A 27-year-old Nigerian man named Amos Ishaku who survived a terrorist attack has bagged a Chemical Engineering degree and won a sum of five million naira as the overall best graduating student of Edo State University.
Amos Ishaku is an Internally displaced person who has been living in the Home of the Needy in Benin for nine years, He said in an interview that he was in his penultimate year in secondary school when the terrorist group came to attack his school.
He said that he had to escape by going through the fence and hiding in a cave in the mountains where he was until he found his way and eventually ended up in the Home of the Needy, through his primary school teacher years after he had migrated from one place to another in search of survival.
”To escape, we had to jump over the fence and run into the bush where we slept. The attack led to the closure of the school indefinitely. We lived in caves for months thinking that the insurgency would die down but it did not,” he said.
Amos stated that he was in the Home of the Needy, the pastor in charge encouraged him to go back to school as he had already given up on school and was just concerned with how to survive.
”It was Pastor Solomon Folorunsho and his team who encouraged me to go back to school. I told them I was not going back to school again but they told me that I could still make it. He told me I could become what I wanted and that I just had to put my heart into it,” he said.
He said he went back to school studying under the three and preparing to take university entrance exams. Amos said he wrote the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination seven times before he was able to pass.
Amos was admitted into Edo State University, Nigeria to study Chemical Engineering. He stated that he resorted to taking his studies seriously so as not to make the efforts of the pastor who sponsored his education in vain.
He said he faced many challenges while in the university as the Home of the Needy has just a few resources to cater to all of the victims living in the home. Amos said because of his condition, he did not socialize but instead, he focused on his studies.
”It was challenging. I knew where I was coming from and I didn’t bother with what others had. I just stuck to what I was given by the pastor. I didn’t socialize at all because I knew I was not on the same level as others. We drank Garri most times so reading was the only thing for me,” he said.
Amos stated that he maintained a first class all through intending to graduate with an excellent grade and not even as the best student. He added that it was when he was in his penultimate year, that his lecturer and a senior colleague told him his performance could earn him the award.
He was awarded the overall best-graduating student of the university and was awarded the sum of one million (1,000,000) naira Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for his excellent performance.
He also won a 2.5 million naira Entrepreneurship Award given by the University to the student with the best Business Proposal. He expressed his gratitude to the team of the Home of the Needy for their impact on his life.
Amos said his next goal is to further his studies by earning a master’s degree hopefully with a scholarship. He added that he wants to give back to society just like how he was assisted to achieve his goal.
