Nigeria Was Peaceful When I Was In High School – Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has reflected on his high school days at his alma mater, Keffi Boys High School, Nasarawa State.

He revealed this at the 70th anniversary and Annual General Meeting of the college and the launch of N350 million Umaru Musa Yar’Adua e-library.

According to him, if Nigerians can allow themselves to be guided by the Keffi Model, disunity will be a thing of the past and peace will be back in the country.

He added most of the friends he had in school were from other parts of the country, unlike the tribalism we witness in the nation these days.

His words, “In our time, only the very best from the 13 Provinces in the North made it to Government College, Keffi. Religion, ethnicity, social status, did not matter.

” Your academic prowess was your ticket to the school.

“The school was also a leveler. The children of peasants mixed freely with the children of the rich and the well connected.

“In my class, we had the son of a Minister, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, we also had the son of a Prime Minister, Bala Tafawa Balewa.

” They were all treated the same way as the sons of peasants.

“Remember the North is very diversified, with more ethnic groups than any other region.

“You have the Hausa, Fulani, Jukun, Bachama, Tiv, Ogori, even Yoruba – that meant that for the students of Government College, Keffi, of our time, it was a rainbow coalition’ of sorts”.

As a student, your best friends were most likely boys from other parts.

“As a Yoruba from Ilorin, my best friend was from Adamawa.

“This broke down the prejudices about other tribes with which some were brought up. Religion was never a source of disunity,”

“In fact, one of the most important days for us as students was Ash Wednesday, because on that day we had fish on the menu.

“Some Christian students also fasted along with those of us who are Muslims during the Ramadan, especially because Muslim students got an extra litre of milk throughout the fasting period, in addition to eating ‘sari’.”