The Story of Government Secondary School Afikpo (GSSA)

This is the story of a school in sub-Saharan Africa with an extraordinary record of success. A tragic accident of history interrupted this record.

The British colonial rulers of Nigeria established Government Secondary School Afikpo (GSSA) as a boys’ high school in 1953 in the town of Afikpo in Ebonyi State, which was at the time part of the former Eastern Region of Nigeria. They modeled this school and other similar schools located in other parts of Nigeria after the renowned British public schools such as Eton and Harrow. Their purpose was to supply the colonial administrators with a cadre of well educated indigenes who would help run the country. These were therefore highly competitive and select schools that may be called “leadership academies”. The facilities at these schools were first rate and the academic standard was very high and comparable to that of any highly reputable secondary school anywhere in the world.

Before war intervened and changed her fortunes drastically, GSSA was undoubtedly one of the best of these elite secondary schools – a de facto “primus inter pares” (i.e first among equals) as she proudly styled herself. Her status as the crown jewel of secondary education in this part of the world was borne out by the fact that she attracted numerous international students from throughout Africa and spots at the school were highly sought after by the elite of Eastern Nigeria, a people known at the time for their high regard for education.

GSSA fulfilled her promise and the expectations of her founders. Almost all of her alumni went on to universities including some of the most prestigious in the English speaking world such as Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley etc. Most of them earned degrees, including doctorates in many cases, and became professionals and academics. For instance the 1965 GSSA graduating class of 60 boys not only boasted the best performance in the entire West African region in the West African School Certificate examination; but went on to produce at least 11 doctors (i.e. M.D.’s); 5 Ph.D’s including a nuclear physicist; 5 engineers; 3 architects; one pharmacist; one lands surveyor; and most of the rest were also university graduates. Go to our website, www.GSSAAA.org, and you will see a picture of these boys (under the submenu “Vision” under the main menu item “About Us”) and learn how they turned out in most cases. And this class was no fluke. This class was representative of other classes that passed through the school at the time. Indeed it is no exaggeration to say that during the 1950’s and 60’s, the school was a nursery for future doctors, engineers, architects and scientists.

Then war came….

The period from attainment of independence from Britain in 1960 to the outbreak of civil war in 1967 was a period of roiling ethnic and interregional tensions in Nigeria culminating in a military coup in January 1966 followed by a countercoup in July 1966. The subsequent murder in cold blood of 30,000 Eastern Nigerians at the hands of fellow Nigerians in other parts of the country in late 1966, precipitated the exodus of 1.8 million refugees of Eastern Nigerian origin from other parts of the country back to their homeland. This was the tipping point.

In response to the mistreatment, pogrom and genocide they suffered at the hands of fellow Nigerians, the people of the then Eastern Region of Nigeria – a people who ironically had led the struggle for independence and had been known for their vigorous advocacy of the unity of the Nigerian nation – seceded and declared their land an independent country they called The Republic of Biafra. Declaring her intention to suppress what she called an internal rebellion and to reintegrate Biafra into the larger polity, Nigeria attacked Biafra.

The Nigeria-Biafra war raged for 30 months – from July 6, 1967 to January 15, 1970

Because Biafra was ill prepared for it, the war was largely a lopsided affair. The ill-fed and ill-equipped Biafran army of volunteers and conscripts could not outlast the better equipped professional army of Nigeria which also got crucial military aid from Britain, the then USSR and Egypt. The war years were a time of unimaginable hardship and suffering for Biafrans. It is estimated that one million Biafrans perished.  In addition to those who succumbed to the carnage of the warfront, a large percentage of the dead were Biafran civilians – mostly children – who died from malnutrition. In the end after waging a fierce and gallant struggle in defence of the homeland – against overwhelming odds – an exhausted Biafra was forced to capitulate in January 1970.

Since GSSA was in Biafra, the school had been closed unceremoniously and the students sent home within days of the outbreak of the Nigeria-Biafra war in July 1967. For a while during the war, GSSA was a war front. But the Nigerians eventually got the upper hand and seized the town of Afikpo and the school itself. They made the school an army barracks. Indeed the school remained an army barracks – and out of bounds to students and masters – until 1973, some 3 years after the war ended.

For the school the war and its aftermath were an unmitigated disaster.

In the aftermath of the war, there was no postwar reconstruction in Biafra. This notwithstanding, the school reopened in Afikpo in 1973 as a boarding school the way it had been before the war.

Initially, the school seemed to thrive for a few years thanks to the resourcefulness and force of personality of a most able and devoted principal. Then there followed a prolonged period of recurrent political upheavals provoked by the creation of ever smaller states, each less able than its predecessor to cater to the needs of the school. To make matters worse, political conflicts were common between localities within the state as well as between a triumphant and victorious Federal Nigerian Government and the hapless vanquished people of the now defunct state of Biafra who were duly neglected, marginalized politically and economically and left to wallow in misery.

The unfortunate result of these sad developments was first gross underfunding, followed by very little or no funding, of schools in the Biafran part of Nigeria. For GSSA as for other schools in Biafra, the result was disastrous setting the stage for a period of inexorable decline that continued until 2009 when the alumni intervened, determined to reverse the decline. As a result of these developments, the residential parts of the school or boarding houses were closed down and the school was made a day school, an inauspicious turning point that inevitably spelt the breakdown of the culture of discipline that underpinned much of the school’s celebrated success in fulfilling her mission.

With the abandonment of the dormitories which made up more than half the buildings in the school, deterioration and decay set in. Because of lack of funding, the buildings were not maintained. Leaks in roofs were not repaired. Rain water, the agent of decay, entered the buildings and damaged the structures over time. The decay has continued for some 30 years.

In the meantime, the classrooms were still being used for day school. The business of educating young minds continued. But the quality of the teaching and the education imparted were no longer world class. The tradition of excellence and the culture of discipline fostered by the school when it was a boarding school in the prewar period and in the few years after the 1973 return to Afikpo, were missing. These had been critical ingredients to the school’s success and required that the school be a boarding school.

Recently, the deterioration and decay infected two crucial buildings on campus namely the main classroom block and the examination hall. These buildings were close to being condemned as unsafe for students. The loss of these buildings would have meant the closure and death of the school. It was at this juncture that the alumni, mostly but not exclusively those resident in the United States, intervened. They first provided reliable sources of water for the school and then rebuilt and restored those two crucial buildings thus saving the school from closure and extinction.  Their work is still not done. Most of the buildings on campus including especially the residential houses (i.e. student hostels or dormitories) are still either severely dilapidated or completely in ruins. Many do not have roofs. Besides we have to equip the buildings, stock up the library with books, provide power, staff the school and upgrade the quality of learning through a video learning initiative which will provide computers and internet facilities for access to vast troves of lessons on the internet.

While the full negative effects of the loss of GSSA or its operation in less than its optimal state are unknowable, what is known is that the positive effects of a good education often exceed what can be predicted, imagined or foreseen. Consider, for instance, the fact that the chain of events that resulted in the election of the first African American President of the United States started with the education of an erstwhile Kenyan goat-herd in a “leadership academy” like GSSA.  The alumni of GSSA are therefore determined that the school must be restored completely so that it is able once again to produce the caliber of alumni it is capable of producing and that it had produced in the past.  We, the alumni of GSSA are determined to rewrite the story of GSSA completely so that it does not end with a headline such as: “The triumph of tragedy over success” The alumni are resolved to ensure that the story of GSSA will not be allowed to end because of a tragic accident of history. This second scenario envisions the story of the post war period up till recently as a chapter – a dark sad chapter nonetheless but only a chapter – in what should be a long and running narrative, rather than the last word in a sad tale dominated – and terminated – by tragedy.However, our pockets are not deep enough to rebuild the school completely by ourselves. But rebuild the school we must. We are therefore looking for people of goodwill who will sponsor and support our program of complete reconstruction and restoration of our alma mater so that she can continue her mission of educating teenagers and preparing them to become future doctors, engineers, architects, educators, scientists, lawyers, judges, clergymen, entrepreneurs,  professionals of all types, authors, men of learning, businessmen, diplomats; in short well educated men who will provide good and visionary leadership in all spheres of life.