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#尼日利亚
Saving the citadel: Why King’s College needs the old boys...
原文原文 / Original TextOn King’s College Road, Lagos Island, a wrought-iron gate still bears the crest of an institution that once set the gold standard for secondary education in Nigeria. Founded in 1909, King’s College (KCL) was built to produce the country’s administrators, professionals and leaders. It succeeded: its alumni include elder statesman Femi Okunnu, the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Ambassador Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, and financier Adebayo Ogunlesi, alongside generations of judges, generals and indust
Today’s campus tells a different story. Roofs leak, hostel plumbing has failed, laboratories sit dark and stripped of equipment, and toilet blocks are described by students and staff as unfit for use.
This gap between what King’s College was and what it has become has pushed its Old Boys’ Association (KCOBA) into a controversial, but its defenders argue, necessary step over a 35-year concession agreement with the federal government to rebuild and professionally manage the school.
Alumni visiting in recent years have returned with the same grim reports of collapsed ceilings, abandoned sanitation, gutted science laboratories and classrooms untouched by renovation for decades, even as government subventions to unity schools remain grossly inadequate.
Beyond the physical decay lies a deeper rot. Old boys and parents allege widespread indiscipline, including drug abuse on campus, a stark reversal for a school once synonymous with rigorous character formation.
Part of the school’s Victoria Island annex, a land belonging to King’s College, is reportedly now used as a public car park, exposing students to traffic and security risks. Perhaps most damaging, many allege that admission slots hitherto meant to be won purely through the National Common Entrance Examination have quietly become tradable for money or connections, a betrayal of the school’s founding purpose.
Federal funding is stretched across more than a hundred unity colleges, and King’s College hasn’t been spared the chronic underfunding of public secondary education.
Made up of men who now lead banks, courts, corporations and ministries, the association concluded that only by bringing its own resources and expertise to bear could the school’s fortunes change within their lifetimes. The resulting arrangement, formalised after months of negotiation and announced via a federal handover letter in September, is a public-private partnership (PPP), and not a sale.
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来源：Daily Trust Nigeria (https://dailytrust.com/)
原文链接：https://dailytrust.com/saving-the-citadel-why-kings-college-needs-the-old-boys-now/
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发表于 2026-9-22 12:17:03