards it was known for could be restored.
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Prof. Alarape and Mr. Adeniji visited the school on July 9th, 2021
Today, July 9th,2021., Prof. Alarape and Mr. Adeniji were in school to check the condition of St. John’s Grammar school’s Field and other sports facilities in the preparation for the forthcoming event.
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Return schools to owners ― Ooni charges Govt
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi (Ojaja II), has called on government to return public schools to their original owners to allow stakeholders, including alumni associations, contribute fully towards the development of the institutions. Ogunwusi made the call on Saturday, during the inauguration of projects worth N50 million at the St. John Grammar School, Ile-Ife, in Osun. The projects were executed by members of the St. John Old Boy’s Association (SJOBA). He decried the level of decay in the country’s school system and lamented that founders of the schools, which were mostly Churches and clergymen, left great structures which had deteriorated due to lack of proper maintenance. “I call on our government to allow real owners, especially alumni of our schools, to take charge in order to restore the glory of our education sector. “They know better because they have been through the system and are in the best position to effect the required changes towards prosperity. “Look at the projects we’re inaugurating today; we’re talking of projects worth N50 million. It will take the government a longer period to do something like this. “That is if they even find it necessary in the first place because of the large number of important demands competing for government’s limited resources,” Ooni added. The monarch asked the old students if they could enroll their children in their Alma Mata, judging by the current standard, but got a negative response from the audience who agreed with him that it was better to let old students step in, to play active roles in the interest of the upcoming generation. Osun governor Gboyega Oyetola, in his address, applauded members of the SJOBA for the projects which included a gate and a fence worth N18 million, and a full-size bronze statue of the founder, Rev. Father Fabian Cloutier, worth N5.1 million. He also commended the quality of other projects like the modern toilets constructed at the cost of N12.5 million, library renovation which cost N5 million, and the renovation of two blocks of classroom which cost N15 million. He also commended the quality of other […]
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