EFIWE GISTS: Meet UI Best Graduating Female Student, Linda Chiamaka Mgbechidinma

Mgbechidinma Linda pictured with the VC, Prof. Idowu Olayinka


"Do you know that before and after my class, I will simply go on YouTube and watch some of the topics with all the diagrams and illustrations?..."   


-Mgbechidinma Chiamaka Linda, University of Ibadan best female Graduating student.


Mgbechidinma Chiamaka Linda doesn't just have a First Class Degree in Microbiology from the University of Ibadan, the leading Linda , with scintillating sagacity is the Best Female Graduating Student of the 69 years old Institution in this year Graduation Ceremony, Best Female Graduating Student, Faculty of Science and Overall Best Graduating Student, Department of Microbiology.


Her precocious academic achievement is as amazing as it is paradoxical. This is the same Chiamaka who had been academically written off, following dismal performances at the primary school! According to her, "my academic performance was so bad that my parents no longer bothered to check my report card as every space would be replete with red ink!"


"I was ridiculed beyond bearing. I was so poor that my parents would be calling my younger ones to be teaching me and be reading the Bible on my behalf during morning devotion. But when it became so obvious that I was hopeless , I turned to God. My only prayer became "God, open up my brain ". There was no other prayer point besides "God , open up my brain" . Today God has proved Himself beyond my imagination ", she said.



However, contrary to the way many students use social media, intelligent Linda confessed to me in an interview that social media contributed significantly to her canny mental grasp! "How?", I asked with a sense of skepticism . "Do you know that before and after my class, I will simply go on YouTube and watch some of the topics with all the diagrams and illustrations? For your information, I never stepped into the University Central Library, Kenneth Dike Library to read for a day. I read throughout in my room!"


"No boyfriend, but I participated in politics. Some elements of distraction assisted me as well. I learned as students shouted, jumped up and down. I read for hours non stop and slept on my chair and table. My bed is still as intact as I bought it", stated the perspicacious Linda who sees with half an eye.



Hugging Liinda this way is symbolic of the way I usually embrace excellence. Linda epitomizes excellence. Aristotle says "excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.


Written by 

Sunday Saanu


Mr Saanu is a Media Assistcant to the Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Journalist, Media Consultant , Media Scholar , Motivational Speaker.


Credit: Optimistic Points

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