Nigerian girl orphaned at six emerges as best medical graduate in Sudanese university

NIGERIAN orphan Dr Islamiyat Oluwatoyin Abdulkadir has emerged as the overall best graduating medical student at Sudan's International University of Africa in Khartoum during its recent graduation ceremony.

 

Dr Abdulkadir, who was orphaned at the age of six, that her late mother, having lost her husband when she was barely three and life has been an uphill battle for her since then. She later enrolled at the Ad-din International Group of Schools to start her primary education but her mother later died when she was just six years old.

 

She was then in primary school and was left in the care of her grandmother, with no hope of furthering her education again. According to Dr Abdulkadir, her academic achievements so far, seemed like a miracle.

 

“Thinking that was the end of schooling for me, my grandmother withdrew me from the school but the founder, Alhaja Sekinat Adekola, gave me scholarship for my primary and secondary education. I emerged best student in my primary and secondary schools and even in my Wasc and had a high score of 274 in my Jamb examinations.

 

“I have always had passion to be a medical doctor but because I was not sure of my chances, I filled biochemistry in my Jamb form and came out with a high score of 274. This score was high enough to get me into the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, with the hope of changing to medicine later," Dr Abdulkadir added.

 

She added that she had to jettison this dream because of the financial commitment involved in studying medicine. It was at this time that an admission team from International University of Africa, Sudan came to recruit Nigerian students into their school of nursing and she presented herself for the written and oral interview and luck once again smiled on her as she emerged the best student and got a scholarship.

 

Dr Abdulkadir said: “After the end of the first semester examination, I emerged the best student and the opportunity I had been waiting for presented itself. I approached the school’s Faculty of Medicine for a cross over from nursing to medicine and the request was granted.

 

“So through thick and thin of financial difficulties, culture shock, hunger and loneliness, I braved it through and emerged the best graduating student of the medical school on September 2, 2016.; For me to clinch the overall best student, I had a CGPA of 3.37/4.00, making a ground breaking record in the history of the faculty by scoring above 3.24, the last highest grade.”

 

Her graduation speech was full of emotions and gratitude to Almighty Allah, who brought her from nothing to something. She added that her dead parents would be happy in their graves with her achievements.