Government College Umuahia

In 1927 the British Colonial Government in Lagos started three new secondary schools for boys, namely a school in Ibadan (Government College, Ibadan), in Zaria (now Barewa College) and in Umuahia (Government College Umuahia). King's College, Lagos had started twenty years earlier in 1909. These four schools were modeled after the famous English public schools – Eton and Harrow. The Queen's College, Lagos (for girls) had opened that year. The onus for starting the Government College Umuahia fell on an English educator, mathematician, and Anglican priest, the Rev. Robert Fisher who had been a teacher at the Achimota College, Accra, and education administrator in the Gold Coast, now Ghana. He served as the first principal of the Government College Umuahia from 1929-1939.

Robert Fisher arrived in Umuahia in 1927 and acquired land of 10 square miles (26 km²). On January 29, 1929 he opened the gates of the school to 25 students drawn from all parts of Nigeria and West Africa, but with catchment in Eastern Nigeria, and the Southern Cameroons. The Government College Umuahia began in 1929 as a teacher training institute and in 1930, converted to a secondary school. Fisher ran this school until 1939 when, at the start of the Second World War, he left for England on retirement and was replaced by W. N. Tolfree. The school was closed thereafter, and for three years it was used as a Prisoner of War camp for detaining German and Italian prisoners captured in Cameroon by the British and the students and staff were suddenly dispersed to King's College, Lagos and to other mission schools east of the Niger.[2]

GCU has drawn students from among the best performing from Nigeria and Southern Cameroons.[3] It has classrooms and laboratories. Its students consistently achieve high scores in exam results at SSCE, O-Level and A-Level. All students complete core courses in the Arts and Sciences.

Students participate in sports like cricket, hockey, handball and football There are two standard fields (the Upper and Lower fields), cricket pavilions, seven lawn tennis courts, basketball court; and Olympic-size track field. It has a nine-hole golf course; a botanical garden, and an aquarium.

The English artist and archeologist, Kenneth C. Murray, pioneered modern art education in Nigeria when he left Balliol College, Oxford and arrived Nigeria in 1927 to teach art. He taught art at the Government College Umuahia from 1933-1939 and started the Art Gallery which had in its collection, the works of C.C. Ibeto, Uthman Ibrahim, and the early charcoal drawings of Ben Enwonwu. The gallery was looted and destroyed during the Nigerian-Biafra civil war (1967–70), when the school was closed to serve as the General Staff Headquarters of the secessionist Republic of Biafra. K.C. Murray himself had left Umuahia in 1939 to become Director/Surveyor of Nigerian Antiquities, and the editor of the Nigeria Magazine from work he did at Umuahia.

The Government College Umuahia also had an Officer Cadet Corps that offered instruction camps in field drills, and adventure training. It produced professionally trained military officers before the Nigerian civil war including General George Kurubo, first Southern Nigerian to be trained at Sandhurst and first Nigerian Chief of the Nigerian Air Force; General Alex Madiebo, General Officer Commanding the defunct Biafran Army, General Patrick Anwunah, Tony Eze, Tim Onwuatuegwu, C.C. Emelifonwu, Ibanga Ekanem, August Okpe, Col. (Dr.)Bassey Inyang, etc.

Government College Umuahia also produces an unusual high number of literary elite who influenced African Literature more than any other educational institution.[4]

The Government Colleges had first class facilities; the best teachers, and a place like the Government College Umuahia had the feel of a typical English environment. In some ways, it was unsustainable, given that the students were socialized in enclosures that seemed generally to overlook the general condition of the rest of the country. But it was a great thing happening at Umuahia and such other places; it only needed, rather than its destruction, an upgrade of the standards found in these places in other places. In any case, the Government College Umuahia, like its sister schools soon came to suffer the Nigerian malaise. GCU’s quality declined substantially over the past 40 – 45 years. The decline has its roots in the Nigeria – Biafra civil war which was fought between 1967 – 1970. The school was closed for the period of the war, and afterwards things went progressively worse. The period after the war was one of desperation, deprivation and dearth of resources. The military administration eventually took over schools; discipline and merit were disregarded. These developments had grave implications for staff, students and the standards the school kept pre-war. Entry standards were no longer adhered to for all sorts of reasons. Nothing was spared, from library to laboratories, classrooms, dormitories, sports pitches, the well manicured lawns and the paved roads. Starting from the mid-1980s, funding for such places as Umuahia dried up. The austerity measures, and the IMF rules, had as one of its great victims, such public schools; proper funding of public education, and for schools like GCU that once had special government funding became the first victims. The creation of states also reduced its orbit, as each state that inherited the school increasingly reduced it, from its international and national status, to provincial. Thus a great school was brought to its knees by policies of administrations, often the military administrations that deployed it to catchment, rather than to enduring quality.[5]

For years, Umuahian old boys – alumni of the school – had tried, out of great nostalgia to keep important aspects of the school going, and had often pressured the governments, to carry out certain functions with regards to the school. With its array of distinguished "old boys" the Government College Umuahia alumni could do this, but only to a limited scope. Determined to put an end to the decline and restore the school to its excellence, the Old Boys’ Association (GCUOBA) worldwide approached the government to hand back the school to it to restructure, fund and manage in a sustainable way.[6] On December 22, 2014 (after several attempts by the old boys) a Deed of Trust was signed with the Abia State government, thereby vesting the Trust with all legal interests, rights and power pertaining to ownership, management, operation, control and funding of Government College Umuahia. The Trust is duly registered, in line with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Reverend Robert Fisher, founding Principal of the Government College, had, at the end of the civil war in Nigeria, sold his earthly possessions, including his home in England, moved into a nursing home with his wife, and willed the money to the Government College Umuahia. This is the symbolic seed to the Trust, and through the Robert Fisher Trust Foundation, the old boys aims to demonstrate a commitment to the restoration of the school. It is the dream of Umuahians that other children will have the benefit of an Umuahian education; one of the great foundations of their lives of numerous achievers.[7]

• Ben Enwonwu, modernist sculptor/Painter, Winner, Nigerian National Order of Merit Winner
• Dr. Jaja Wachukwu, lawyer, Nigeria's first Speaker of the House of Representatives and First Republic Foreign Minister
• Dr. Okoi Arikpo, anthropologist and Nigeria's Foreign Minister (1967–75)
• Dr. E. M. L. Endeley, former premier of Southern Cameroon
• Nfon Victor Mukete, Nigerian first republic Minister for Information, and prominent Cameroonian politician
• Dr. J.N Okekpe, medical doctor from the Eastern Region
• Prof. Bede Okigbo
• Prof. Kelsey Harrison, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and former vice-chancellor of University of Port Harcourt, Winner, Nigerian National Order of Merit Winner
• Prof. E.J. Alagoa, Distinguished professor of History at the University of Port Harcourt. Pro-Chancellor of Niger Delta University, Nigerian National Order of Merit.
• Prof. Donald E.U. Ekong, was the first Vice Chancellor of University of the Gambia, and University of Port Harcourt
• Alabo (Prof) Dagogo M.J. Fubara
• Namsey Enoh, Pharmacist, Lawyer, Sportsman, Captain of the Nigerian National Cricket & Hockey teams
• Professor Fidelis N Udeh, Neuro-Surgeon/Professor of Medicine
• Chinua Achebe, writer, novelist, first winner of the Nigerian National Order of Merit
• Elechi Amadi, novelist, mathematician, surveyor, soldier, public administrator
• George Kurubo, Brigadier, and first Nigerian Chief of the Nigerian Air Force
• Alex Madiebo, General, Artillery officer, and General Officer Commanding the Army of the defunct Republic of Biafra
• Chike Momah, novelist/United Nations Librarian
• Gabriel Okara, poet
• Obi Nwakanma, poet & Journalist
• Chukwuemeka Ike, novelist, university administrator, Winner, Nigerian National Order of Merit
• Ken Saro-Wiwa, writer, environmental rights activist
• Chukwuedo Nwokolo, medical doctor/Professor of Medicine, Winner, Nigerian National Order of Merit
• Nimi Briggs, Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt
• INC Aniebo, novelist, soldier
• Christopher Okigbo, poet/ publisher
• Dr. Ikechukwu Azuonye, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist
• Mr. M.E.P Udebiuwa, Permanent Secretary
• Mr. Austin Ugwumba, Permanent Secretary/Head of the Civil Service Defunct Republic of Biafra
• Mr. Vincent Aniagoh, Permanent Secretary/ Deputy Governor of Anambra State
• Dr. Ibi Mboto, renowned Educator
• Dr. Isaac Dagogo Erekosima, renowned educator/First African Principal of the Government College Umuahia
• Mr. S.C. Nwapa Head of Service/Secretary to the government, Imo state
• Dick W. Emuchay, renowned Medical Doctor, educator and administrator
• Okechukwu Nwadiuto Emuchay, Diplomat
• Mr. Peter C. Chigbo, Chairman, Nigerian Stock Exchange
• Prof. Ephraim E. Okon, Professor of Electrical Engineering/Permanent Secretary
• Dr. Tim Obiaga, Scientist/Director-General National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI)
• Kelechi Amadi-Obi, Lawyer/painter/photographer
• Uche James-Iroha, Sculptor/photographer
• Chike C. Nwoffiah, Filmmaker/director
• Bob Ejike, Nollywood actor/director
• Jide Obi, Lawyer/pop star
• Laz Ekwueme, Actor, Musicologist/Professor of Music, Winner, Nigerian National Order of Merit
• Ralph Opara, Broadcaster
• Ernest Okonkwo, Broadcaster
• N.U. Akpan, Secretary of Government Eastern Nigeria/Biafra
• Dr. Sam Imoke, Minister for education, Eastern Nigeria
• Dr. G.C. Mbanugo, renowned Medical Doctor/Politician/ Chairman Eastern Nigerian Committee of the defunct NCNC
• Dr. Akpabio, Minister for Health, Eastern Nigeria
• Mr. John Nwodo, First republic Minister, Eastern Nigeria
• G.K.J Amachree, solicitor-General of Nigeria/ Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
• B.O.N. Eluwah, writer, public servant, politician/Secretary-General the Igbo Federal Union
• Fred Anyiam Journalist/ politician
• M.C.K. Ajuluchukwu Journalist/ politician
• Dr. J.O.J. Okezie, first republic Minister of Health
• G.I.C. Eneli, Diplomat, industrialist, late Chairman/Founder GICEN Technologies
• Dr. Ishmael Igbani, second republic Minister of Industries, National Electoral Commissioner, INEC
• Dr. Chu Okongwu, former minister for national planning/ oil Minister
• Dr. Edmund Daukoru, Oil Minister/ Group MD, NNPC
• Lawrence A.O Amu, Group MD, NNPC
• Odoliyi Lolomari, Chairman African Petroleum/Group MD, NNPC
• Chamberlain Oyibo, Group MD, NNPC
• Ben Osuno, OPEC Governor
• Dr. Edward Chukukere, Nigeria's first Mettalurgist
• Dr. Mofia T. Akobo, Nigeria's first Minister for Petroleum
• Dr. Offia Nwali, Second Republic Senator and educator
• Peter Katjavivi, Diplomat & former SWAPO Rep/Vice-Chancellor, University of Namibia/Namibia's Ambassador to the EU & Germany
• Mr. F.I. Ajumogogbia, Scientist/UNESCO Director & Chief of Mission
• Jerry Enyeazu, Chairman, Nigerian Sports Commission/ Renowned Sports administrator
• Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, medical doctor and Nigeria's Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment
• Emeka Chijioke Uche, Engineer/ Academic
• Uche Orji, Managing Director & Chief Executive Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority
• Chudi Ojukwu, Director at the Nigerian Law School Abuja and Leading Electric Power Sector Reform Specialist in Africa

Renowned academics like Prof. M.A.B Ogakwu (medicine), Dr. Odi Anasi (medicine), Chukwuedu Nwokolo (medicine), Gaius Igboeli (Agriculture), Paul Chuke (Neurology), Wilfred Chukudebelu (Medicine), Benjamin Anyanwu (Neurologist and Stroke Specialist), Bassey Andah (Archeologist/Anthropologist), Donald Ekong (Chemistry), Eugene Arene (Chemistry), Fidelis Udeh (Medicine/Neuroscience), Nwachukwu Azikiwe (Oncology Hematologist), J.C. Ebie (Neuropsychiatry), Alabo (Professor) Dagogo M.J. Fubara (Geodesy); D.U.U. Okali (Forestry), Domingo Okorie (Agriculture) ex governors Commodore Amadi Ikwechegh, Commodore Joe Aneke (military), Achike Udenwa (Imo) and Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia); Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo (Enugu), Legal luminaries like Judge Charles Daddy Onyeama (judge of the World court), Justice Anthony Aniagolu (Supreme Court), Justice Okay Achike (Supreme Court), Attorney Lucius Nwosu (SAN),Chikara Uche Echeme (Attorney), Mba Ndubuisi John (Administrator), Idah Peterside(Super Eagle Keeper)

• The Fisher Educational Development Trust’s Website
• Government College Umuahia, Old Boys website

• The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays (2009) - Chinua Achebe
• THERE WAS A COLLEGE: INTRODUCING THE UMUAHIAN: A GOLDEN JUBILEE PUBLICATION, ed CHINUA ACHEBE - Terri Ochiagha
• The Umuahian: A golden jubilee Edition ed Chinua Achebe (Umuahia: Government College, Umuahia Old Boys' Association 1979)
• Achebe and Friends at Umuahia: The Making of a Literary Elite (2015) - Terri Ochiagha
• Christopher Okigbo, 1930-67: Thirsting for Sunlight (2010) - Obi Nwakanma
• The Shining Ones: THE UMUAHIA SCHOOL DAYS OF OBINNA OKOYE - Chike Momah
• The African Writers' Handbook - James Gibbs, Jack Mapanje
• Early Nigerian literature - Bernth Lindfors