Kaosarah Abisola Oyesiji was the Best Graduating Student of Accounting, Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Kwara State with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.59.
She said to achieve the feat, she had to make sacrifices which included depriving herself of the use of her phone and exiting the social media space for over a month while the exams lasted.
Tears coursed down her cheeks when she was called up as the best accounting student at the school’s convocation. She later told Daily Trust that they were tears of joy for all her years of struggle and deprivation.
Kaosarah said, “It was not an easy journey to get to this point but I give thanks to Almighty Allah for all His favours and for making sure that all my sacrifices were not in vain. Though I was prayerful and always ready to learn from others to gain more knowledge from what people are telling me, I let a lot to help me make it.”
She said two weeks to the examination, she dropped her phone with one of her lecturers. “We usually use two weeks to write the examinations which means I was without my phone for six weeks,” she said.
She added, “My colleagues criticised me for that but I told them that I knew what I was after and how I wanted to end my struggle as an undergraduate. Social media helps but it could also contribute negatively to one’s education.
“My conviction then was that not using my phone for over a month and also staying off the social media can’t actually cause a problem for me. Alhamdulillah that I made it,” she added.
Kaosarah, who said she has many male friends, added that said she was able to curtail their advances. “I have a lot of male friends but anytime I want to read, I don’t give them any chance. I did not allow relationship matters to disturb me but at a time, I got stuck and it got to a point where it almost boomeranged, but I was determined and I thank God for that.”
She advised students and youth to believe there is nothing that is impossible to achieve and to be ready to ginger themselves so they can make it in life.
“Always motivate yourself and put your trust in Allah. I remember a time during my exams when I found it difficult to assimilate what I read. But I adopted reading after my Subhi prayer and the tide just changed. That period to me is very significant to read.
“I am a social person and I got out and played with my friends a lot even during my exams but I don’t allow that to disturb my studies to read for 12 hours a day.
Why I cried on the day of the convocation was that “it got to a time when I thought I could not achieve it but many of my friends, lecturers and others that surrounded me, advised that I should just keep on working,” she added.
