From left: Former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon; Abubakar and UNILAG’s Pro-Chancellor, Prof. Jerry Gana...yesterday.
The University of Lagos (UNILAG)
awarded yesterday a PhD to Mr. Olaoluwa Oluwadamilola (24), Africa’s youngest
PhD holder. Olwadamilola had the best PhD thesis,
titled: “Studies on Fixed Points of Contractive and Expanding Maps in
Multi-Dimensional Spaces”. He scored 5.0 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA).
Bakre Oluwafemi Abubakar, a graduate
of Electrical/Electronics, was the 2012/2013 Convocation Valedictorian, with a
superlative CGPA of 4.86.
Oluwadamilola’s parents are
missionaries with the Deeper Christian Life Ministry.
They gave birth to him while on
missionary work in African Central Republic, a French-speaking country, where
Oluwadamilola had his basic and tertiary education.
He got a B.SC in Mathematics and M.SC
and Physics before returning to Nigeria in October, 2009.
According to Oluwadamilola, he began
his PhD in 2010, courtesy of a scholarship from the General Overseer of the
Deeper Christian Life Mission, Pastor Williams Kumuyi. He spent the minimum
three years for a PhD scholar in school.
Speaking with reporters at UNILAG
Auditorium One, Oluwadamilola said: “I used to come first in my secondary
school days, but not always. My performances became better when I entered the
university.”
On his challenges during the
programme, he said: “As a Christian, my schedule is very tight. I am focused.
There were times when I faced distractions from friends who wanted to take me
out. There is nothing bad in it, but it can make you concentrate less. There
were times when I had job offers and was tempted to take them.
“I was discouraged at the beginning.
One gets a feeling at the beginning of one’s doctorate programme that all the
research topics had been considered by previous scholars and so there is
nothing else to do, except for the most complicated ones that are most times
beyond one’s ability. “Sometimes when you send your papers to international
journals, they return it for one reason or the other. That does not mean your
work is not good enough, but it can be very discouraging.”
On his next plan, he said: “I want to
take another doctoral programme, which will be in either Mathematics or
Physics. I will think of what topic to choose before I eventually go ahead.”
Abubakar, the valedictorian,
described himself as someone from a privileged home.
Born of banker parents, he said it
was not too difficult for him to study Electrical/Electronics, adding: “I will
not describe myself as a bookworm, as I try to normalise everything I do. I am
not a party freak, but once in a while, I attend social functions with my
friends. I am privileged to have been born into a comfortable home. I must
confess that I am a product of good advice. I chose the kind of friends I knew
would influence me positively and you will always find me in their company.”
Would you like your child to be like this? or do you want to be like this? Never loose confidence on yourself. It is well.
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