There’s something about childhood friendship thatyou just cannot replace. It all started as a thought in 2005. My friend, Taiye Moritiwon was coming to town after so many years in England. So I thought, let us host her and make her feel at home.

I looked through my phone records, found some numbers, called them up and asked if it was possible for us all to host Taiye. Surprisingly the response was prompt and subsequently we all had a great time. In attendance that day were Bimpe Eweje with her cute son, Tokunbo Awosugba with her two sons, Bayo Akintoye with a lady he was courting, I with my daughter and finally Regha Erhuvwu and Kemi Adanmu who each came alone.

Regha was still very much single at that time. We had fun, ate well and took pictures. When it was over we promised to stay in touch. Stay in touch we did such that when in 2008, I visited the UK and attended Kehinde Moritiwon’s wedding, I met other ex-commandos. It was such great joy to see her get married.

CSSI'92 FIRST MEETINGFast Forward to 2011; Niyi Adekunle, Timon Oviawe and Myself were chatting in Niyi’s office when one of us raised the idea that, being that there was a larger body of CSSI alumni already in place, we should join up in order to stay, and keep in touch while equally networking with others not yet in the fold.

Though we unanimously welcomed the idea, we soon realised how awkward it may turn out to be relating with our secondary school class seniors or juniors. For a fact the bond really hadn’t been there back then and we didn’t imagine it will be now, after 18years! Well eventually this brought upon us the notion that we should just concentrate on starting up our own Alumni association, strictly for CSSI class of 1992.

Many questions soon arose. How do we set the ball rolling? Do we have enough contacts? Will we get good and enough responses? What will we do when we create the group? Well you never know until you try. So off we went with the phone numbers, emails and Facebook friends lists. We began contacting people, encouraging those we contacted to do the same. Finally the ball was actually set rolling.

We held our very first meeting in March 2011 at Gbagagda. The few people in attendance include Timon Oviawe, Gbenga Akinyemi, Funmi Oludimu, Kunmi Basorun, Wilson Aikhoje, Biodun Olopade, Tokumbo Ademulegun, Ibrahim Busari, Armstrong Ohali, Tunde Pearse, Kolawole Salako. At that meeting we decided stage a reunion party aimed at regrouping everyone together considering it was already 19years since we last saw one another.

We brainstormed and shared ideas on the planning. We developed a budget and levied ourselves then assigned tasks to some of the people present. Tasks included fishing out more ex-commandos, securing venue and general organizing of the event.

A Facebook page was created to enable people keep tabs on those are at home and abroad. We had a good number of us on Facebook. We also sent out emails and made phone calls to get people involved in the newly formed Alumni. We spoke to some ex-commandos in the UK including Lola Adu, Micheal Alalade and the Moritiwons urging them to cue in and arrange a mini reunion on the same day as the one holding in Lagos.

If possible we hoped to stream it live in order to see ourselves in real-time. Alas the UK reunion never held due to some logistics problems. But the Lagos one went as planned, making it the very first and official Reunion of the Command Secondary School, Ibadan Class of ’92 Alumni.

For the reunion, For the reunion we decided we wanted a dress code so we made Green Polo T-shirts (N2,500 each) and face caps (N1,000 each) which we all were to wear for uniformity. The reunion party and the dress code were open to all spouses and children. Regha helped secure a venue from an elder Alunmi, Mr. Tunji Johnson of the class of ‘86 who was magnanimous enough to give us a huge event hall with all amenities free of charge simply because we were ex-commandos. Many doors have opened and keep opening for ex-commandos home and abroad.

We designated a special area for the children where they had bouncing castle, clown, face painting and arts craft activities to keep them all busy while the mummies and daddies had fun upstairs. Before the fun started we had talks on career and health as well as way forward plans for the Alumni. Consequently a number of committees were created in order to keep all activities running as a unit.

That same year coincided with our Alma Mata Founders’ Day so a few of us levied ourselves, got a bus and traveled to Ibadan on the very founders’ day, September 29th, to stage our debut as CSSI class of ‘92. Those that partook included Timon Oviawe, Niyi Adekunle, Kunmi Basorun, Adewale Orelesi, Peju Sangodoyin, Kerry Idudu, Toks Rufai , Taofik Kassim (aka Shokas), Akpoebi Otoro who flew in from his base in Italy, Yemisi Akinade, who joined us from Ibadan, and I.

We started out with a tour of some school facilities and the hostels. Later, Timon presented a short lecture and we staged a quiz competition for the students. Peju, Yemisi and Toks conducted the quiz and awarded cash prizes. The trophy for the event was donated and presented to the school by Akpoebi. Because we were so well received and this act of giving back stands as one of the core goals of CSSI ’92 set, we promised to make the event an annual one and it has been observed till date even by subsequent coordinating members of our class.

In 2012 with the success of the reunion and founders day tucked under our belts we added new members on Facebook. By this time we had also created a BBM group as well. Both forums were bubbling with activity. We all could hardly wait for the next reunion and founders’ day event. A few members abroad were planning to travel home and see all the old faces and friends once again. One of such persons was Lanre Akinwale. He chatted with me a few times and even posted a picture on Facebook of himself doing a bungee jump.

Sadly that same year, a couple of tragedies struck. First we lost Lanre Akinwale. He died in May after his bungee jump and that sent a huge blow to us as a group. That was the moment we realised indeed how much we all mattered. We sent our condolences to the family while Tunji Olowu and Akin Ogunkoya represented our class at his burial and memorial service.

Just as we were still healing from this loss, we received the shocking news, in June, that Banji Olukoja was involved in a Plane Crash along with a family friend of hers. They both lost their lives. We visited and the family to offer our condolences and ensured we were subsequently represented at her burial and memorial service. These two incidents dampened our mood so much that we began to consider cancelling the reunion party for 2012 in order to mourn our fellow ex-commandos. But some reasoned that we need to carry on with strong hearts and spirits. Still the reunion party for 2012 was quite low key even though well attended. Seyi Jeje even flew in from the US. It was took place at the same venue as the first reunion, thanks again to Mr. Tunji Johnson.

That year wasn’t all bad though. Subsequently we had some weddings and naming ceremonies, so I can say the year ended well for us as a group.

“Remember teamwork begins by building trust and the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.” ― Patrick Lencioni

In a bid to encourage regularly meetings, we suggested that sub-groups hold meetings in clusters at various locations. Following that model, we have had a number of such meetings with various members hosting. Those that have hosted are Matilda Otulana, of the Lekki axis, Kayode Oyagbile and Shokas of Ikeja axis, and several times, Kunmi Basorun in Akowonjo. Worthy of note is the fact that in all of these meetings Timon and Kunmi were always present. Timon himself hosted once in Maryland and Jeff Ejemai shared the love some time afterwards, that being the last one before the reunion party of that year.

Fast forward again to 2015. Timon attended a meeting of the entire body of CSSI Alumni and came back with an idea the body was using to better keep connected to everybody. Thus the famous and great Whatsapp forum chat room group was birthed. It should be noted that this Forum was not actually created by any of us but for us by a senior named Patrick Olowokere who, after creating the forum, added Timon and made him an admin. Timon then added Kunmi and me. We all proceeded to adding and inviting more people to come on board.

My phone kept buzzing so frequently that twice I pulled out. But Timon would have none of it. He told me it was a duty so I mustered all my resolve and resigned myself to the irritation of having a phone with constant buzzing and low battery. We continued inviting more people onto the Whatsapp forum until we filled up the available space allocated for members in a Whatsapp chat room (At that time, it was limited to about 100 persons only).

Granted some people chose to remain silent whereas some were the life of the group. Various different topics have been discussed, new friendships and bonds have originated and well, that was the whole idea in the first place; reconnect, network and share our joys, pains and struggles.

The group has brought us closer together and it will remain so. We also have another chat room called the Quad which has been named the chat room for the quiet umpires. In truth it was created when the Whatsapp chat room became full and more people needed to join. However Quad faced lots of opposition mainly because some people’s phones did not support the app and some networks refused to allow its download. All the same the Quad chat room is still existing and running albeit in its own quiet way.

In 2016, Command Secondary School Ibadan Class of ’92 evolved from a group of old school childhood buddies to a legal entity when its registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission was approved and the body was duly incorporated under the Corporate and Allied Matters Act of Nigeria. Since then the association have waxed stronger to the Glory of God and the betterment of its members, our Alma Mata and the society at large.

****As narrated by Modupe Banjo Adekunle.