Hope Waddell Training Institution, founded in 1895 by Presbyterian missionaries from Scotland, was for decades the most advanced educational establishment in southern Nigeria. Mary Slessor was a driving force behind its creation. At its peak it was the largest vocational training institution in West Africa, teaching carpentry, masonry, blacksmithing, and tailoring alongside academic subjects, and running its own printing press and newspaper.
The institution's alumni list reads like a who's who of early Nigerian history: Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria's first president, studied here. The school still operates as a state secondary school today, though the facilities have aged. The historic buildings on the campus date from the original 19th-century construction and retain considerable character. Worth a brief visit if you are interested in the history of education and missionary work in colonial Nigeria.