By Adeabdul:
The Once Proud Yellow Lion
Brave Worth High School used to be glorious. It had brilliant students and outstanding an outstanding academic performance, it had well-designed classrooms and fully equipped
laboratories. There were a football team, a basketball and a rugby team that won many trophies. Their school uniforms alone commanded respect, it included a navy blue crested blazer for their prefects and white shirt with navy blue trousers or skirts for girls accessorised with a golden yellow lion crested badge. Their students were the centre of attraction at academic functions and a yellow lion as they proudly call themselves due to their golden yellow lion crested badge was a guaranteed chick magnet at parties.
Their old students were top national officials, famous politicians and international sports stars. Ever since the school was established in Nigeria the nineteenth century it was an instant success in the country. It was an elite school accepting high-class pupils and producing high flying talents. Every child wanted to go there and it was a pride for current and old students to announce that they were “Yellow Lions”, the nickname of any student who went there. That was then was it a private school still under the care of the missionary that established it.
Under the governments care as a public school. The school became synonymous with thuggery and vandals. Now, their student’s performance was always seized by the National Examination Council (NECO) because it was so poor it would be a national embarrassment to release it. Their students who were the talk of the town were now an embarrassment. Always on their worst behaviours and fighting at functions. They were banned at many academic events like the National Mathematics Quiz Tournament for cheating but in the junior and senior categories. The only event they still participated in was the football competition where they always came home with a trophy but even that was still with some serious foul plays. They were known to have a reputation for being the most aggressive teams in both junior and senior category, often bagging more red cards than all the players in a season of the English premier league.
The proud Brave Worth was dragged through the mud. Their students snubbed by other students in public. The sensible ones kept their school identity secret in public, the ones were foolish enough to mention their school name in public were mocked and called students of “Wayward High School”.
Many of their pupils were legacy students whose parents still had the illusion that the school still had its former glory. Michael’s father Mr Osu an alumnus, was shocked to learn from Michael that his beloved school had none of the shine and all the dirt. Still, Mike was stuck there because his father like many alumni was fighting a losing battle to get the school to its former glory days and forced Michael to remain there to help make the school a better place. Michael wasn’t so fond of being there at first but eventually, he came to love of it because that’s where he met Angela.