Maria Goretti: The walls are coming down

 

But, ‘old girls’ say the walls must rise, now

Story of how the best female Sec school in old Bendel has crashed both in morals, discipline and academic performance, and rescue efforts perfected in PH, writes Ignatius Chukwu

The story of the Italian virgin, Maria Goretti, is a tale of a rise, fall and rise again into sainthood of a 12-year-old girl who stood her ground and died to protect her virtue. The school that was built in her name has cut a tale of rise, fall and efforts to rise again, probably to fall no more. The St. Maria Goretti Girls Grammar School (SMGGGS) was founded in Benin City in March 1959 and became famous in the Midwestern Nigeria for decades especially during the glorious years of its longest serving principal, a reverend sister, 23 years, Henrietta Powers (1961 to 1984). St Maria Goretti Girls Grammar School is today situated on Dumez Road, off Sakpoba Road, Benin-City, Nigeria.

Born in Ancona, Italy, in 1890, Maria Goretti lost her father at the age of nine and worked hard to support her mother but died in the hands of Alexander, son of an old farmhand who insisted on raping or killing her. She was killed in 1902 for resisting Alex, but in July 1950, she was made a saint. Alex, after 27 years in prison, came back to fight for her honour and was rewarded by her canonisation. Nine years later, Goretti re-appeared in Benin City in Nigeria as a college for girls through the painstaking efforts of a touched missionary of the Catholic Mission, a bishop, P.J.Kelly, the first all-girls college in that part of the world.

It was patterned to reflect and recreate the values of discipline, devotion and spiritual resilience of Maria Goretti and went ahead to produce some of the best brains that the nation can boast of today, female professors, judges, bankers, and top women that wield power and influence.

The college waxed in size and strength especially in the days of the Sister (Powers) from the first set of 22 girls that enrolled for the West African Examinations Council in 1965 that scored 91 percent. From the following year, it was 100 percent success all the way every year, and for many years, the best overall best student in WAEC was from Goretti. The name was a mark of academic and moral excellence and many parents sold their last piece of land to get their daughters in there.

Enter the devil, sorry, government. Trouble began in 1980 when free education was introduced and the state government attempted to duplicate Goretti by creating another Goretti and later merged them. Fifty years down the line, Goretti as a school in Nigeria had deteriorated, in fact, so much that it is said to be difficult to get candidates to even write their WAEC there, or get someone who passed JAMB from there.

According to the national president of the Saint Maria Goretti Old Girls Association (SMAGOGA), Victoria Ekhomu, “The general decline in our nation’s standard of education has grossly affected the high moral and academic standard and discipline of this great institution. Fifty years after, St Maria Goretti Girls Grammar School, Benin City, is a shadow of its old self with no boarding facilities. It is now over-populated with inadequate staff. The question now is whether the takeover of schools from the Missionaries is/was a curse or blessing.”

Old Girls say the over-population and inadequate funding comes with lack of controls leading to anybody doing her wish. The school now has over 5,500 students, making it difficult to set tests, and impossible to mark terminal exams. In such situations seats and facilities will not be available, students loiter about and stroll in and out at will, immorality would blossom, cultism could grow roots, sorting would become the order of the day, and discipline would break. Now, the Old Girls say all the values that Goretti died for have been eroded, exam values have crashed and exam malpractice is the new order.

There is great lamentation! The walls of Maria Goretti are coming down, academically, morally and physically. All the things that little Maria stood and died for have been ruined, now stand on their head. All through the day-long event in Port Harcourt, of all the talking by the Old Girls, there was no single grammatical slip or phonetic dislocation, something that is a luxury with ex-students of public schools these days.

A report read at the 18th annual reunion (AGM) indicated that out of a student population of over 5,500 (meaning that the final year students could be almost 1000), the school finds it difficult to get 104 that registered for WAEC at Goretti, The rest had no confidence of passing there and had to seek ‘miracle centres’ to pass mere WAEC. It is worse for university entrance examinations (JAMB). The pull by parents to go to Goretti and obtain excellent results has turned the other way. Students now go there to get the little teaching going on only to flee to corruption centres to get good grades in the chase for better life.

As Maria Goretti was harmed by those who claimed to love and wanted too much of her, though in a wrong way, so is her memorial college being harmed by those who claim to love it and want more of it. Just as those who killed her turned round to support her uprising, so are those who ruined her school turning back to join rescue efforts. And just as the righteous mission fought for the slain Goretti, so are the Old Girls (SMADOGA) rising up to defend and rescue her college.

Ekhomu said in Port Harcourt, “Return to the Mission is a must”. She made another stirring declaration: “Lets rebuild the walls of Gorretti”. She may mean the physical walls but her declaration rang loud bells, sending a clarion call for all true lovers and the Alexanders of the school to repent and join hands to save Goretti’s image. Adams Oshiomhole, immediate past governor of Edo State, representing the institutional Alex, was said to have done much to rebuild some facilities but the rot is too far more that.

Now, SMAGOGA has risen to fight for her and her memorial school. In 2012, the association built a sophisticated labs (Biology and Chemistry) dedicated to Henrietta Powers. The group also attracted federal and state governments where N34million was realised to help the school.

Ekpomu vowed to see to the return of Goretti to the Mission and fencing of the falling walls before her tenure would run out. The list of the exco’s priorities include “Returning of our alma mater to the catholic mission; Establishing SMAGOGA National Scholarship Fund; Renovating the St. Maria Goretti Wall Fence; Building a Vocational Laboratory for learning Tailoring, Tie & Dye, Bag & Shoe making etc.; Award/Recognition of Principals & Teacher and Old Girls; Increasing our Outreach, networking and membership across state branches and international branches; Reviving existing branches and starting new ones; and Charitable Works.”

On the efforts to return the school to the mission, she said: “We are still working on this with the new Governor of Edo State. As you are all aware, the huge investment by our SMAGOGA and the Edo State Government, under former governor must be protected and maintained, to prevent them from systemic decay, as was previously the case. Moreover, we know that a school is not only infrastructure, but there must be high educational standards, discipline and culture, that are required to produce well-bred students. Our plan is to make the school fees affordable, even upon its return. Our measure of performance is for Old Girls to proudly send either their children or grandchildren to St. Maria Goretti, as it obtains in Kings College, ICC etc.”

On the major task of rebuilding the walls of Goretti, she said: “With the great insecurity, school kidnappings and herdsmen incursion into schools, there is an urgent need to renovate the wall fence for Goretti, which is in total disrepair.  We want to urgently raise the fence as some parts of the fence at the rear are totally failed. This means the cows and humans can walk into the Goretti premises, unchallenged. We need an estimate of about N7million to fix the fence, plaster, install gate and paint the fence and install Concertina Topping on the fence, so that we can protect the infrastructure. To achieve this I want a fund raising here at this convention. The branches will contribute any shortfall. It is our goal to ensure that we complete this fence before we hand over in 2018.”

By this, it is obvious that the walls of Goretti shall rise again; the spirit of Maria Goretti will gloat again, now that her ‘Alex (her killer, the government) has teamed up with her true lovers and defenders, the Old Girls (SMAGOGA). Many prayed that good intentions would lead to conclusive actions of lovely fruits.