Fourah Bay College has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. They range from the college authorities suspending lectures because students had failed to register and protested that they should not be sent out of class, to lecturers going on a sit-down strike over unresolved negotiated pay and conditions. There has been much talk that the college alumni have an important role to play to turn things around. A few weeks after they were elected the FBC Alumni Association executive organised an event to bring together former students and take steps towards helping in the growth of the college. Following is a speech by the Alumni President, Umaru Fofana at the occasion which took place on Wednesday 26 April 2016 at the college’s amphitheatre.
Fellow alumni,
Welcome to this the first ever such gathering organised by the FBC Alumni Association. I'm here to welcome you and to make a plea.
It is a fact that anyone who has enrolled into this college has left here a BETTER person. But it is also true that a good number have also left here BITTER.
Many students went through unfairness in the hands of some members of the college administration and some lecturers - and some still do. This has often been cited as reason for alumni not being interested in anything having to do with Africa's oldest Western-style university.
This is understandable but not necessarily right. We have to be involved to change things or else more bitterness will germinate in our society. That will not be good for the college, not good for the current crop of students, and certainly not good for the country.
It is with this in mind that we must all come together as people whose lives were touched and shaped in no small way by Fourah Bay College. We must give back to the place that helped make us who we are today.
Last week at the annual University of Sierra Leone Banquet at Kingtom in Freetown, the country’s Vice President Victor Bockarie Foh said the following, while referring to people who have passed through this college: “Do not turn your back on your alma mater for it has prepared you for life”. How true!
Since my administration was elected some six weeks ago, the FBC Alumni Association has been rejuvenated to give it its rightful place in the development of the college. We intervened to amicably end the recent lecturers’ strike and we are currently talking to the administration through the Vice Chancellor, and Prof Ibrahim Abdullah with a view to resolving a contentious issue between the two.
That said, we believe that the Alumni Association should be represented on every decision-making body of the college. That way it will serve as an interface between the current crop of students and the administration and the academic staff.
We know the administration is faced with tremendous challenges which require huge resources to fix. The Alumni Association can help in its own little way to realise some of the most urgent and indispensable needs. These include lecture room facilities, recreation (with Havelock grounds losing itself), online registration for students to ease the burden on both the administration and the students.
Today's reunion picnic and jamboree is not just a picnic and jamboree, however important that aspect may be. It is the first step towards realising the crucial role we can, should and must play in turning things around for our shaper - FBC.
I assure you that every leone you have paid towards this and future endeavours, will be properly accounted for. I have an efficient secretariat, an honest treasury, an effective auditor, a dutiful PR office, a sagacious IT specialist, and I'm ably assisted by a God-fearing Vice President.
In putting this event together, the executive has been blessed with a team of volunteers who have worked very hard and thought very deeply.
Ing Ahmad Wurie has put together the Alumni Complex 3D design you'll see shortly here tonight on display. The college administration has agreed to allocate to us a piece of land for this building. We shall get there with the support of all the tens of thousands of alumni dotted in every corner of the world.
But that is just one project. My executive and I are scratching our heads over many others. They include one thing that is at the core of the problem of FBC - namely student-lecturer relationship. This is crucial, but also delicate. So we will approach it with a delicate balancing act.
I would like to thank you for your support to my executive. I am sure that support is for two key reasons: you believe in us, and you believe in FBC. We will keep our side of the bond. Please keep yours by supporting us to support the college that helped make us who or what we are today.
God bless you. God bless the Alumni Association. And God bless FBC and Sierra Leone.
I thank you.
(C) Politico 03/05/16
