By: Ibrahim Sofiyullaha Olaitan
On 9th March, 2018, First Technical university matriculated Afonja Maryam among a set of about 200 hundred pioneer students into the centre of learning.
Admitted to pursue a first degree in Microbiology, fast forward to 2022, she is graduating with a Macro CGPA, as the best student of the class.
Born in the biggest town in the Saki East Local Government Area of Oke-Ogun Oyo State, Afonja Maryam set the pace in academia race by hoisting a CGPA of 4.91 becoming the first overall best scholar of the First Technical University Ibadan.
But history has never been short of Maryams doing wonders. Here again is another cannot-be-human but member of the human race personage, who has the world under her feet, sitting on the crest of the waves, on the up and up.
You may once have passed by her and not notice. She is always adorning less-flashy cover-all Hijabs, walking gently on soil, speaking softly but audibly. Humble to the nucleus. Ever glowing with her shyly-brazen face.
At a time of the world when Hijab is getting international stigmatization and constant ignominious labels, this is a strong message from Maryam to the world of critics that Hijab is only a veil to the body. It’s only a cover for head and not to the brain at all.
Today, she is awarded the Best Cumulative Grade Point Average award, the overall best graduating student award, and the Vice Chancellor award.
She is renowned for her rare talent of cramming. Maryam can cram a voluminous text with all
punctuations and annotations unaltered. “I can cram anything even calculations without even understanding it” She remarks.
Before you rush to shoot her on why would she cram without understanding, she later adjusted her sail to the storm along the line. “I continued with my cramming system until I got to 200-Level first semester when we needed to do mathematics and CSC, due to the fear I had with calculations, that was why I met with one of my classmates called Stephen to help me with mathematics, since then I had found group reading interesting and memorable and that was the system I adopted till I graduated”
She has a great future ahead. Celebrate her!
