several people over the edge. Some steal, some mess up but Ifeoluwa’s hunger for
success drove her along the long, dusty and narrow path to greatness.
“I,
Bejide Ifeoluwa, the girl who sold plantain chips, who sold pepper and tomatoes,
who sold fish, who swept the classrooms is now a graduate!”
With those words she received a resounding ovation from
prominent Nigerians including former minister of defence – Theophilus Danjuma
and the General Overseer of the Redeemed Church Worldwide, Pastor Enoch
Adeboye.
Ifeoluwa finished with a Cumulative Grade Point Average of 4.93.
If you ever went through the rigours to get a first class you would understand
the long hours, the pain and self deprivation she had to endure consistently for
4 years.
What drove her?
According to Ifeoluwa, her story
started at the first convocation of the same institution which she attended as a
JSS 2 student in company of Professor L.B. kolawole who later challenged her
saying, “it was a female like you who collected all those prizes, you too can do
it.”
“In other to pay back a mother like this who has always been
struggling for her children, I decided to not only be a first class student, but
to be the best”, she said.
Speaking on the perceived limitation faced by
most people from less privileged backgrounds, Ifeoluwa says God blesses those
who dream and add hardwork to it.
“I always said to myself, I am not the
first person to come from a less privileged home. If Daddy G.O (pastor E.A.
Adeboye) could make it, why can’t I? If so many of the professors here who had
poor backgrounds could make it, why should I not?”
