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The Role of Education in Fostering Unity- My New Bussa Experience

We welcome you to FGGC New Bussa

The School of milk and honey

The school where there is nothing to make you sad

In this school, you can laugh, you can smile, there is nothing at all to make you sad
We all come from Minna, Ilorin, Ibadan, Akure, Sokoto, Calabar, Enugu, Yola, Abeokuta, from Jos, Benin, Kaduna, Makurdi, Owerri, Maduguri Bauchi, from Kano, Lagos and Port Harcourt.

This was an abridged version of the song we sang when I was in New Bussa to welcome visitors. Nigeria had 19 states then and we, the young Nigeria girls aged between 9 - 18 years truly came from all these places to New Bussa.

I attended the FGGC New Bussa, Kwara State now FGC New Bussa, Niger State from1983-1989. My early memory of other Nigerian ethnic tribe was Mama Bendel and some Hausas in the old Oja Oba market in Ibadan, where my parents were traders and they all spoke Yoruba, ate Yoruba food and dress like Yorubas. On getting to New Bussa, my assigned school mum was Snr Ngozi and pronouncing the name was my first challenge. Then, my roommate who was also my class mate, Nkeodi’s was another challenge, I remembered I had to write down her name to master it. Other names include Okos- that gave another meaning being a Yoruba girl, Etiba, Akpo, Ufuoma. I was at home with most of the Northerners names being a Muslim myself. 

Schooling in FGGC New Bussa gave a first-hand experience of the diversity in Nigeria and prepared me for the life I live now. Education at secondary school level where we speak a common language and wear the same uniform brings sense of sameness of humans to our young minds. However, the unofficial gist is that our school was converted to a co-ed because there were not enough female students to fill the carrying capacity of the school hence, the need to attract males to fill the gaps. I went to New Bussa from Ibadan, and up to 50% of students then were from Lagos state, a sizeable percent from the East, North, traveling by rail such that less than 10% were from New Bussa and the environs. The country was safe, the roads were good and the leaders believed in the education system such that we were in school with children of our leaders. Then, something happened to Nigeria- the rails stopped working, the roads got bad and unsafe, such that the apparent distance to New Bussa became longer from every part of the country and parents stopped sending their children to our school and the country lost an opportunity to catch the young to build a united country. 

This reality is already rearing it head in the mix of the latter generation alumni. The country is robbing her young generation of the experience of her diversity. However, the trend can be arrested if we make the roads safe and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. There has been some effort to revive the rail, but the Government still need to do more to cover the country. The policy of admitting students (quota system) from every state into every school should be sustained for deliberate inclusion. The schools should be rebuilt to meet the 21st-century education requirements.

The Alumni have a role to play. We can give an endowment, create education funds to assist in some of the challenges. Let us rise to sustain the spirit of Pro Unitate.