FEMI TAIWO @ 30: Lessons in Selflessness (ii)

By Suraj Oyewale

Continued from: Part 1

GCE 1999 AS A TURNING POINT

Again, Femi was instrumental to my newfound confidence and self-belief. As was the practice, most of us attempted GCE in SSS2 and when the results came out, Femi, not surprisingly, made 9 distinctions (6 A1s, 3 B2s). I also surprised myself by making 7 distinctions (1 A1, 2 B2s, and 4 B3s) in that GCE we wrote from SSS2. Shortly after the results came out, I remember Femi coming to me, asking me for my result and helping me calculate my Aggregate (sum of grades in top 6 subjects) and it came to 14. In our school’s tradition, anybody that made not more than Aggregate 12 in WAEC will be inducted into the school’s Roll Call of Academic Honour (called Distinction Students) and have their name engraved on a board that is conspicuously displayed at the main center of the school showing the names of all ‘Distinction Students’ since 1952. That was the highest honour any OGS student could crave for.

Principal’s office, OGS. Distinction Board is just adjacent this building

Femi told me, ‘Suraj, you made aggregate 14 in GCE you attempted at SSS2, you only need a little more efforts to make 12 or better in the upcoming WAEC, to have your name on the Distinction Board’. I never for the life of me thought of having my name enter that board. Throughout my five and a half years it never came to my mind. But here we were, our WAEC few months away, our private GCE result out and I made close to Aggregate 12. Femi’s advice prompted me to work harder for our WASSCE and when the results came out in October 2000, I made it: Aggregate 10 – second only to Femi!  Femi knew he was going to make it, as he made Aggregate 6 (the best possible) from the GCE we did in SSS2, but he propped another person to come share the honour with him. It was easy for him to want to be only one to make it, to earn the bragging that ‘I finished secondary school as the only student that made Distinction Board in our set!’, but he chose to motivate another person to it. Now, that board is still conspicuously displayed in our secondary school, showing Femi’s and my names as the two Distinction Students in WASSCE 2000. Lesson 2: Holding another man along on your way to success does not diminish your own success chance!

Femi did not stop at drawing me to the Distinction Board, he literally led me to the university. I remember one afternoon in the front of Teachers’ Quarters 5, I was entering school and met Femi on the path. It was at the time we were all preparing for UME, and he asked me which school I chose. I told him Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He was so excited, and in his grandiose elements, he shouted, GREAT IFE!!! Ife was Femi’s dream school and he had also chosen Chemical Engineering and Ife as his preferred course and school respectively.

In the week we finished our SSCE in June 2000, I had visited Femi at his place in Offa and the manner he eulogized Ife fired me up. He told me how beautiful Ife was, how brilliant students meet in Ife, how competitive the school was etc. That was his last week in Offa and he was preparing to move back to meet his family at Ilorin (his Mum had been transferred from Offa before we finished Secondary School). That was the first time I heard about GPA. We just finished writing our WAEC and Femi was already looking forward to making 5 points when he entered Ife the next year. I watched him as the discussions sounded like Greek to me. We parted with the promise that we will be meeting at Ife as Jambites the next year. Unknown to him, he would be gaining admission into Ife that same year!

Ife – our dream school

Femi had had a go at UME as an SSS2 student in 1999 and scored 231, but he never followed it up, waiting for the real battle in SSS3. Unknown to him, Ife had given him admission with that 1999 UME and already posted admission letter to their Post Office Box in Ilorin (NOTE: If there is anything I respect most about Ife, it is their merit-based admission policy. Without any tipping or even follow-up, you are guaranteed of admission once you make the cut-off point, this is why brilliant students from poor homes find it easy to gain admission into Ife).

Femi got to Ilorin the next week and surprised to see his admission letter! It was unbelievable. He had just finished his WAEC and normal UME, expecting the results, and thrown on his laps was an admission letter based on a UME he attempted in SSS2! Thankfully, he had made his O’level results from the GCE he did in SSS2. He took the letter, with other credentials, rushed to Ife campus for late registration. He was in 100 level already, before his WAEC result came! News spread among us that Femi had gained admission into university.  He also never imagined it.

Our UME and WAEC results came out in August and October respectively , and I, his boy, also did well by my own poor student’s standard. I scored 243 in UME and cut-off point for Economics in Ife was 242. I was offered admission without knocking on any lecturer’s or admission officer’s doors. The University’s decision to streamline its academic sessions by merging 2000 and 2001 UME in-takes meant I had to wait till September 2001 before I resumed at Ife. It also meant Femi had to wait for almost 6 months before resuming 200 level.

*Conclusion in Part 3