The Igbinedion School Gory Spectacle By Austin Isikhuemen
Austin Isikhuemen | Contributor on politics and business-related topics
The evil spectacle from this high-profile Benin City school rankles. This school, one of the very best legacies of the Esama of Benin’s impressive legacies in the education sector, in addition to the very first Private University in Nigeria at Okada, shouldn’t have been in this tale of the unbecoming. The leadership of that institution has failed the children, and failed Nigeria by churning out thugs and cultists, judging by the videos in cyberspace and corroborating contributions by ex-students. This was not a part of the founder’s vision. It could not have been.
Learn How to Leverage Your Story through our Story To Asset Framework.
What are government agencies saying, doing, planning, to ensure a deep dive into, and detailed review of, past episodes, restitution, sanctions, restoration of the ethical ethos of education and children development with the right values and mindset? What roles do inspectorate arms of education ministries play in schools these days?
Are they empowered to oversight the schools owned by the mighty or are they encumbered by their own lethargy? And do governance systems pay the same to schools are they pay to road infrastructure?
Is society even aware that damaged young minds pose a greater danger than damaged roads? Is there no crawling narrative these days that education is a scam? Is it it? Really?
See also Legacy Building: Creating a long-lasting Impact for Future Generations and Personal Fulfillment
The most important factor in this vile equation is the student! Not the school, as folks are wont to think! What happens to them? Their future, shaped by this obtuse and dysfunctional environment, is scary for me.
What has happened, folks, is that the bad has given birth to the ugly and society is reaping the rewards. And in the Nigeria of today, it is far easier for those bearing belts and sticks flogging and kicking their school mates mercilessly to get to power than for the bullied to do so! Tell me this is not so and show the workings….
Do we not see parallels in our politics today? Where their parents threaten, beat up and allegedly attempt to rape women asking for payments for jobs done? Have we not seen accusers recant to read written scripts, stammering in the attempt, in ways that starkly differ from their previous oratorical delivery while making the accusation?
How’s this different from the threat that elected officials will never return to office in a future election that the threat issuer won’t vote in? These kids see their parents playing all sorts of shenanigans and subterfuge to get the stained money for their insane school fees and their little luxury lives in a bubble of impunity!
They learn too when they see those whose only call to fame (notoriety, really) is violence taking nomination forms to run for elective office and posting beautiful posters. How is this episode in a pedagogic environment different from the absurd drama in Rivers State since the last gubernatorial election?
When these ones become Senators and Honourable’s and Excellencies and Ministers and Ambassadors after this “grooming” how will the polity be? How will Naija fare?
Did you notice the suits those children wore? I didn’t wear such, never owned one till I started work in a blue chip company. The one I used for matriculation was borrowed from the same friend that gave me one to use for the interview I attended at Guinness HQ in 1990!
The kids at Igbesamwan Primary School Benin City, Amedokhian Secondary School Uromi or Somorika Secondary School do not dress like this. Their parents can’t afford it. But among them can spring a Governor of Edo State, even the President of Nigeria (like Jonathan, without shoes did) in the future, provided the right values and learning are imbibed and the rich allow the children of the poor a level playing field.
I am not trying to glorify poverty here, but to say that the hood does not make the monk and all that glitters is surely not gold! How did that hall, with all the graffiti, exist on that beautiful campus? The principal and teachers did not know, see?
See also Esan Sculpture and culture, Edo State, NIgeria
Blindly negligent or incompetent accomplices and enablers? Did that otherwise handsome, overfed, chubby son of a chubby dad not look extremely ugly in his behaviour? Did the fine SUV he rode in while leaving the crime scene remove the shame?
I submit that this incident should spur the appropriate authorities to do a soul searching and while digging to get to the root of this episode, take a holistic view to craft a more effective strategy for schools inspection and standards enforcement.
This cannot be a single occurrence and thinking it only happens in the institution would be naive. Let student victims, student and teacher witnesses and parents speak out. The objective should be to restore our boarding schools to a safe environment for our kids so that our nation’s future can be in safe hands.
15 March 2026.
Learn How to Leverage Your Story through our Story To Asset Framework.
