By Obed Aladum
Prior to February 1979, there was no known history of student riots or protests in this notable institution since its inception in 1935. The school was known for her discipline and academic successes. It was one of the three prestigious government schools in the then East Central State of Nigeria. Student admission was based primarily on merit and the school attracted bright young boys from all over the region and beyond. The students were mainly boarders with few day students. The school calendar was fashioned in such a way that the students were kept busy from 5:30 am till 9 pm.
A typical school day started at 5:30 am with morning devotions by students of each house or dormitory. Next was ablution, dressing of individual beds and morning duties of cleaning the dormitory and surrounding environment. This was mainly done by junior students while the Seniors could use that period for early morning exercises. The next activity along the line was dressing up and going for breakfast at the refectory. After breakfast was the morning assembly held either at the assembly hall or at the cricket field. Immediately afterwards came classroom work for the day which ran from 8 am till 1 pm with a break period of 15 minutes in-between. The Afternoon period comprised of lunchtime and siesta. Late afternoon period comprised of afternoon prep. Evening period started with sporting activities and manual labour depending on the days of the week. After sporting or labour activities in the evening was the dinner and after dinner came evening prep which lasted till 9:30 pm for junior students and 10:30 pm for seniors. After this was lights out.
This daily routine left the students with little or no much time for messing around and playing pranks. However, with the creation of Imo State in 1976 (with Owerri as the state capital) and with the relocation of senior civil servants of the former East Central State from Enugu to Owerri, came a new scramble for relocating their wards to the best school in town. This, of course, was Government Secondary School, Owerri. Most of the commissioners in the new administration tried to secure admissions for their wards in the school, creatin fresh, hitherto unknown social tensions among the students. It became fairly commonplace, for instance, for some students to come to school on Saturdays with their new family luxury cars! Some students could even leave the dormitories without permission and exit cards because they knew that their parents or guardians would intervene on their behalf if they were caught. This was the beginning of widespread indiscipline at the school. Soon there were students could skip morning assembly or classes without dire consequences.
The school authorities tried to win back control as much as possible but discipline was already on a downward spiral.
Protest was not planned in advance but started spontaneously. Dispute revolved around the fate of the cricket pitch of the school. The cricket pitch was traditionally a valued asset of the school and it was situated at the frontal view of the school administration block. The Assembly Hall, some classrooms, the library and some dormitories surrounded the cricket pitch. It was the epicenter of the school. But this came with some challenges. For instance, since classroom blocks were situated on both sides of the pitch, there was a tendency for students to trespass the cricket pitch during and after school hours. The cricket pitch also served as drying grounds for boarding students who washed their clothes during the weekends. At times, these clothes were left without being picked up even when they were dried and became an eyesore.
It was to preserve the beauty of the cricket pitch that then school principal, Eugene Nwokonko, instructed that nobody should trespass the pitch or spread clothes on it. Sadly, he did not provide hangers where students could dry their clothes in the alternative. Students who were caught passing through the field were stopped and punished immediately. During school periods, students tried as much as possible not to spread their clothes on the field. On weekends however, with no principal and teachers to enforce the law, students usually fell back to old habits after Saturday inspections.
Incindetally, on the day of protest, the principal came around on a Saturday evening and met some clothes spread on the field. He promptly ordered the clothes should be gathered and burnt! He made sure that the clothes were completely burnt before leaving the scenes and this angered the students especially those whose clothes were burnt. Instantly, some senior students started mobilizing and before dawn, shouts of “I no go gree” filled the air. All the students in the upper school dormitories came out of their dormitories and started a protest.
There was no physical damage done to school properties but unusual noise and excitement rent the air and disrupted school activities. When the students in down school dormitories heard about the protest going on in upper school, they joined in hardly even knowing the cause. Things quickly got out of hand. Some of the students went to the pantry near the refectory to loot foodstuff. It was as if they had grievances with the food. Most of the damage done to the school was around the kitchen. A few students went as far as harassing some of the Pakistani and Indian teachers on campus. Soon, a burn fire was blazing as excitement mixed with fear and anxiety. Some students who had relatives in Owerri ran to them for shelter as it was rumored that the Police were called in for mass arrest later in the night. This turned out to be a hoax. By Sunday, the school was a ghost of itself as most students had deserted the premises and news of the event spread like wildfire to Owerri township and environs. By Monday, the school was officially closed down and students were asked to vacate the dormitories before evening.
The forced closure lasted for about one month. When school was eventually reopened, students we’re compelled to pay for the cost of the damages and bring letters of undertaking from their parents and guardians pledging to be of good behavior for the rest of their stay in the school. Also, an investigation panel was setup by the state government to fish out those who were involved and determine the remote and immediate causes of the disquiet. The panel sat at the school assembly for five days and at the end, some students were found guilty of participating in the riots and looting school properties. Seversl were rusticated while others served suspension terms, sometimes up to one year. After the investigations, normal school life resumed but the principal was transferred.
Nwokonko was a good principal and a great disciplinarian but never expected the magnitude of the reaction from students on the day of the event. In retrospect, it have sufficed if he seized the clothes that were spread on the field that day instead of burning them in the presence of students whose clothes were seized.
The cricket field could have been fenced with barb wire to prevent students from trespassing and spreading clothes on it. This would have avoided the unfortunate protests and looting.
Students in dormitories facing the cricket field should have been provided with alternative lines for hanging their washed clothes before abolishing the spreading of clothes on the field. The flowers beds around the dormitories were not sufficient for spreading clothes.
Students could have been handled with greater maturity; being mostly teenagers, some of them felt they knew their rights and were being disrespected. This is a familiar but volatile scene even in families.
Dormitories were a mixture of students from different family backgrounds. While some were raised with good home training and could obey simple rules and regulations, others were not.
Admissions to the school was supposed to be on merit but when students were admitted on the bases of influence from their parents or guardians , discipline took a hit.
There was the rumoured incident of some students being punished not because of their participation in the protests but because they were known to be rascals before the riot.
Perhaps it is fair to say that good lessons were learnt by all concerned since a similar event has not been known to occur in the school ever since. All is well that ends well.
Obed Aladum, a member of the ’75 set, lives in Port Harcourt. He works in the oil industry.
