100-year-old Yola college seeks N2.5bn to rehabilitate structures

By Onimisi Alao, YolaThe General Murtala Mohammed College, Yola, is seeking N2,500,000,000 to rehabilitate dilapidated structures and to organize events marking its 100 years of existence.The college, an Adamawa State-owned institution named after the former military head of state, Gen Murtala Mohammed (late), was built as an Elementary School at the provincial headquarters in Yola in 1920 and the 100th year fell on April last year (2020), but COVID-19 and other exigencies forced organisers to shift the centenary events to this year.The alumni association of the college said during a press briefing at the college premises that in the countdown to what they described the final phase of centenary events, N2,500,000,000 is needed to complete rehabilitation projects and hold events to celebrate the 100th year of the college by the first or second quarter of this year.READ ALSO:Alumni reward Loyola College pupilsThe General Murtala College, located in the heart of Jimeta, Yola, is an expansive serene academic environment with structures similar to other premier colleges around the country, but these structures, which have had hardly any additions in recent times, were in a sorry state when the alumni members began efforts in 2019 to give the college a facelift as an integral part of its centenary celebrations.The Tiddo Yo Daddo National Alumni Association, as the college old students are known, said through Chairman of the Local Organising Committee of the planned 100-year anniversary, Baba Saadu Abubakar, that the N2,500,000,000 is the total cost of estimates, and that the estimates are open to corrections and adjustments.The General Murtala Mohammed College changed names a number of times from Provincial Elementary College in 1920 to Middle School and then to Provincial Secondary School by 1955; Government Secondary School in 1966, and then its current name in 1976, the year General Murtala Mohammed was killed.The alumni members, finding it difficult to reconcile the different names the school has answered over the decades, decided on the motto of the college, Tiddo Yo Daddo, which in Fulfulde roughly means If you Persere, you will Succeed.The college has over the decades produced many prominent individuals, including Nigerias first Minister of Defence, Muhammadu Ribadu; erudite scholar, Prof Iya Abubakar (both late); former governor of defunct Gongola State and then national chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Bamanagar Tukur; former Minister and then senator, Prof Jibrin Aminu, among many others.
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