Follow Us on Google
•We’ll get back our land, Old Boys vow
From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
If the dead do cry, Rev. Robert Fisher of blessed memory would be rolling in his grave in faraway Britain, weeping uncontrollably over the mad rush, partitioning and pilfering of the timeless treasure he left in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, several years ago, for the advancement of mankind.
Rev. Fisher would weep the more if he gets to know that those left with the responsibility of safeguarding the said treasure have become a colony of termites, eating its veil to shreds, thereby making a mess of his vision and efforts.
The cleric was one of the missionaries who came to the southern part of Nigeria at the winding of the 19th and dawn of the 20th centuries to propagate the Christian religion and expand the horizon of human knowledge through education in this part of the world.
As a missionary who believed, and rightly too, that the best form of empowerment was human development, Rev. Fisher set out to establish a secondary school in Umuahia.
Propelled by an uncommon vision of establishing a school in an environment most suited for fostering unfettered knowledge, Rev. Fisher went for a massive land mass that fitted into his expansionist agenda for future development.
An old boy of the school and a former governor of Enugu State, Dr. Okwy Nwodo, perhaps reading the mind of Fisher while establishing the college, said, the “English gentleman wanted to recreate a similar school in England, Eton College, and he called Government College, Umuahia, Eton College of Africa. Most of the people who have ruled Great Britain attended that school.”
It was, therefore, not for nothing that, 94 years ago, precisely, in 1929, it was gathered, Fisher purchased 120 hectres of land (roughly four square miles) from three communities on the southern fringes of present Umuahia metropolis, namely, Amaba, Olokoro and Ndume Oboro, for the establishment of a secondary school known then as Fisher High School, but later changed to Government College, Umuahia.
A second-tier educational facility, a shining light that came ahead of its time along the western coast of a then dark continent, Government College, Umuahia, has produced men of timber and caliber (apologies to the late Dr. Kingsley Mbadiwe), men at the echelons of their various callings across all strata of human endeavour.
According to Nwodo, “Government College, Umuahia, produced literary giants like Profs. Chinua Achebe, Gabriel Okara, Christopher Okigbo. In the political firmament, it has produced some governors as well as speakers of parliament, prime ministers and ministers in some African countries. The school was definitely the best secondary school in the then Eastern Nigeria and was owned by the Eastern Nigerian Government.”
At inception in 1929, there was zero encroachment on the school. However, as years rolled by, Rev Fisher’s commendable vision was nailed at the stake by those who ordinarily should have kept the vision flying.
People, including government officials, were reported to have started ceaseless encroachment on the school’s land. It was alleged that the communities from which Fisher bought the expanse of land came in and took a large chunk of it. In another breath, some officials of Abia State Ministry of Lands were said to have parcellated and shared among themselves parts of the school’s land. They reportedly equally gave their cronies from this illegal acquisition of the land.
Nwodo gave insights into when the school’s predicament began: “Due to the fact that Abia State Government was unable to maintain the structures in the school after the war, most of the buildings, including the staff quarters, collapsed. Grasses grew in buildings because they were old structures. So, people took advantage, that government was not interested in doing anything in the school, went and developed an estate there, selling the land to people.
“However, luckily for us, the Government of Theodore Orji handed over the school to the old boys and the certificate of occupancy (C of O) was issued in our name.
“But, unfortunately, some officials of the previous government began encroaching on the school. Our investigation shows that the land speculators were acting in consonance with certain officials in the ministry of lands. So, we’ve been trying to see how we can get them off the land; we need the land for the school and, luckily for us, the new administration in Abia set up a panel to recover government lands and property and funds which may have been taken by the last administration.”
To create an atmosphere of originality and genuineness among the unsuspecting public, the government officials allegedly renamed the encroached part of the college land Umuana Ndume Extension Estate. In all, over 40 hectres of land of the college was said to have been fleeced.
Throwing more light on the encroachment that has been going on in the school over the years, an old boy of the college, Engr. IK Ugwuegede, said: “The school was established on 120 hectres of land; it served as a training camp for cadets before the war. It was quite a large piece of land, Government College, Umuahia.
“Lately, some Abia government officials who do not know the value of education started encroaching on the outskirts of the school. The same government people, who were supposed to protect the efficacy of the school, were the people involved in the theft of the land. The matter went on unabated.”
Equally aggrieved over the vexatious issue of encroachment that the old boys of the school likened to theft is a Nigerian-born, US-based gynaecologist, Professor Ikemefuna Nkanginieme, who said: “In October 2015, Abia State government conceded about 11 hectares to normal encroachment carried out by surrounding villages between 1929 and 2015. They conceded this in the interest of peace.”
Nkanginieme also stated that Abia State government yet again conceded another 20 hectares to the University of Agriculture at Umudike and the old boys allowed that, since it was for educational purposes and in tandem with the vision of Rev. Fisher.
Having conceded several hectres of its land to the villagers and the university in the interest of peace, the old boys said they were taken aback when some Abia Government officials moved into the remaining 89.12 hectres, created an estate within the school’s land, issued allocation to themselves, their cronies and the unsuspecting public.
Nkanginieme said: “Then came allegations of collusion between the chief technical officer in the ministry of lands and the last two commissioners in the ministry and the permanent secretary to design an estate they named Umuana Ndume Extension Estate and started issuing allocations on our land to themselves and to unsuspecting public.”
Nkanginieme, who said almost 40 hectres have been stolen so far and vowed that the old boys would get back their land, revealed that, at a point, a member of the committee set up by the old boys to recover the land posed as a potential buyer and a plot of the said land was allegedly given to him for N7 million.
Regarding the argument in some quarters that the land was too vast for a secondary school, Nwodo swiftly countered it. He said: “Yes, we were told that some officials of the ministry of land were of the view that the land is too much for a secondary school. It is not. If you recall, the original founder of the school, Robert Fisher, was an English gentleman who wanted to recreate a similar school in England, Eton College, and he called Government College, Umuahia, Eton College of Africa. Most of the people who have ruled Great Britain attended that school.”
Explaining further, Nwodo said: “When I was a student there, most of the land they are encroaching now was the school farm. The school trained us, gave us discipline of how to work to earn a living. They gave us yam seedlings and plots of land in that school farm and we planted these seed yams, which they gave to us to plant. At the end, the school authorities would buy the yam from us and they used them in feeding us.
“When it came to sports, we had an Olympic standard stadium. We had one of the best cricket pitches in Nigeria in that school. All the sports you can think of were played in that school. So, there’s no part of that land that was a waste.”
There is this assertion by some people that, as owners of the school, government may have taken back parts of the land for other purposes. Nwodo comes in to put things in the right perspective: “No, that’s a wrong assertion. I told you earlier that the Government of T.A. Orji handed over the school to the old boys and C of O issued on our name. As such, we employ and pay the principal and teachers. In fact, we are the ones managing the school.
“Therefore, government cannot take over parts of the school’s land for other purposes when there is no revocation of the C of O given to us as the owners of the school.”
On why the old boys had not done much over the years that the encroachment had been going on, Nkanginieme said: “Those who had been managing the school over the years appeared to have been intimidated by the Abia land rats who are powerful, rich and well connected government officials in the last two Abia administrations.”
He sent a warning notice that the old boys were now all out and ready as well to recover their “stolen” land.
Ugwuegede was on the same page as Nkanginieme when he said many of the old boys of the college didn’t know there was encroachment going on in the school until now.
According to him, even when the school authorities were aware, there was little or nothing they could do, as the officials they were going to meet in the office to solve the problem were themselves the encroachers.
He said: “Those officials from the ministry of lands are supporting this encroachment because they are directly or indirectly beneficiaries.
“They have also registered private estate, which falls within the land of Government College, Umuahia. These government officials know that, yet they have done nothing. So, the acts of omission are as grievous as the acts of commission.”
Dr. E.D. Chukukere, chairman of the Government College, Umuahia Land Recovery Committee, said the old boys of the school have come together, not only to rescue the school academically but also to recover those land people have encroached upon.
Chukukere said: “Luckily, the law is on our side, we have the survey plan of the whole area and certificate of occupancy issued by the state government, which is in our name. It stated clearly that the purpose of the land was for academic project.
“So, anything that is on our land, belongs to us and we shall do anything we want to do, including demolishing the structures erected on the encroached areas, in order to secure the school. That is the stand of Government of Umuahia Old Boys’ Association.”
The old boys ruled out acceptance of any monetary compensation in lieu of the school’s encroached land. Chukukere was explicit on this: “Monetary compensation? We, as the old boys of Government College, Umuahia, are interested in developing the school so that generations coming after us will enjoy the type of academic opportunity that the school gave to us.
“It is not an economic venture for us to get money and make profit. We have not at anytime discussed the conversion of the land for economic or monetary purposes. Anybody thinking along that line is on his own.
“We have gone to the place and told the people there to pack out of the area because the land belongs to Government College, Umuahia.”
He, on behalf of other old boys, appealed to Abia State government to not only recover the said land belonging to the school, pilfered, but also punish the offenders.
Attempts to speak with the Abia State Commissioner for Lands and Housing, Chaka Chukwumerije, on the issue were unfruitful. He neither picked calls made on his cell phone nor responded to messages sent to him.
However, an official in the ministry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, admitted that some former senior officials of the ministry were involved in the illegal land deals in the school.
“I call the sale of the school land by the said officials illegal because, since government gave the school back to the old boys to manage and C of O given in the name of the old boys, before any other person should do anything on the land, the C of O must have been revoked. But in this case, it was not,” he said.
Some of those who bought part of the school’s land and developed it said they never knew the land belonged to the school.
One of them, who did not want his name in print, said: “Officials of the ministry of lands placed land in the area for sale and, coming from the ministry in charge of lands in the state, we never doubted the genuineness of the whole deal. So, we went ahead and bought them.”
Another buyer was of the view that, since those who bought land in the area dealt directly with officials of the ministry of lands, it would be unfair to ask them to leave without government giving them back the amount they spent in acquiring and developing the place.
He appealed that the occupiers should be allowed to stay since they bought the land from government.
