146th Founders’ Day: May the Methodist Church of Nigeria Not Happen to You

It’s our Founder’s Day. But we the old boys of Methodist Boys High School, Lagos are sad with our heads bowed in sober reflection, and our spirits roused to fight Methodist Church Nigeria to a standstill on the matter of our school property.

14th of March is the Founder’s Day of Nigeria’s second secondary and my alma mater, the prestigious Methodist Boys High School, Lagos. Founded in 1878 by white missionaries who used religion (evangelization) to advance colonialism and colonial education, MBHS, Lagos is the training ground and “Land of our birth” of generations of distinguished Nigerians and some of the country’s finest, including the country’s first president, Dr Nnamdi Azikwe. The Founder’s Day of MBHS, Lagos is usually a day to look forward to as old boys gather from all over the world to remember and celebrate the founders of the school and its achievements over the years.

Today is the 146th Founder’s Day, but we the old boys shall not be gathered to celebrate but to constitute a War Council to prosecute a fight brought to our doorsteps by the present leadership of Methodist Church Nigeria, the supposed proprietor of our alma mater. What we’re fighting is the betrayal of the ideas that founded our school and the satanic greed of the Methodist Church, which manifest in the way and manner the church has treated the school over the years.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
For those who know (and if you didn’t know, you should know), Methodist Boys High School, Lagos used to be on Broad Street, Lagos until Methodist Church happened to it. The school was founded in 1878 by the Wesleyan Mission. The original land on Broad Street was bounded by Joseph Street, Campos Street, and The Marina; the land housed the school, MBHS, Lagos and comprised the school hall, a dining hall, teachers’ quarters, principal’s house, clinic, bookshop, and library (where yours sincerely cut his teeth in reading to gain education not certificate). The land also housed the sister school, the METHODIST GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL, now relocated to Yaba, Lagos. The Methodist Church Nigeria built its secretariat on the land. The secretariat remains largely unkempt today.

Inspired by capitalist thinking and Judas-styled greed, the church started by leasing the principal’s house and staff car park to NAL MERCHANT. Then it subsequently leased a portion of the land that housed the METHODIST GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL to Shell Petroleum and other companies, when the former was relocated to Yaba. Sadly, the incomes derived from the sale/lease of this land were never spent on the infrastructural development of the school then, until the government took over the school.

At that point, it had become clear that the remaining land was grossly insufficient for a school of that status and pedigree.

Brig Gen Mobolaji Johnson, first governor of Lagos and old boy of MBHS, Lagos gave the school a vast expanse of land at Ojo, the present site of LASU. In fact, some students of the school were taken to the Ojo site for the foundation laying ceremony in circa 1972. That was before the government ceded the site to Lagos State University. The foundation plaque is still in the present location of the Faculty of Education of the University.

Chief Tunde Fanimokun and Dr Lewis (then Head of Service ) facilitated the Victoria Island land of the school during Gov Lateef Jakande’s administration. And it was the school, MBHS, Lagos, not Methodist Church Nigeria that was gifted a large expanse of land on Victoria Island (then a virgin swathe of land close to the Atlantic Ocean). MBHS, Lagos was government-owned and it remained so until the return to democracy in 1999, when the Lagos State Government under Bola Ahmed Tinubu decided to return all mission schools to their original owners.

At the time of the return of our school to Methodist Church Nigeria, the school had completed its relocation to the Victoria Island site (on Sinari Daranijo Street, close to the Motherless Babies Home and a stone thrown from Zenith Bank’s corporate headquarters).

THE HEART OF THE MATTER
It was only a matter of time before the leadership of the Methodist Church Nigeria decided to fix its greedy and serpentine eyes on the school land on Sinari Daranijo Street. In a repeat of what had happened to Broad Street land, the church began to sell part of the school land. Of course, we all know that the school land is presently the definition of prime real estate. A substantial part of the land was to be carved out and converted to high-rise flats to be shared amongst the top echelon of the church and rented to the rich and powerful.

For the Methodist Boys High School Old Boys Association (MBHSOBA), it is déjà vu and in the real sense, it is the equivalent of thunder striking in the same place twice. Not willing to fight the church, the association entered into dialogue with the church leadership on the need to let the school land be (solely for educational purposes as intended by the government).

The church demanded compensation of another land and money. After months of intensive negotiations, MBHSOBA offered the church land in the Lekki axis and the princely sum (ransom fee) of 30 million naira through a letter dated November 12, 2021; with an additional pledge to assist the church with building on the gifted land.

“The church leaders, perhaps seeing the ease with which the Old Boys agreed to their demands, decided to add a zero to what is essentially the ransom fee. In a November 18, 2021 letter signed by its Secretary of Conference, The Rt Rev (Dr) Michael O. Akinwale, the church claimed that the N30 million sum demanded by Prelate Uche was “a mistake”. That the actual sum is N300 million with an additional N90 million for “the approval plan and other documentation”. At this point, the Old Boys decided to call the bluff of the church.

Consequently, Prelate Uche (Head, Methodist Church Nigeria) gave a directive barring the Old Boys and their Secretariat staff from the school premises. The only concession was to allow the 144th Founders Day Anniversary on March 14 to hold in the school’s D. K. Olukoya Chapel, named after the Old Boy who singlehandedly built and donated the Chapel to the school. It is a wonder why the church would treat the Old Boys who built the large School Centenary Hall, blocks of staff quarters, laboratories, computer laboratory, e-library with dedicated laptops, and many infrastructures in the school, including provision of water and a 60KVA generator, in a manner unbecoming of the followers of Christ.

The MBHS Old Boys have lived up to their learning in the school to be “Gentlemen of Broad Street” and to live the school motto rendered in Latin: ‘Non Sibi, Sed Aliis’ (Not For Us, But For Others).

On the contrary, the church leadership has exhibited a preference for the use of force and a spirit of covetousness which the Bible advises against in Galatians 5. However, they may find out that the meekness of the Old Boys, like that of Jesus Christ, before he chased out the traders from the temple, does not mean stupidity. But this is not a struggle for the MBHS Old Boys alone; since the school is catering to Nigerian citizens, we collectively need to call the Methodist Church bosses to order.” (Quoted part are the words of Owei Lakemfa, a distinguished old boy, former Nigeria Labour Congress Assistant General Secretary, and newspaper columnist).

AT THE MOMENT
The old boys of Methodist Boys High School, Lagos (old and young, home and abroad) wish to state categorically on the school’s 146th Founder’s Day that we are committed to the fight to extricate our school from the hands of pastorprenuers and the betrayers of John Wesley. Over the years, generations of old boys have committed time, energy and resources to making the school a place of pride. The landscape is marked by different projects executed by old boys collectively and as individuals. The beautiful concrete signage that welcomes everyone to the school compound was donated by my set (1995 Set). The set has set up committees to celebrate 30 years of graduation (next year) with plans to give back to the school (we might have to reconsider that within the context. I will tell you why).

In our battle with Methodist Church Nigeria, we want the world to know that the Victoria Island land on which our school stands did not fall from the sky. It was facilitated by the Old Boys of the school led by Chief Fanimokun with the involvement of Dr. Olufemi Lewis, the then Head of Service, Lagos State. And contrary to claims being made by the church, the fact speaks for itself: If the church had facilitated it, the documents would have been in the name of the church and not the school. The Certificate of Occupancy was issued in the name of the school and specifically stated for educational purposes.

Till date, most of the infrastructural developments at Victoria Island have been carried out and more are being carried out by the Old Boys. To be more specific, other than the classroom handed over by the Lagos State Government, all additional developments in the school such as the Chapel, Centenary Hall, blocks of flats (the residence of the teaching staff), etc. were built and provided by the Old Boys. Dr. D.K. Olukoya, General Overseer of MFM single-handedly built the chapel that now bears his name.

The world needs to know that without adding any value to the school since the government returned it, the Methodist Church started the sale of the Victoria Island school land, exactly the way it did with the Broad Street land.
In the ongoing fight with Methodist Church Nigeria, the old boys of Methodist Boys High School, Lagos have only risen to protect what they paid for with their loyalty, connections, gifts, sweat, and personal deprivations all for the benefit of the current and future generations of students of the school in line with the motto of the school – NON SIBI SED ALLIS (NOT FOR US BUT FOR OTHERS); a motto so ingrained in us from our formative years that it moderates our lives every day and everywhere, and also serves as the battle cry for the present fight.

NOTE: I don’t think my set should spend money on the school until the present proprietor changes course and begins to run the school with its founding ideas and discontinue its present capitalist template. With the current school fees regime of MBHS, Lagos, most old boys, and ordinary citizens cannot even afford the school for their wards. The school charges about five hundred thousand naira (N500,000) per term for boarders; that’s a school regularly and heavily subsidized through the infrastructural interventions of old boys. In my six years in that school, I walked its hallowed grounds with the children of the rich and powerful, the poor and ordinary. It was a melting pot of culture, religion, class, and status. Today’s MBHS, Lagos is the exclusive preserve of the rich and powerful. Those are not the founding principles of a school over which I am emotional and to which I am forever grateful and loyal. Therefore, in celebrating 30 years since we left the school, my set must prioritize giving back to the larger society as against giving back to a school in the firm hands of Judases, enlightened capitalists, and the betrayers of the Wesley brothers. Until the running of the school changes for the better, the old boys association and old boys sets should rethink interventions in the school. It’s another way to reset the brains of the so-called proprietor.

Postscript: On the eve of our 146th Founder’s Day, Methodist Boys High School, Lagos Old Boys Association got an injunction against Methodist Church and J. Wesley Investment Company Limited from further construction on all the land belonging to Methodist Boys’ High School, Lagos.

HAPPY 146TH FOUNDER’S DAY TO ALL GENTLEMEN OF BROAD STREET
God bless the Founders of our School!
God bless Methodist Boys High School, Lagos!