In 2017, Bankole Ridwanullahi Ameenulahi wrote Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME)-an entry examination conducted by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB)- to secure admission into his preferred higher institution. He scored 225 out of 400, so the UTME result prompted him to apply for Civil Engineering in Usman Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS). However, he couldn’t make it to Engineering class. Instead, he was offered Statistics.
The 25-year old admission seeker accepted his fate and settled for Statistics and journeyed to Sokoto State, for the first time to pursue a degree in Statistics.
“I arrived late to UDUS that year, even though the C.A. test was about to begin because I got third batch admission. I tried to fall in love with my course and Ahamdulilahi at last, I am now a Statistician”. He said.
In his 100 level he scored 4.26 CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) of 5.0 grading system. His CGPA increased to 4.44 in 200 level, 4.51 in 300 level and finally graduated with 4.55 CGPA.
Bankole felt fulfilled for being a first-class graduate. To him, “It is a dream come true, we used to sing a song in secondary school that ‘when scholars are matching on, I want to be among the scholars, when the scholars are marching on’. I am happy that I am now among the scholars of my faculty and the university as a whole”, he said.
Investigations revealed that Bankole is the only first class graduate of Statistics in the 2020/2021 academic session, becoming the first to attain the feat in five years. He also emerged as the best-graduating student in the Faculty of Physical and Computing Sciences.
Bankole bemoaned encouragement culture at the university. According to him, graduating with a first-class in a course like statistics was not easy, from a school he described as one of the hardest universities in Africa.
“No one encourages me with any prize. Seriously, there is no encouragement for the best students in UDUS which is totally bad. The management has to do something about it because it is not easy to attain third-class not to talk of first class”, he said.
