CAPOSTO Alumni President – General Berates FG Over Poor Infrastructures In Schools

In this Interview with Treasure Newspaper, Dr Adekunle Ojo, SAN, the President – General, Christ Apostolic Church Grammar School, Efon Alaaye speaks on the recently concluded 63rd Founders Day Anniversary, the 1st Global Re-Union Festival and on the Crusade organised by his Alumni Association and held at the premises of his Alma Mata in Efon Alaaye, Ekiti State.

Excerpts: Sir, for the purpose of records, let me get to meet you.
I am Dr Adekunle Ojo, SAN, I am the President – General of the CAPOSTO Alumni Association. CAPOSTO is based in Efon Alaaye. The full meaning of CAPOSTO is Christ Apostolic Church Grammar School, Efon Alaaye.

Now, you have just ended the 63rd Re-Union of the Institution, what can you say about the series of programmes that you had so far. How can you assess them?

We give glory to God. Ordinarily, by my background, I am not supposed to evaluate myself. But for the purposes of what we are doing presently. We thank God because, by and large, the programme was indeed a huge success and a masterpiece. In fact, the content reflected the first of its kind.

We merged two things together. The first is the 63rd Founders Day Anniversary and the 1st Global Re-Union Festival.
We have not had this kind before. And we are 63 this year. It’s a plus that we are rounding up now.

We started with Press Conference which was widely circulated amongst the press and social media networks. Some people who never heard about CAPOSTO before, they now know what CAPOSTO and where CAPOSTO is. They now know more about CAC Grammar School, Efon Alaaye.

We started by the main programs with a career talk for the students and I was more than elated with the value and depth of the questions asked by the students after the career talk. The theme for the career talk was “Career Choice Is About Creating Yourself’ and we dealt with what we call “Dream Big And Become Who You Believe”. The other topic was “Entrepreneurship: The Gate Way To Self Sufficiency”. We also looked at “Shaping Your Life To Fit Into The Digital World’.

So, apparently, these are things that the children needs. They need to note that, Education is very good and important. That education is not a scam. One of the other topics was that “Get As Much Education, Get As Much Training As You Can”.
This is because the volume of their education will determine whether they will fit into their choice of career or not.

You can’t become a lawyer except you have LLB and you have a BL.

You must study to get it. And in all fairness, it was a wonderful one.

We invited one other school. We asked them to bring at least five students and the choice of arrays of speakers was quite wonderful.
Some joined us from abroad. Three others from Nigeria here.

In the afternoon of the first day, we had a Novelty Match in honour of a man who led the school in 1965 and he is always with us at all times to attend our programmes. That is Prince Ade Agbaje. That’s how it should be. Honour people when they are still alive. And in the evening of the first day, we had the day one of our crusade. Don’t forget we started as a mission school and we hold firmly to our root, Christ the Lord and we believe in the great Commission.

The second day was the festival properly. We gathered. All sets came in the pitch under their respective canopies with their foods, and their drinks for the festival. A beauty to behold. It was time for a very healthy rivalry among the active sets. Sets tried to outdo the other in arrangement, cohesion and dressing. It was very competitive. People came in with special dresses and it was a very great wonderful time together.

For me, the anniversary talk was wonderfully presented by Professor Adio Folayan, who happens to be the Dean of the Faculty of the Health Sciences at the Joseph Ayodele University, Ikeji Arakeji in Osun State.
In the evening again, we had the second day of the crusade, which was well attended.

We also had the Gala Night well attended. Alumnus from 1965 up to 2022 participated in all the activities and we had the opportunity of reminiscing.

Then, the last day, which is today, we had the founders day Thanksgiving.

People came with nice dresses. The icing on the cake is the third day of the crusade which we just concluded few minutes back. In attendance was the General Evangelist of Christ Apostolic Church Worldwide, Prophet Hezekiah Oladeji who ministered and served as our revivalist.
We have been able to achieve many things. We made children know that, CAPOSTO is bigger than what they think about. That it is a brand that they too can be proud of. We want the whole world know and acknowledge our brand called CAPOSTO. And I think by and large, we have been able to send that message across.

We also have the representatives of the government in our midst and one of the things we canvassed was that, yes, if they cannot give us CAPOSTO back.

We told them, that even if they cannot give the School back to its founders, at least, they should make it a legacy Institution. Making it a legacy institution will make the School conform with the values of its founders who founded it.

Also, I have not heard of it before, that an Alumni Association organises a crusade. I am yet to know of anyone like that. So, basically for me. It is a plus. It is a first of its kind and we thank God for making it a success.
At a point, people never believe that we would pull through but God crowned the agenda with success. The three day crusades were well attended.

So, how often do you mean to replicate this crusade aspect in subsequent times?

Well, the crusade aspect, by the Grace of God, by my personal thinking, it could be bi-annual. Perhaps next year can feature a different program with similar aim and objectives.

However, the crusade may or may not take place in 2024, but we would hearken to the Holy Spirit. It will, definitely, come up during our 65th Anniversary in 2025.
This is because it’s really about harvesting souls for Christ and the number of people that came out to give their lives to Christ during the last night of the crusade made me happy.

And I know that Heaven will be happy that we organised the crusade. Look at the adults and the students, they came out to give their lives to Christ. We had this opportunity last in the days of Prophet Obadare, though it was not within any school compound.

This is the first time that such is happening within a school compound and it was organized by the CAPOSTO Alumni Association. I have not heard of it before and I think I am personally elated with what has happened.

So, in all of the activities, what can you say was the hallmark?
Well, we have seen the hand of God. The hand of God was quite great in our midst. And just like our theme “Transforming CAPOSTO Back To The Days Of Distinction”.

So, basically it was an opportunity to retrace our school back to those days of distinction all over again. That is one point that I want you to take along.

Lest I forget, we also commissioned projects. We commissioned like two projects. We commissioned the new fence which beautified the school and secures it. We have removed all those bushes, debris that used to cover the school from been seen from the outside. And God has used us to strengthened the security of the school.

The school library was refurbished, renovated and handed over back to the school.
These are hallmarks of events marking the anniversary and we are proud of our dear school and the alumnus.

The Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji is an Alumni of this school, what has been his involvement in ensuring that he imparted positively on the school?

The number one citizen of this State is the Governor and as far as I am concerned, he is also the number one citizen / Alumni member of CAPOSTO because no other person in the school has ever become the Governor of a State before.

Tomorrow, we may have a President. By then such a person will overtake him as the first. Having said that much, we are waiting for an opportunity. We have written to him on a few occasions. We are yet to get responses from him. We are hoping to have an interaction with him soon. Beyond that, we are not asking him to give to us what he will not give to other schools or what we do not deserve.

But we will create an opportunity to present ourselves and school for him to see all over again, whether we deserve whatever we are asking for or not.

And when he sees that we deserve it, then, he will do it for us. But we are not asking for anything out of ordinary. We are asking only for our dues.

Being our Governor, he shouldn’t be seen as being unduly biased or influencing things to come to CAPOSTO at the expense of others. But then, we want to have a CAPOSTO where our own wards will be the best, not only in Nigeria but in the entire world.

Finally, Sir, what is going to be your message, your specific message to the Alumni members throughout the world and to the current students of the school?
Well, I would say that, to the Alumni Associations throughout the world, our members and even those who are not part of us, the government can only try. This is because government cannot give all, there purses are bit lean. But apparently, we need to come around, when we needed water to drink, when we were thirsty, the school offered us water to drink. So, apparently, this is an opportunity to give back and we shouldn’t shy away from that reality.

And to the students, it is a great grace on their lives that you see people coming back, to say we are giving back to our school. It is not an everyday occurrence. They should make the best use of the facilities built or renovated by the Alumni Association.

But for us, it has become an everytime occurrence. But apparently, they should use the facilities well and capitalized on it to move forward. They should excel. They should see education as the major way of ending poverty in their lives and in the lives of their parents.

As the National President, I want you to use this opportunity to speak, and advise the Governor of the State, the State Government and even the President of the Country on some key issues that you think it’s necessary.
Yes, I will talk on those two issues. Firstly, I will talk about the deplorable state of infrastructures in the school and the need to work them out.

On the second one, I will be talking about the curriculum. Currently, the type of education that the students are getting cannot meet the needs of the people. Then we should re-adjust it . In all honesty, there is nothing wrong in teaching them to know that, look, we have mineral resources in Nigeria.

Give them a course that from there, they can grow up and become what they should become.

See, if your education is no longer beneficial to the people, because if it is not beneficial the essence of education will be defeated.
I wished that the government in the State and in the entire Country will look at that. Our education in Nigeria as we speak now has nothing to do with the development of the people. It is not imparting effectively and sufficiently on what God has given to us.

What God has endowed us with. I am not saying that everybody should become a mineral resources expert. I am not saying everybody should become a lawyer. I am not saying everybody should become a sports person. But then, these are areas that we can really take advantage of, to develop the nation and the future of our kids.

So many people who should have become high flyers in the society today, that passed through some of these schools, they are not able to walk tall, talkless of flying because they have no helpers . They have nobody to push them through. Even the education that they went through, was as if it is everybody’s education and not theirs. And if it everybody’s education, then, we are not getting it right.

And lastly, the level of discipline in schools now is abysmal. It is discouraging because apparently the students have lost it.
Morals needs to come back . I am aware that in some of our places, in some of the schools, especially in Ekiti State . You dare not even beat a child. And the bible says that, spare the rod, spoil the child .

So I think we shouldn’t interfere that much. The teachers should be able to ensure the level of punishments of students should be commensurate with the level of offence and it must not be out of ordinary. It must not be out of place but beyond that, discipline is highly important. And the reason we are able to get where we got to today, is because we had teachers who disciplined us.

Ogboja who was our principal used to say that, ‘determination is success’. He encouraged us to be determined and one way he encouraged us was that, he made sure that we were disciplined to conform to ideals of future leadership.

Students should read their books when they should. They should equally do what they need to do at the right time. Not that they will be gallivanting about. If somebody wants to become a Mathematician in life, all he needs to do is to attend maths coaching class during the holiday. It would be easier to attain his goal than him going about visiting people during holidays. How will such a person becomes a Mathematician? It will become practically impossible.
So I think we need to start looking at some of those areas to help the students.