‘Determination made me UNILAG’s Best Graduating Student’
The life of the 21-year-old graduate of Chemical Engineering, Mr. Korede Fifeoluwa Akinpelumi, who emerged the overall best graduating student of the University of Lagos for the 2013/2014 academic session with a CGPA of 4.96 can be described as that of de
He comes from a family that can easily be referred to as an elitist and ‘Akokite’ family in some sense, as all members of Korede Fifeoluwa Akinpelumi’s nuclear family have at one point or the other studied or are still studying at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
According to Akinpelumi, who emerged the overall best graduating student of the UNILAG for the 2013/2014 academic session with a CGPA of 4.96, his late father, who though had his first degree at University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, also had his master’s degree in UNILAG. His elder brother graduated with a second class upper division from the department of Electrical Engineering, while his younger sister is currently a 200 level medical students at the same institution.
For the young graduate, the roadmap to his future was clear to him from the onset. His outstanding performance in his early childhood education pointed him to the path of greatness. As a primary school pupil at Omoleye Children School, Onipanu, Lagos, where he was discovered to be specially endowed, he stood tall among his peers even as he came out being the best pupil in his set.
Having a medical doctor as a father and a civil servant as a mother, one could say he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. However, instead of being preoccupied with the euphoria of coming from a comfortable background in addition to being discovered a potential genius, he approached life differently, humbled himself, took his studies seriously and was focused all through.
Asked whether he saw himself emerging the best student, his response was, “to an extent.”
Akinpelumi said in the three stages of education he has so far undergone, he saw himself emerging the best. To him being the best or even winning academic laurels for his brilliance is not new; but he was quick to add that it is neither a game of chance nor luck, but a reward for work, reverence to God and obedience to wise counsel.
“From my primary school, I was actually the best; in my WAEC, I had eight As. I represented the state in many competitions some at national levels. I won a silver medal, National Olympiad in Physics, I won gold medal in NNPC national quiz competition in Abuja. I won several awards such as JET, Cowbell Mathematics, among others, though I didn’t win the Cowbell but I got to the state level.
“I was also on a number of scholarships such as Agbami, NNPC. So, prior to my coming to the university, I had a very strong foundation in my academics because I was well groomed in my secondary school. There was so much expectation when I got in here and to me it was a matter of continuing with what I have done and just meeting the standard.”
Asked why he chose to study chemical engineering, he said his mother and his academic mentor who was also his physics teacher in secondary school influenced his choice and that he had no regret heeding to their advice.
Considering his age, one would expect youthful exuberance and peer group influence to be some of the challenges he should be dealing with, but that is far from it. He chose to be a leading light and a teacher to his mates and seniors in school.
The best graduating student said the first group he joined on campus was the Christian fellowship where within two years in the school, he became a worker and rose to sit in the council of elders of the fellowship during his final year as an executive member whose major responsibility was not only to oversee the affairs of fellowship but to ensure that flocks committed into their hands are adequately fed and catered for. In this he found his soul deeply involved, he had no social life.
According to Akinpelumi, who scored 49 As and only three Bs to emerge the best out of the 5,610 undergraduates in the 2013/2014 academic session, who was among the 125 first class graduates that were recognised, God and service unto Him is something so dear to his heart.
“In my year two, I became a worker in fellowships. In my final year, I became assistant Fellowship Secretary of Redeemed Christian Church of God. My social life was restricted within the religious sphere and so everything social was within the sphere of religious activities. I have them as my family; I don’t go to parties. I don’t have a girlfriend.”
For him, life is good but not without some hard knocks; he said life dealt him a heavy blow in August last year when he lost his father. He said though casting his burden unto God helped him overcome the thought and pain of losing someone dear to him as his father, celebrating his achievement is with a mixed feeling.
“I feel proud and glad on one hand and on another hand, I wish my dad was here”, he said.
On his aspirations and what he will do next, he said: “There are a lot of aspirations in life. I don’t have a big aspiration. I try to always keep my aspirations simple. The next thing for me now is to go for youth service. There are quite a number of offers coming my way. I am just trusting God to know what next to do. So, it is not really about what comes next but what I am concerned about is how I respond to what comes next.”
Earlier in his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Rahamon Ade-Bello, who congratulated the President-elect and the incoming visitor to the university, General Muhammadu Buhari on his election, urged him to consolidate on the gains of higher education from the outgoing regime and entrench the path to its revitalisation by completing the implementation of the needs assessment funding programme.
“We will to also draw the attention of the incoming government to the need for a funding mechanism that will insulate higher education in Nigeria from fluctuations of the Nigerian economy. This is the only way universities in particular can become stable and maximally contribute to the economic development of the nation.”
The Chairman of the institution’s Governing Council, Prof. Jerry Gana, enjoined the graduands to “let your knowledge impact on people around let them know by your outstanding character.”
He also charged them to be men and women of integrity that would not cut corners.
“You have to be good ambassador of UNILAG. Avoid all forms of corruption and walk away from whatever is evil.”
In his convocation lecture, ‘Taking Advantage of a Depressing Economy to Accelerate Socioeconomic Development’, former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Peter Okebukola, stressed the need to double the current rate of teacher production at the basic and higher levels.
He said through a battery of incentives, which include reducing by half the current tuition for training in education in colleges of education, polytechnics and universities; automatic bursary awards for all education students; and enhanced post-graduation salary package for teachers, enrolment into teacher training institutions at all levels could be bolstered.
Emphasising on the Total Number of Units (TNU) for graduation for education students, he said it would give them room to register and take courses in their teaching subjects enough to prepare them as better teachers.
“Courses that relate to senior school certificate topics that students find difficult to learn should be made compulsory for the teacher trainees. The alternative which we proposed while I was at NUC is to make education a five-year programme for the first degree.
“The first four years are spent largely in the cognate faculties while the fifth year is where we layer the training with education courses. Upon graduation, teachers of the five- year course will be placed a grade level above the four- year degree holders and in addition receive other incentives,” he said.
Okebukola stressed the need for more time on teaching practice, saying that a minimum of 12 weeks of full contact teaching practice should be implemented for effective preparation of graduate teachers.
“One-year teaching practice is ideal. In most colleges of education and universities, in spite of the provision for a 12-week teaching practice, actual practice lasts barely three weeks.”