A BRIEF HISTORY OF BMGS
Birabi Memorial Grammar School (BMGS) is located at the City of Bori, Rivers State, Nigeria. It is the first landmark you see on top of the hill on your left as you enter Bori from Yeghe, a neighboring community. Bori is the second largest planned City in Rivers State, after Port Harcourt, the state capital.
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The late Hon. Timothy Naakuu Paul-Birabi (BA Hons.) Mathematics & Geography, F.R.G.S, M.H.R. (1916-1953), laid the foundation stone of what we come to know as the Birabi Memorial Grammar School (B.M.G.S.) Bori, in November 1952; to promote educational excellence. The school became functional in January 1957.
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Birabi Memorial Grammar School opened its door to students in 1957 as a five-year secondary school to serve the needs of the Ogoni people, who prior to 1956, when St. Pius X College opened at Bodo in Gokana, did not have a secondary school. Its location at Bori was ideal, giving the relative centrality of Bori to all the Communities in Ogoni, and above all, because Bori was the capital of Ogoni Division and the seat of the colonial government at the time.
The school was built as community school with money contributed from all the clans in Ogoni Division (Northern Khana, Southern Khana, Baabe, Tai, and Eleme), except Gokana clan which did not contribute because they said the catholic church had promised to build a secondary school at Bodo in Gokana clan. The initial name of the school was Ogoni National College. However, before it opened in 1957, the leader of the movement for the creation of the school, Mr. T.N. Paul Birabi, died in 1953; hence the school was renamed by the Ogoni people to Birabi Memorial Grammar School upon its opening in 1957, in order to honor its creator and most prominent founder, Paul Birabi.
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Mr. Paul Birabi was the most illustrious and the highest educated person in Ogoni at the time. He was the first person from Ogoni to receive a university degree. In his quest to promote literacy and better education in Ogoni, Mr. Birabi went from one Ogoni Community to the other encouraging people to send their children to school. He convinced the leaders of each community of the importance of higher education and the need for a secondary school in Ogoni. Some of the traditional leaders who were behind the creation of the school are Chief Nwikpo, from Wiiyakara; Chief Beeba from Sogho; Chief Ezekiel Igbo from Kani, Chief Timoty Ngbor, from Kpite Tai, to name a few.
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The first Principal of the School was an honorable gentleman called Okwosa. He ran the school from 1957 to 1959. He initiated the culture of discipline and dedication to learning which guided the early years of the school. In 1962, BMGS graduated its first set of students upon the completion of their five-year secondary education at the school; they took the requisite West African School Certificate Examination.
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In 1967, BMGS, like all other institutions in the then eastern Nigeria closed down because of the Nigerian Civil War (aka; Biafra War). In January 1969 the school reopened following the liberation of Rivers State in 1968 from Biafra by the federal army. The grades at the school when it reopened in 1969 were from Form 1 to Form 4; Form 5 was not included because, among other things, the laboratories in the school were not yet reequipped for the needs of the senior class.
The Rivers State Ministry of Education had initially decided to reopen only BMGS in the Ogoni area for the reeducation of male students from the area who were affected by the civil war (female students could not attend BMGS at the time because the school was initially designed and built for male students only). However, due to the overwhelming demand by parents to send their students to BMGS when it reopened, there was not enough room on campus to meet the demand; subsequently, the Ministry of Education decided to reopen St. Pius X. College, Bodo, as an additional space for Form 1 and 2 students. Most of the post-war students were from the Ogoni and Andoni areas of Rivers State.
As indicated above, BMGS was originally designed and built as a boy’s school. However, in 1970, the Rivers State Ministry of Education decided to convert the school from an all-male student school to a coeducational school in order to give female students across the state the opportunity to receive the high quality of secondary school education being offered at BMGS. A huge female dormitory was built and with it, came the admission of female students from every corner of Rivers State into the school. At that point in history, the composition of students at BMGS was changed irreversibly for good. Prior to 1970, coeducational secondary schools were rare, if not non-existent, in Rivers State and following its success at BMGS, subsequent secondary schools built by the state were mostly coeducational.
It was a good and noble decision by the state, but it had its detractors. Those who were opposed to the inclusion of female students at BMGS argued that it will alter the tradition of the school as a boy’s only school and that, they would prefer the maintenance of that tradition to allowing girls to sit in the same classroom with boys. Other detractors argued that the presence of girls will distract boys from studying which will lower the academic standard of the school. However, history has proven them wrong; while the boys only image of the school certainly changed, the presence of girls did not yield any negative outcome. In fact, it ushered in a new era of competition among students that was generally positive, which helped boost academic standard.
In 1971 Form 5 was added to make BMGS a complete five-year secondary school again, and graduating its first batch of post war students in December 1971. Similarly, the students who restarted their secondary school education at BMGS in 1969 in Form 2 were able to complete their fifth year of secondary school education at BMGS and graduating in December 1972. Many of them passed the West African School Certificate Examination with distinction and went on to pursue higher education in Nigerian Universities and abroad and subsequently have led successful careers as doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers, and entrepreneurs.
The graduating class of 1973 could rightfully be described as the founding students of the modern day BMGS. The significance of the Class of 1973 is that they were the first batch of graduates from the modern BMGS post Nigerian Civil War, who started from Form I and completed Form V in a continuous span of the required 5-year curriculum for the award of the West African School Certificate (WASC), conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC). Most of the students of 1973 passed the WASC examination with distinction.
The school was in shambles when it reopened in January 1969. After more than two years of inactivity, the lawns were overgrown, the classrooms were a mess, and the dormitories were without beds and lockers. The Form 1 students of 1969 had to improvise on everything. They slept on makeshift beds and many of them had to purchase their own lockers for use in the dormitory. Since they were at the very bottom rung of the disciplinary ladder of the school, the burden of school sanitation and clean-up fell almost entirely on the Form 1 class of 1969. As a result, they performed most of the grass cutting, dining hall cleaning, classroom cleaning, campus sweeping, and toilet cleaning that were essential for the upkeep of the school.
The history of BMGS would be incomplete without any mention of, and dedication to the school administrators that ran the school and enabled it to thrive successfully to produce outstanding graduates every year. The first Principal, Mr. Okwosa, who started the school in 1957 did a remarkable job to nurse the school from its infant beginning with the Form I students, and progressively to the upper Forms; he initiated the culture of discipline that helped to grow the school.
The administrators who reconstituted the school after the civil war deserve a special mention. The school started in January 1969 with an Interim Principal, Mr. Didi. It was he and his staff who brought order to the campus and organized the incoming students, a very unruly bunch that included some grown-up students who had served in the Biafra army, into the various classes of Form 1 to Form 4. Some of the students were almost as grown as some of the teachers and were not receptive to directives from the teachers and administrators but the Interim principal and his staff were able to control them which offered the teachers the opportunity provide lessons.
Later in 1969, a permanent Principal, Mr. A. K. Bob-Manuel, was appointed to run the school. Mr. Didi then became the Assistant Principal. Mr. Bob-Manuel’s administration could be best remembered for the emphasis he placed on grammatical accuracy, both written and spoken. Before his arrival many of the students paid no attention to phonetics when speaking English; but Mr. Bob-Manuel made sure that every student speaks proper English and paid attention to phonetics when speaking.
In 1971, Mr. Bob-Manuel was replaced by Mr. Vincent G. Chinwah, who could, arguably, be regarded the father of modern day BMGS. Mr. Chinwah ran the school from 1971 to 1974. During this time the school saw some remarkable changes and physical construction. The school was converted from an all-male school to a coeducational school under Mr. Chinwah in 1971 with a modern girl’s dormitory constructed. Those who were against making BMGS a coeducation school had argued that it will bring disorder and decadence to the school; they alleged that the presence of girls will lead to lack of discipline and interest in studying among students. Mr. Chinwah proved the detractors wrong. He ran the school with iron hands. Discipline was religiously maintained on campus; boys and girls respected each other, and academic competition boosted.
Furthermore, Mr. Chinwah saw the construction of two major buildings on campus: a new classroom block and an assembly hall. Mr. Chinwah implemented the conversion of BMGS to a coeducational school with passion. It was Mr. Chinwah who pushed for the construction of the assembly hall and argued that students deserve a special place to gather for morning assembly and social events. He also oversaw the transition of the school in 1973 from a quarterly calendar year that starts in January and ends in December of the same year to a semester system that starts in August and ends in the summer of the next year.
Mr. Chinwah instituted student government on campus and worked with students to create social groups. The Literally and Debating Society (LDS) was created, and its membership made mandatory to all students. The LDS organized debates among fellow BMGS students regularly as well as between BMGS students and other schools. To stimulate greater interest in math and science, Chinwah instituted the Science Society and encouraged all science enthusiasts to participate. Student moral was very high on campus during Mr. Chinwah’s tenure.
The subsequent principals of the school have continued the tradition and culture of discipline and dedication to the pursuit of academic excellence which Chinwah inculcated into all students and teachers during his tenure. Today, BMGS is revered as a first-class public secondary school in Rivers State and a place where students can receive a very high-quality secondary school education.