Oyebanji Deborah Oluwakemi has moved from the nadir of the valley to the summit of the mountain. A victim of admission fraud in Nigeria, she only realised that she had been conned after four years in a Nigerian university. Down but not out, she summoned courage and started all over again, but now in a Ghanaian university. At the end of her academic sojourn in the university, she emerged the valedictorian, the overall best student at the All Nations University. She shared her story with Ajayi Oluwapelumi. Excerpts:Could you let us into your background'MY name is Oyebanji Deborah Oluwakemi, I live in Lagos, my dad is from Oyo State, while my mum is from Ogun State, but I was born and raised in Lagos. I am a graduate of Business Administration, Human Resource Management option. I came to Ghana in February 10, 2008 to be precise and since then, I have been in Ghana, schooling. I graduated with first class on November 17, 2011. I was the valedictorian for my graduating class, and I got the overall best student award from the president of All Nations University, Pastor (Dr) Samuel H. Donkor, based on the fact that I had the best CGP.Do you have an idea of the total number of Nigerians that graduated from All Nations University (ANU) that day'I think we are close to 25 Nigerians that graduated on that day; some in Business, Computer Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering, Computer Sciences and the likes.What inspired your decision of coming to school in Ghana'I came to school in Ghana because I heard their educational system is a little bit better than ours. Actually, I had a little problem with a Nigerian university, I thought I had genuinely gained admission into but when I found out that I had goofed, I had no choice but to start all over again.Thereafter, I came to Ghana because I wanted to leave Nigerian environment to start a new life away from home. Also, I heard that Ghanaian educational system is a little bit flexible. For instance, if you are trying to gain admission to a Ghanaian university, you don't sit for any entrance examination like that of Nigeria, what they would calculate is your WAEC grades. They would only use your WAEC as a determining factor, and you must not have more than an aggregate of 24; according to the way they calculate, A1 stands for 1, B2 stand for 2, B3 stand for 3, C4, C5, and C6, stands for 4, then P7 and P8 stand for 5. So they will pick 6 subjects in all, that means, you must get a credit in 6 places and you should not have more than 24 points or you can have less because the admission requirement is from 6 to 24, and once you have that aggregate, you would be offered admission, and that is applicable to all Ghanaian schools, no post-UTME.Another reason I came to school in Ghana is because I believe having a certificate from the school I graduated from, All Nations University would give me a better marketable value. Other advantages I benefitted from my schooling in Ghana is the absence of strike, well structured standard of learning amongst others.Can you shed more light on the problem that prompted you to quit a Nigerian university for a Ghanaian private university'I finished my secondary school in 1998, I wrote JAMB in 1998 and I used my result to process admission to the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. I thought I had gained a genuine admission in 1999 to study Archeology and Anthropology. I did everything as a "student" of the school but when I got to final year, I realised that, I had records in my department but I did not have record in Admissions. I only got to know this after our final semester, when they printed all the students' names and my name was nowhere to be found.What were the steps you took after hearing such devastating news'I tried my best to find out what happened and I realized that somebody somewhere tried to smuggle my name in to the admission list and the person did not do it the right way.But at that point, there was nothing I could do, so I gave up hope on it and I chose to start all over again. I heard about All Nations University (ANU) in 2007 and I came to Ghana in 2008.What was your experience like in All Nations University, compared to Nigerian higher institutions'ANU is not only concerned about your academic or professional training, they are also concerned about your spiritual, social, moral and leadership values. For instance, as a student of ANU, I started teaching classes way back when I was in the third semester. I used to do tutorials for people; I became a tutor in my fifth semester because of my academic record. I was a tutor for one and half years and I was not paid. From being a tutor, when I got to my final year, I became a teaching assistant, so the school management started paying me; and when I finished school, I continued teaching in the same school.To be honest with you, the experience was wonderful, because they are so concerned about your academic development. The school management believes that without imparting moral, leadership values and fear of God in you, in addition to your academic training, that you would still probably become a menace to the society despite the certificate. And I believe that is why the motto of the school is "Equip for every good work". So, as a person, I believe I have been equipped when it comes to my discipline. I even discovered my calling during my schooling in ANU. I realised I would love to be a professor or an authority in my discipline, and that calling was discovered while I was working as a tutor. So, it is like after getting a degree I came all the way from Nigeria for, I also got a direction and purpose for my life.Someone said to me that with my first class, I should be able to clinch a job in a banking sector, but I am convinced that my job is to equip others to impact on their generation.What sacrifice did you make in order for you to emerge the overall best student'First and foremost, in ANU, we use the Canadian or American grading system, which means for you to get an A, you need to score 90 marks, against 70 that some schools are using. The standard is so high to the extent that at the end of the day, you can take your transcript to any school in the world and there won't be a cause for disappointment.As for me, when I first came to All Nations University, i was able to study for six hours every day-consistently. After I saw my first semester result, I started calculating my GDP because of my experience in my previous school in Nigeria. In the first semester, I had an average of 85, and i got a GDP of 37.5, but against all odds that came along the way, i was able to scale through.Another sacrifice I made was that, I did not limit myself to what I was taught in class alone; I tried to read newspapers, textbooks and other materials I could lay my hands on. I also stayed away from both boys and men, because I realised one could not do two things at the same time without losing concentration and focus. I also made the sacrifice of not sleeping very well, the sacrifice of having a stagnant social life; and I thank God for the results I was able to make out of the sacrifices.What are the challenges you think Nigerians schooling in Ghana higher institutions are facing'One of the main challenges Nigerians schooling in Ghana are facing is the inability to understand the environment in which they are schooling. The Ghanaian environment is a little bit different from the Nigerian environment. It is about how you perceive the system you are coming into. If you compare the standard of living in Ghana to Nigeria, you would discover that it's a contrast; because I can say that the Ghanaian society is a little bit conservative. I also feel that one of the greatest problems one can encounter as a Nigerian is the mistake of not studying your environment before making decisions.To me, these challenges are meant to make you a better person, because I, as a person, see my challenges as my opportunities. So, from my perspective, the major challenge Nigerian students face is that they don't understand how the Ghanaian system and the environment in which they have come to study works. Even though the environment is peaceful and Ghanaians are friendly but where we have problems with them is the image they have about Nigerians based on what they watch in Nollywood movies. An average Nollywood film portrays Nigerians as a society that strongly believes in juju, and having various bad characters. If you watch an average Ghanaian movie, you can never see a Ghanaian movie where they would tell you that Ghanaian police officers receive bribe, even though it happens in Ghana society too.Often times, some Ghanaians already have their perception of you as a Nigerian even before you talk to them, and I don't blame them. So, I feel that it is now left for an individual Nigerians to portray himself or herself in the light of the character you want them to see in you.
Click here to read full news..
