By the time we arrived in Government Secondary School Owerri, in 1975, the school was already in the fortieth year as a Secondary School. So the norms, routine, and structures of the school were already well established. We all came from various acadamic, social and family backgrounds, and arrived via all manners of transportation, and in different shapes, sizes, and ages from cities, towns, and villages to take our shares of the training that will transform us. We were expected to shape in or ship out. We shaped in.
The structured ways of the school were the first things we noticed. It was inculcated into us that there is time for everything ; also that you must respect all constituted authorities by obeying before complaint. That you must say exum (excuse me) please to draw the attention of your seniors and that you must call your senior’s name with a ” please” after the name. Of course everyone was called by his surname and initials. Also we were not permitted to speak in vernacular. These and some others were at the base of our regimentation in Ogssian. Our immediate seniors, class two students, took it upon themselves to ensure that we understood, accepted and obeyed them all.
They were quick to let us know that they were exactly one year our seniors, in fact that they were our seniors by three hundred and sixty five and one quarter days, and that, that was not a joke. We were made to understand that our ages, sizes, backgrounds were immaterial. And they drilled into us that all that matters was our ranking by our class. They made us realize that in class one, you were at the base of the chain of a seven year school system of class one to upper 6, where you were just an oink, toad, fresher, unflushable kaka, one boy etc.
And to enforce and showcase this, any of them would call ” one boy” and all class one boys within earshot would run towards the area to answer our senior and await further instructions. We were at their beck and call and under their whims and caprices.
Of course by the next year it was our turn to introduce the freshers to the school’s routines. That was the standard.
This act of running to answer calls by our seniors was the major regimentation instrument no one acknowledges. Running engages all your faculties. Because the last person will be punished or sent on an errand, we ran hard and fast. And running so, you accepted you junior position. Your personal pride and background were set aside to answer to constituted authorities and to meet up with the school timings. If you were sent on an errand by your senior, you had to run so as not to incur his wrath by returning late and be asked to (gbujie l) or fall on your knees, or pick pin or lie under the bed, which ever suited his fancy.
Runs came up again in the refectory, when the prefects, made announcements to update the students on any current instructions. A prefect will announce the name of a student and give him a number of runs for offences he had committed. Offences could be for rudeness and insubordination, for running away from Justice and running into injustice, for perambulating, rigmaroling, or circumlocution.
To make the runs, the offending students were asked to run round the school perimeter or the designated area for the number of the runs stipulated. The aim again was not to purnish as it were, but to shape the students in by running; thus serving as a regimentation tool.
In the field of sports, running is key and it is so in all the games played at Government Secondary School, Owerri, be it football, hockey, tennis, javelin throwing, discus, short put, high jump, long jump, all the race events, and cricket, running was involved.
However cricket aced them all since the scoring included the runs made by the batsmen.
Cricket was introduced quite early in the life of the school. It was introduced from Australia in 1938 three years after the school was established. So it has been a prominent part of the history of the school. I dare say that the cricket runs formed the basis of using runs as a corrective punishment and as an instrument of regimentation in the Ogssian culture.
Definitely you can’t remember where you come from without remembering runs and running that helped shape and regiment you.
Engr Onyeukwu, C.S.
Writes from Lagos.
