Church Missionary Society (CMS) the proprietor of Crowther Memorial College Lokoja has cautioned Crowther Old Students Association against blackmailing the proprietor of the school.
The warning was contained in a statement issued by the Most Revd Emmanuel A.S. Egbunu Diocesan/Proprietor following a press conference held by the association in Lokoja on Tuesday.
He said “We thank God for bringing Crowther Memorial College to its 61st anniversary. That the Church Missionary Society (CMS) which established the oldest secondary school in Nigeria – CMS Grammar School, Bariga, Lagos in 1859, finally got to us is a thing of joy.
“Closer to us, Offa Grammar School was founded in 1943 among similar initiatives by the CMS, besides other missionary initiatives like Holy Rosary College, Idah (1957) preceding our own Crowther Memorial College. Others have since followed.
“Over the years the Alumni of Crowther Memorial College have followed the noble steps of similar associations to “give back” to the institution that shaped them.
“Their efforts have received appropriate commendation by the proprietor, the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Lokoja. The association has always been accorded the honour due to a respectable group of respectable individuals.
“But the present Executive Committee believe they want more, and that on their own terms. And most unfortunately, they have chosen a time of celebration of their 61st anniversary as a time of launching blackmail.
“Setting aside what ought to be decent consultation, surreptitious moves and innuendos have got the better of them. Now they have come to the open, and in a manner that makes one wonder if those who taught them would not disown such conduct! Many who have listened to them will find their outing quite delusional, given the role of such associations.
“Their members went around to harass children in a most unbecoming manner, and we are to believe that this is what they have to show as products of a mission school”
Giving the background of the college , the proprietor said “In normal circumstances, the main role of an Alumni Association is to endeavour to give a little back to the school from the invaluable sundry trainings the Alumni had received. These could be in form of donation of educational materials, renovation of school or honouring the Proprietor.
“Against this backdrop the scurrilous excoriating attack on the Proprietor and the Anglican Mission is not only uncalled for, unwarranted, terribly absurd, inglourious, but evidently gratuitous.
“One would have thought that when the abandoned former hostels that had become dangerous hideouts for drug addicts and rapists were now being put to more positive use, it would attract commendation (where were these old students all those years?)
“Or again, one would also have thought that the goodwill of our mission in releasing our facilities to host government offices – notably Kogi State Teaching Service Commission (TSC) for over two decades, which was finally vacated without any repairs (we had to undertake that) would attract commendation; one would have thought that occupying some of those abandoned buildings with two more educational institutions (when their beloved alma mata got little attention from the government that charged and collected the fees and would not hand over as others had done) would attract applause.
“Did they ever wonder why it became necessary to start another school? No, this set of alumni want the Anglican mission to hands off completely so that they can roll in their own ‘better-funded’ plans! And their grouse is not because the present population of staff and students lack classroom accommodation.
“What an absurdity that all they can see about the place of worship is funerals! Not weddings, or other joyful occasions. It has never been wrong when the school has been hired out for funeral receptions, or when TSC was there with all manner of characters on the premises, etc.
“This speaks volumes.
The Alumni of Crowther Memorial College Lokoja have suddenly become larger than life. Now that they have the billions to throw into the development of their beloved school like no one else has done before (I hope they care to gather more information about the alumni of older mission schools and their relationship with their proprietors).
“A sense of decency prevents us from trading words in the public space. We believe there are enough well-informed old students of CMC who know the boundaries of alumni bodies to give direction to their inadequately informed members — some of whom are merely seeking some refuge for their tattered identities.
“No alumni body anywhere sees it as their mandate to take over proprietorship of their alma mata. They rather seek to give back to enhance what is already there or lacking. They ought to know about decent options than cheap blackmail”.
