At
age 24, some of us were still struggling with our first degree…Lol. The
University of Lagos (UNILAG) on Wednesday June 11, awarded a PhD to
24–year-old Olaoluwa Oluwadamilola making him Africa’s youngest PhD
holder. He also had the best PhD thesis graduating with a Cumulative
Grade Point Average (CGPA) 5.0.
Olaoluwa
obtained a B.SC in Mathematics and M.SC and Physics in African Central
Republic before returning to Nigeria in October, 2009. He began his PhD
in 2010, courtesy of a scholarship from the General Overseer of the
Deeper Christian Life Mission, Pastor Williams Kumuyi. 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. 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. 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,” he said.
wonderful
ReplyDelete