…And so on Monday September 11 1972, 78 maidens, hand picked by God climbed the Saker Baptist College (SBC) Victoria (as it then was) Hills. Some of them comrades from the same primary schools, while others were total strangers in the crew. However, we were all oblivious of the events that were to mark and shape, in an unimaginable way, the next five years of what became the epic learning journey of their lives.

We were meant to be different and indeed have been different from our very tender years in Saker College. We identified and found commonalities between our aspirations, objectives, vision and trajectory to a resilient batch of students in one of our literary works «UP FROM SLAVERY» by the celebrated American writer and autobigrapher; Booker T Washington. They became our alter ego and we adopted their name: THE PLUCKYS, together with the Motto «SET YOUR IDEALS HIGH». These have stayed with us to this day.

We brought in the first black Principal; Mr William Nso Tayui of blessed memory and foretold the rise and shine of SBC among her contemporaries as we sang our form 1 Founders’ Day song «OUR SCHOOL WILL SHINE TONIGHT, OUR SCHOOL WILL SHINE», when Saker College turned 11.

Our name and motto became, in a very significant way, the driver behind the myriad of things we did, do and stand for. Solidarity is our mantra. We would encourage and admonish each other as and when necessary. Like one man, we gave our cherished Principal a pet name that was to be used by generations of Sakerettes. We created a choreography which we executed every Saturday evening to celebrate the much looked down upon dinner of porridge plantains which we code named «ZEZE», thereby raising its quotient in the hearts of the other students.

As we moved to the upper rungs of the academic ladder in 1976, we gladly gave up some of the things of our youth, embracing and tackling our majors with the seriousness that such business commanded. In 1977, we got to understand that we would be the poineer batch to write the Cameroon GCE. And of course, it came to pass that we excelled at the end of the day.

Away from SBC, Pluckys kept together as much as the dictates of distance and the demands of searching for pathways in the future could permit. In 2007, the PLUCKY UNION (The PUN) was created and it has grown from strength to strength.

God has indeed been gracious to Pluckys. This happy-go-lucky set of girls all metamorphosized into untramelled and competent career women in different fields: Government Ministers, Ministers of the Gospel, Physicians, Pharmacists, Legal Practitioners, Educationists, Social and Environmental Workers, International Consultants, Maritime Administrators, Entrepreneurs, Human Capital Developpers, Police Commissioners, Healthcare Practitioners, Gender and Family Welfare Officers, Journalists, Aeronautic Engineers and many others. Some five decades and more since our first encounter with Mother SBC, Pluckys are happy and fulfilled wives, mothers, grandmothers and most of them are retirees.

We respond affirmatively to being an integral, vibrant and functional component of ExSSA Global. Over the years, Pluckys have participated in a multi-facetted manner to the works and aspirations of the Global Association. Prior to manning the helm of the Association, the current President General (a Plucky) served the ExSSA sorority as Vice President General for 7 uninterrupted years. We take pride in both the levels and quality of work our sisters have rendered therewithin.

Pluckys stand tall amongst Exssa classes in terms of donations to their alma Mater, with an impressive array of significant donations to SBC. The ongoing Exssa Flagship Project therefore resonates powerfully with one of our Plucky characteristics; give back. It stands in sync with the Plucky overall ambition of donating to and upgrading the infrastrutural heritage of SBC.

As we rejoice over the goodness of the Lord in our lives, we remember all 12 of our sisters who have gone before us unto the Great Beyond and continue to pray for the repose of their souls.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY FOR THE GREAT THINGS HE HAS DONE TO AND FOR PLUCKYS.