To the memory of beloved AGS classmates who have passed on

By BASHIR ADEFAKA

“We will forever remember you: Bimpe Ajewole, Comfort Ofakunrin and Kike Fagbemi. May your souls rest in the Lord until we shall meet and part no more.”

In December 1983, a good number of us as growing up children passed out from St. Stephen’s Anglican Primary School, Iju, a seat of a second-order administrative division that part-formed the Headquarters of Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State. We had sat for our common entrance and, by God’s grace, we all made it to the secondary stage of our education but at different places.

Iju has a neighbouring town called Ita-Ogbolu and the two of them were not known to be friends that wanted to see themselves in the face at any time. However, the Government of the defunct Western Region must have noticed that saddening development when a secondary school was established in 1957, right at the boundary of the two warring autonomous communities, with Pa Reuben Fashoranti as its pioneer Principal. The point of location, which is boundary, is known in Yoruba Language as ‘agbe’ and because it is a hilly location, it is always called along that line of ‘oke’ hill or mountain. Then you have the place known as Oke Agbe.

I remember when anybody in Iju wanted to ask you where your school was, he would ask: “Se Oke Agbe lu’le uwe re ni”, that is Akure dialect of Yoruba tongue to say “Is it Oke Agbe that is your school?” Because of the great achievement of inter-communal relations and peace it had achieved for the people of Iju and Ita-Ogbolu, the location of school is marvelously celebrated as it is proudly called Oke Agbe.

There was more of later time Ondo State Government presence that was made there and that was the Health Centre right in front of the gate of the Anglican Grammar School, Iju/Ita-Ogbolu. The plan must have been to provide healthcare for the school community that was more like a model school at the time, even up till our time when our set entered in January 1984, but now split into boarding and day system.

Coming from St. Stephen’s Anglican Primary School, Iju, while all of us made it through the common entrance out of primary level of education, not all of us were enlisted into Anglican Grammar School, Iju/Ita-Ogbolu as others went to Elu-Ilu High School, Iju, along Ikere Ekiti road while some went to CAC Grammar School, Iju a recently established school at the time. More important was that, like Iju had many primary schools namely; St. Stephen’s Anglican Primary School, St. Victor Catholic Primary School, L.A. Primary School, Methodist Primary School and probably one other. Pupils from those elementary schools were merged into the three secondary schools around including the one at Oke Agbe.

Same way, pupils from various elementary schools in Ita-Ogbolu namely; L.A. Primary School, African Primary school and others. I still remember that L.A. Primary School, Ita-Ogbolu was located behind the official quarters of my father where we lived.  My father, a former banker of the Trust Bank and Cooperative Bank, had worked in the town as Officer in Charger of Ondo State Cooperative and Marketing Union (OSCMU), responsible for providing all that cocoa farmers needed to treat their cocoa farm for improved harvest, receiving cocoa produce at the instance of farmers to the government for onward export abroad through Apapa Port in Lagos and using the government funds at his disposal, to pay the farmers the way it used to be in those days.

While our official quarters was and still at the junction off Akure-Iju Road going to the market and Ogbolu’s palace, the office was and still located at after the Eti Ona, a stream opposite the Alamo Grammar School junction on the way to Iju. I still remember the first time electricity supply and water corporation supplied pipe-borne water would be commissioned in Ita/Ita-Ogbolu, it was in our official quarters under my father, now Alhaji K.Y. Adefaka’s administration of OSCMU in the fantastically ancient town.

Having started school in Ijare in 1978, I continued my school at Africa Primary School at the foot of a hilltop end of a road facing our official quarters, where I had my primary two in 1979. In 1980 when my father was transferred to the headquarters in Isikan Town, on Ondo Road sharing boundary with Akure town with our hometown of Isolo on the other side linking Abuja/Owo Road. Then I was again registered into primary three at St. Stephen’s Anglican Primary School, Ijomu, Akure that 1980. Finally, as precious grandson of my maternal grandparent, I was taken to living in Iju in 1981 and, again, registered at St. Stephen’s Anglican Primary School where I joined in primary four and then stayed until I finished my elementary education in December 1983.

Coming out of St. Stephen’s together were with Funmilayo Oluwatayo, daughter of our very feared teacher, Mr. S.O. Oluwatayo, her mother, a provision seller was close to my grandmother to the extent that her goods were kept in our house for easy transfer to any of the two five-day markets of Oja Iseeri and Oja Oke’ju. Funmilayo, being my close classmate, and her sister were usually the interface that used to come for those goods at the time. I still remember. Then, I came out of St. Stephen’s with others namely; Soladoye Idowu, Folake Falebita, Idowu Omosebi, Taiwo Omosebi, Tomilola Aderiye, Emiloju, Adedayo Adaramoye, Caleb Olowojola, Atiri Ojo, Janet Omolafe, Sunday Aromolaran, Sanya Adanlawo, Bunmi Adanlawo, Rotimi Olorunfemi, Femi Ayeni (I think), Ajayi Akinwole, Bosede Akinwole, Nathaniel Fagoriola, Abiodun Arukuje, Kayode Akande, Deji Majasan, Omolola Jebutu, Akinsanya Ogunleye, Anu Adelanke, Kayode Bayode, Tope Ayeloja, Alabi Samuel, Yinka Bosede, Kehinde Kolawole, Omotayo Owoyemi, Clement Fagbure, I can continue to count.

Whereas Soladoye Idowu, Deji Majasan, Sunday Aromolaran, and few others went to Elu-Iju High School, a good number of were enlisted into Anglican Grammar School, Iju/Ita-Ogbolu. That was a big privilege for anyone aspiring to attend a well structured school. And in that school, we made new friends from other schools in Iju, the neighbouring community of Ita-Ogbolu and even Akure. Abayomi Asabia came from St. Victor Catholic Primary School, Iju, so Bimpe Ajewole, and Funmilola Faleye, Kemi Ajewole and more from other primary schools in Iju and we all met together at Oke Agbe with Oluwashina Fashakin, Bola Aluko, Olwaseyi Olugbenga, Olumide Ogunmola, Ogunmola Awonji, Beatrice Ofakunrin, Comfort Ofakunrin, Titi Ofakunrin, Yinka Jinadu, Ajayi Oduniyi, Abdullahi Aliyu, Rotimi Akinmejiwa, and many more.

VERY SAD, however, for some among us, the sun had set in the midnight, the elephants had fallen in the thick forest as, upon coming together 39 years after entering Anglican Grammar School, Iju/Ita-Ogbolu (1984), and 33 years after passing out (1990) and we have been brought together with the aid of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on the platform of Old Students this time, not all of us are counted to be alive.

We will forever remember you: Bimpe Ajewole, Comfort Ofakunrin and Kike Fagbemi. May your souls rest in the Lord until we shall meet and part no more.