Date: 2018-10-25

One of the most cherished moments by parents is to witness the graduation ceremony of their children but for one Mrs Akinremi, she died at the hospital on the day she gave birth to her fourth child, Abdulkadri Idowu, sometimes in 1982.

Fast forward Tuesday October 23, 2018, Abdulkadri Idowu Akinremi emerged the best graduating student out of 12, 108 graduands during the 34th convocation ceremony of the University of Ilorin (Unilorin).

Speaking with our reporter after collecting his prize, Abdulkadri, who hails from Ado-Odo, Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State said, he was raised by his elder sister, Kehinde following the passing of his mother.

According to him, Abdulkadri, who is the last and fourth child of a family of six, after leaving secondary school in 2008, he wrote the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) thrice without success.

"Right from my secondary school, I wanted to study medicine unfortunately for three years, I wrote UTME choosing Medicine and Surgery at University of Lagos without success. I was frustrated and I fasted for several days but my sister, Kehinde kept encouraging me never to give up.

"My sister kept telling me that I will make it in life. One day, my elder brother Taiwo asked me to visit him at Ikorodu and on getting there, he handed me a UTME slip telling me to go and sit for the examination the following day. I replied that I was not prepared for any examination but he said I should just go out there and do my best."

Speaking further, the 26-year-old said he passed the exam and was eventually admitted into Lagos State Polytechnic, where he studied Food Technology and bagged a National Diploma as the best student in his department and faculty in 2013.

Abdulkadri said despite getting employment offers, he decided to continue with his education career by securing admission to 200 Level at Unilorin through direct entry.

"Ever since I became a student of the University of Ilorin, I have never looked back and in my last two sessions, I ensured that I maintained a CGPA of 5:00.

" My emergence as the best graduating today was not accomplished overnight, I worked so hard for it from my first day on campus," the Food Science graduate said.

He however appreciated the head of his department and his lecturers for the knowledge impacted on him and their advice.