100 years of King’s College, Lagos

Being an excerpt from the book, Floreat Collegium: 100 Years of King’s College, Lagos

If 1920 was a major milestone in the history of sports at the college, the next five decades were the years of expansion in the number of games introduced, competitions organised, equipment acquired and infrastructure provided to enhance sporting activities.

The years between 1920 and 1970 can be described as the golden era of sports in King’s College. Pupils broke records in the school and the country, and the college joined other pioneer institutions in establishing the Amateur Athletic Association of Nigeria in 1944. There were inter house-house competitions in all four major sports – athletics, cricket, football and hockey – but the inter-house athletic competition was one of the biggest events in the college’s sporting calendar.

Friendly and competitive matches with other secondary schools within and outside Lagos were regular features in the school’s annual sports calendar, especially in the big four (athletics, cricket, football and hockey). In addition to inter-school competitions within Nigeria, the school had a long history of international competitions. There were sports exchange programmes with Achimota College in Accra, Ghana and the Lycée Benhazin in Benin Republic.

During the golden era, the college rewarded excellence in sports just as it recognised excellence in academics.   Two main forms of reward were in place in those days: the special diet and school colours.

Reminiscences

King’s College was adept at bringing out the best in everyone who passed through its doors, regardless of their abilities and talents. Perhaps for the purpose of record, we should acknowledge that CMS Grammar School had been founded 50 years earlier (1859) and that St Gregory’s College followed in 1928. As for Barewa College, its mission was as blunt as it was forthright: “To educate the children of rulers (emirs) of the north.’ Hence its pupils’ roll-call was a recitation of princes of the various emirates with a few exceptions, restricted to members of their extended families and sons of district heads.

This was in sharp contrast to King’s College whose doors were wide open to whoever merited admission through a transparent selection process. It was therefore only a matter of time for the vision and philosophy to crystallise into clearly defined aspirations, which were elegantly captured in the school song, “Service to the living, honour to our dead”.

Entrance examination results for the college were of national importance, and the main newspapers of the time, such as The Daily Times, Daily Service and West African Pilots, published a full list of successful candidates. The results were also published in the federal gazette. Candidates who ranked in the first to fourth positions were given full scholarship – that is board and tuition. The next six were given tuition scholarships only.

Life at the college was good. The facilities were good and encouraging, and all the masters, expatriates and Nigerians, were graduates. Everyone was encouraged to play sports. You could join the cadets and be disciplined as if you were in the military. You could be democratically elected into the Students’ Representative Council, a body entrusted with certain functions by the school authorities.

Over the years, King’s College pupils participated in programmes in other countries, and one of such was the annual World Youth Forum, staged in the United States from 1947 to 1972. The first World Youth Forum drew pupils from the Americas, but it gradually broadened to include Europe, Asia and, as African countries began gaining independence, Africa. Nigeria’s first participation in the forum was in 1955, some years before independence. Of the 17 times Nigeria participated in the forum, King’s College produced the delegates five times: Hope Allison (1959), Nsa Harrison (1963), Segun Bucknor (1965), Jacob Akindele (1967) and Nurein Etamesor (1968). This was a remarkable achievement as each delegate was the best selected through a nationwide essay competition and a rigorous interview.

An attempt can therefore be made to show in the words of the school anthem, what they teach us in college. The first lesson learned is definitely merit, since there is a pervasive aspect of college life from the admission process through every stage of school life. The Puritan work ethic reflects in the phrase as we forge ahead, implying a continuous struggle rather than awaiting windfalls from the past or lessening one’s efforts. But merit must be learned and earned, as shown by the words ‘only by obedience may you learn to rule.’

Not only that, pupils are nurtured in the classrooms, learning to cherish chivalry and truth in an atmosphere of cultured discipline, aptly illustrated by the rare incidents of any real abuse of the fagging system, despite the inventiveness of the second-year pupils. There is also the pressure to compete and win, but by fair means: “If you fail to look closely, seek the reason why; you have the power to conquer, if only you try”, while “this shall be our watchword, always play the game”. In the spirit of British conceit that Napoleon was defeated on the playing fields of Eton, competitiveness through sports is strongly endorsed at King’s College, but with a caveat of learning “to pull together, each one with the rest,/Playing up and striving, each to do his best’’.

The college’s success story also derives from ingrained lessons on brotherhood, since “though of many nations we will not forget/that we are all brothers with a common debt.’’ Such inculcation of brotherhood is of primary relevance not only to Nigeria with its multiplicity of tribal divisions but indeed to a worthwhile human existence. King’s College had always been an internationalised institution, and its pupils are typically quite detribalised, a rare feat in Nigeria. Not only were some masters from other nations, but pupils also had varied backgrounds within and outside Nigeria.

A range from cosmopolitan Lagos to hinterlands of the east, west, and middle belt was augmented by other nationals. At least one Ghanaian, Herbert Mills, was in the first set of pupils, setting the stage for many compatriots and others from Sierra Leone, Togo, Benin and the Southern Cameroon as well as the occasional Asian or European.