By Okoh Aihe
Before the mid-70s, a team of young Nigerians enjoyed the privileged opportunity to be admitted into Annunciation Catholic College (ACC), Irrua, which was one of the best secondary schools in the old Bendel State, now Edo and Delta States.
They came armed only with their dreams, innocence and excitement to pursue a future which looked far away but attainable. For them, education provided the only super-highway to the future and being at ACC was a predictable prelude to fulfilling that future.
ACC was not only the dream of children but more for their parents who wanted to enjoy the pride of having their children in an elite school.Behind them was the blighted wreckage and fatalities of a 30-month Civil War whose nightmare still cast an overhang over life after four years.
The students came from different parts of the country, including that part of the country that was severely hurt and most affected by the war. The new government came with a “no victor no vanquished mantra.”
The young children were only too happy to begin the new journey of life, build new relationships and nurture dreams that could one day see them live their lives and rule their world.
They were dream seekers and life is for those who dream and have the strength of character to make their dreams a reality.Years later, life has changed.
The world has changed even more, getting increasingly more connected, to create a global village and satisfy the ever expanding human quest and capacity for world’s secrets in the form of knowledge still floating out there.
The more immediate benefit of a global village is that people separated for decades can seek out each other and basically shout across the divide which only excludes the opportunity to touch each other but more of feelings and euphoric recollections.Meanwhile, those innocent dream seekers have come of age, and now scattered across the world, into professions and opportunities to become real men, influencing their world while creating new opportunities and providing broad shoulders for others to climb on.
Here, the dramatis personae begin to emerge from the shadows, from a world of the past, into reality. After decades in separate worlds and even beyond the precincts of career dreams, Commodore Christian Anuge (Rtd.) and Henry Edeko, who lives in the UK, got connected in 2013 and were regularly in touch.
They discussed the general old boys group and had, at this time, also reconnected with Christopher Okoh, also in the Uk. Henry and Chris Okoh relayed their different experiences at the various attempts to form or connect with the ACC Old Boys Association, UK branch.