In the inaugural meeting, we the founding members of BMGS Alumni Association, after full deliberations on so many other issues resolved to pay a special tribute to our late Principal Mr. Vincent G. Chinwah, by remembering the positive impact he had on all students and staff of BMGS during his tenure as Principal.  We, however, remembered that Mr. V. G. Chinwah was the second Principal that we had during our five years of academic endeavors at BMGS, and the most impactful. We graduated under him and here is our special tribute to a principal that we fondly referred to as “The Hammer”.

 

Mr. V.G. Chinwah presented himself as an efficient and effective leader and administrator throughout his tenure. He was a true academic that had extraordinary leadership skills to inspire, impact, motivate and inculcate discipline. He did not lay claim to any religion but proved himself a true academic, philosopher and moral crusader, with the vision to instil the best moral principles in us. He advocated honesty and hard work and frowned at any form of examination malpractice. “An honest zero is better than a dishonest 100%”, he frequently echoed.

 

Given that the Class of 1973 started in 1969 with the Nigerian Civil War still on, chaos might have been the frequent story in student behavior because we did not only have individuals who had just seen violence, we actually had a crop of students who were ex-soldiers. Mr. Chinwah’s ability to maintain discipline was almost mystical. He told us that there was an invisible hammer hanging over the school, ready to descend on any unruly student. Many of us had a conscious cognitive presence of that assertion and took it literally. He would emphasize that those who have misbehaved and had not been caught and punished should not be comfortable because “Nemesis, the Egyptian goddess of vengeance, though has a leaden leg, is sure to arrive”. He had effective control over students as well as the teaching and administrative staff, even contractors. If egg was missing from a breakfast menu, he made sure students lined up on another day, to receive physical cash compensation for the missed egg.

 

Mr. Chinwah was a philosopher and great motivator. Months before exams, he would constantly remind us that the future might seem far, but we must be ready because that day, no matter how far in sight, is crawling in gradually but steadily. "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. creeps in this petty pace from day to day, till the last syllable of recorded time". 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 West African Examinations Council (WAEC) certificate.

 

We do not have any statistics or data base on all members of the 1973 class to help us assess the impact of Mr. Chinwah’s leadership on us but many of us alive can attest that those who took our principal serious have had significant, even remarkable scores in matters of moral education and academic or professional achievement.

 

Mr. V.G. Chinwah is an unsung hero in the Nigerian dysfunctional socio-political system that rewards criminality over moral rectitude and promotes mediocrity over hard work and excellence. We believe the Rivers State, and Nigeria at large owes Mr. V. G. Chinwah a posthumous National Merit Award in leadership. The BMGS Alumni Association has a moral obligation to demand that this national debt be paid.

 

As part of the tribute, it was resolved that in some future date and time, it will become necessary for the Alumni Association to organize and visit the late Principal’s hometown and grave site to pay him the deserved respect.  While observing a one-minute of silence for the late Principal and all fallen members of the 1973 Class, the echoes of some familiar quotes from Mr. Chinwah, namely:

• “He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not is a fool”

• “He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day”

• “The hour of greatest tiredness is always just before the goal is reached.”

continue to reverberate in our heads and mind.

 

         

Live On, the ideals of Mr. Vincent G. Chinwah

Live On, the BMGS Alumni Association, Inc.