Why I Started Quality Foundation School, Peculiar Cathedral Church –Bishop Mikpoyibo

By Daniel Dafe

The Founder of Quality Foundation School and Peculiar Cathedral Church, Obiaruku, Delta State, Bishop (Amb.) Dr. Felix Mikpoyobo, has revealed what prompted him to start the two organisations.

The renowned cleric spoke to Oasis Magazine recently in a phone conversation during the 30th anniversary of the school.

According to him, when he was young and in primary school, his History teacher taught them that white men came to Nigeria and started churches and schools and how these benefitted the land, saying right from then he concluded that when he grows up he will start a church and a school.

He continued; ‘By the grace of God, my vision for starting the school and church has been accomplished. We have won so many souls to the kingdom of God and till now, we are still helping people,. There are many of them on scholarship; some that are orphans. Through the school, we have been able to reach out to so many lives even parents’ relation of students. So, I will emphatically say we have achieved our aim. We have won a lot of souls to the Lord through the school.”

Bishop Mikpoyibo recalled how the school started in an uncompleted building where they keep animals,

His words: “Where we used, animals were kept there in the night. We come in the morning and had to pack animal faeces and prepare them to start. Today, the school has started building, not just an ordinary building. We started with wood; from wood to block; from block we broke it down and built a storey building. I also checked my admission register and discovered that I have admitted about 6,442 children as at the time we celebrated. After that day, more students have even come to school. So, one way or the other, almost seven thousand children have passed through our hand.

“That was what prompted the celebration; celebrating to the glory of God how the little vision that started with two children have been able to get up to senior secondary with six thousand and some fraction. That was why I said no matter how, we have never celebrated even one year before. I just said lets do this thirty years. You can imagine a school I started thirty years ago… How old was I when I started? So, I see myself as one of an elder statesman in the land and let me celebrate my story so that people will also know how God has been faithful with us to have operated a school for thirty years. We have never had any ill report. We have never had any police arrest or going to court to judge one matter or the other and the children are all doing well.

ALSO READ: DELSU Rolls Out Artificial Intelligence Policy, As NUC Commends Move

“We also decided that we want to use the opportunity to see how we can inaugurate old students association because if about six thousand plus children have passed through my hand, there will be no doubt that some of them are already adult, matured and they will be doing well in their different disciplines. So, I said it’s an opportunity to establish an old student association so that through that medium they can also join me and help me to take care of the needs of the school. So that is one of the reason I did that celebration to allow people know this school is no longer a new school, a school that has gathered children and brought up children for thirty years is no longer a joke. It’s not a hit and run school where they will say the director one day will collect all the school fees and run away.”

On his message tp the community, he said: “My message is that school and church cannot be separated. God sent me to help and build a community. Community should therefore be able to assist. They should not see the proprietor of the school like one rich man. Like I said, I started with just two children and I started with a borrowed twenty naira or two hundred naira but I know it was borrowed. I want the community to see it like the man did not just establish it to make money. He did not just establish it to make fame. He established it to bring light and salvation to the community. So, the community should work together with the proprietor of the school and the school management and whatever they have to assist the school, they should assist because it is more beneficial to the community, than the owner of the school.”