King’s College not for sale – Akpata says old boys ready with ₦100bn
King’s College not for sale – Akpata says old boys ready with ₦100bn
Former Nigerian Bar Association president and King’s College old boy, Olumide Akpata, has dismissed claims that the 117-year-old Lagos unity school has been sold to its alumni.
Speaking on Arise News on Thursday morning, he said the King’s College Old Boys’ Association had neither bought the school nor been offered it, and had no interest in purchasing what he called their “nourishing mother.”
Akpata said the association is prepared to raise ₦100 billion to rebuild infrastructure and lift the quality of learning at the college.
He argued that past alumni interventions – renovated blocks, a rebuilt sports field with tartan tracks, generators, an ICT laboratory and a Braille library, quickly fell into disrepair once the old boys stepped back, because the school lacked a culture of maintenance.
He explained that the concession was meant to put those interventions on a formal footing after years of informal support. In today’s Nigeria, he said, the Federal Government has too many competing demands for secondary schools to remain a first-line priority, which is why the old boys asked Abuja to let them raise and manage the funds themselves.
On fears among teachers and parents, Akpata said the Ministry of Education had already engaged the unions and that KCOBA’s door remained open.
He projected a visible turnaround within three years, insisted there was no profit motive, and said anyone benefiting from alleged admission rackets and extra levies would naturally resist an arrangement designed to shut those leakages down.
