A 22-year-old Nigerian has emerged
the best graduating student of John
Hopkins University in the United
States. He obtained a Grade Point
Average of 3.98 out of a possible 4.0
to earn a degree in Neurosciences, SEGUN OLUGBILE writes. A 22-year-old Nigerian, Emmanuel
Ohuabunwa, has made history at John
Hopkins University, United States of
America. Ohuabunwa from Arochukwu,
Abia State, has done the nation proud
by becoming the first black man to make a Grade Point Average of 3.98 out
of 4.0 to bag a degree in Neurosciences
in the university. He was also adjudged
as having the highest honours during
the graduation that was held on May
24 this year. For his efforts, he has won a scholarship
to Yale University to pursue a degree in
medicine. Besides, he has been inducted
into Phi Beta Kappa Society, a
prestigious honour group that features
membership of 17 US Presidents, 37 US Supreme Court Justices, and 136 Nobel
Prize winners. According to Wikipedia, The Phi Beta
Kappa Society is an academic honour
society. Its mission is to “celebrate and
advocate excellence in the liberal arts
and sciences” and induct “the most
outstanding students of arts and sciences at America’s leading colleges
and universities.” It was founded at The College of
William and Mary on December 5, 1776,
and thus it is the oldest honour society
for the liberal arts and sciences and
among the oldest undergraduate
societies in the US. In an online interview with our
correspondent, Ohuabunwa, who was
born in Okota, Lagos and attended Lilly
Fields Primary School, Lagos, said he left
Nigeria after his junior secondary school
education at Air Force Comprehensive School, Ibadan, Oyo State. “My parents moved the whole family
when I was 13 years old. I was about
to begin SS1 at Air Force, Ibadan. When
I got to the US, I was enrolled with my
age mates, which meant at 13, I was in
middle school. I went to Fondren Middle School, which was in the middle of the
ghetto. That was one of the darkest
years for me because I encountered a
lot of peer pressure. Some of the
students, ignorant about Africa, bullied
me and called me names such as ‘African booty scratcher’ because to
them, Africans were dirty and scratched
their butts all the time. “Some asked me if I lived in mud huts
and ate faeces for breakfast. I
remember one day, when I was
walking to the school bus, a boy came
from behind and punched me in the
face, called me an African and walked away. It took everything in me not to
retaliate. I knew that God had put me in
the U.S for a purpose and it did not
involve fighting or selling drugs or
doing the wrong things. “My experience during that year gave
me a thick skin. I learned to stand for
what I thought was right even when
the opposition seemed insurmountable.
I also learned to look at the positive in
all situations. Even though these kids were bullying me, I was still gaining an
opportunity to school in America and
nothing would stop me from making
the best of this opportunity. “The shocker was that the kid that
punched me in the face was black. I
would have expected the blacks to be
nicer to me. Nevertheless, I don’t blame
those kids because they were ignorant
about Africa. All they knew about us was the stuff they had watched on TV
or documentaries, showing primitive
African tribes, living in the jungle and
making noises like monkeys. “In regards to the whites, there might
have been some minor episodes but
again I don’t blame them for it because
it is a problem with stereotypes,” he
said. But in spite of this humiliation and
racial prejudice against him, the first in
a family of three was not discouraged.
He faced his studies and was always
coming top in his class. After he
completed his middle school education, he passed the entrance examination to
DeBakey High School for Health
Professions. It was at this school that
his interest in neurosciences and
medicine started. “By the second year of high school, we
were able to interact with doctors,
nurses and other administrators in the
hospital. The more I learned about
medicine, the more it felt like the thing
God was calling me to pursue and by being in the US I got a lot of people to
support me to do this. Even though in
high school, I got to see first-hand what
it meant to be a doctor. We studied
advanced anatomy and physiology,
learned medical terminology, and learned important skills, such as
checking blood pressure, pulse rate, and
many more. “I knew I wanted to go to the best
school in the US. I had heard that Johns
Hopkins Hospital had been ranked the
number one hospital in the US for the
past 21 years and I wanted to be in
that environment.’’ Worried that his parents might not be
able to sponsor him to the university,
Ohuabunwa purposed to work very
hard. He did and when the result of the
PSAT came, he performed so well that
he won the National Achievement Scholar. By virtue of this award, he received
certificates of recognition from various
organisations including senators from
the Congress of both Texas and the US.
He also received scholarship from the
University of Houston; Rice University, Texas A&M Honors College and many
more. He had also won the Principal’s Award
during the annual awards ceremony at
DeBakey High School. “During our graduation ceremony at
DeBakey, I also won the Award for the
Most Outstanding Senior Young Man
and the student volunteer award for
my volunteer activities in the State of
Texas,” he said. But his breakthrough came when he
won the Bill and Belinda Gates
Foundation full scholarship to any
university of his choice. He worked hard
and gained admission to Johns Hopkins
University to study Neurosciences. But why Neurosciences, Ohuabunwa
said, “I studied Neuroscience, because I
was fascinated with the brain, its
control of our behaviours and how
various diseases such as Alzheimer’s
disease, lead to a decline in its activity. I also minored in Psychology because I
wanted to understand disorders in the
psyche. What causes bipolar disorders
or schizophrenia. I did not just want to
label them as crazy but to understand
what causes these conditions and how we can treat them,’’ he explained. But what does he consider to be the
missing links in the education sector of
Nigeria when compared with that on
offer in US, Ohuabunwa said
unpredictable academic calendar,
corruption, examination malpractice and inadequate funding were some of
the problems confronting his home
country’s university sector. These, he
said, were absent in the US. “There were a few problems with
Nigerian higher education that
contributed to our emigration in 2003.
The first was the number of strikes that
occurred in schools. It took my uncle
seven years to graduate with a degree that should have taken him only four
years. A second problem was the
corruption. We had heard of people
going into universities, because they
paid someone to look the other way. I
also heard of a few cheating scandals, where people would pay someone to
take their exams for them or get a copy
of the exam a few days before,” he said. But is he saying that US university
system has no such problems at all?
Ohuabunwa said, “Although this
sometimes occurs in the U.S, it is less
common because of the strict security. I
remember when taking the Medical College Admissions Test, test required
before one can matriculate into medical
school, each student had to get his
fingerprints taken every time we
entered and left the hall. The whole
place was packed with cameras and security staff that monitored
everything we were doing. The exam
was computerised to make sure that no
one saw the test before the actual
date.” Another difference, he said, is that
America rewards hard-work while the
system also emphasises on a balance
between academic life and
extracurricular activities. On how he won the scholarship to Yale,
Ohuabunwa said his 3.98 GPA in
Neurosciences, and many awards he
had won and God’s grace, contributed
to his winning the scholarship. “As at the time of my application for
medical school, I had a 3.98 GPA of a
4.0. This made me the only black
student inducted into the prestigious
Phi Beta Kappa. I was also awarded the
Becker Family Scholarship for being the most outstanding student in the
Neuroscience major at Johns Hopkins
University. Furthermore, by God’s grace,
I took the MCAT and scored in the top
five percentile. “That, combined with my hours of
volunteer service in different hospitals
across the US allowed me to gain
acceptance into every medical school I
applied to, including Harvard, Yale,
Johns Hopkins, Columbia, and Cornell. As the time came to make a decision, I had
narrowed it down to Harvard and Yale.
Both schools, I enjoyed visiting.
Nevertheless, while my parents prayed,
they asked God to give us a sign of
what school to attend. A few days later, I received a letter from Yale Medical
School, offering me a full ride
scholarship for all four years. That was
the sign from God,” he said. But would he come back to Nigeria
after the completion of his programme,
he said yes. “I am absolutely interested in the
health care policy decisions in Nigeria.
Because there are many changes that
need to occur, I will not rule out the
possibility of coming back after my
studies, in order to join hands with the leaders to make these changes
possible.’’ He added that his ambition is to
become a medical doctor specialising in
brain surgery. “Two weeks ago, my grandmother
passed away after a long battle with
strokes. Even during emergencies, it
was difficult for her to get to the
hospital, let alone get treatment. This is
a common theme not only in the health care system of Nigeria, but in different
countries in the world, where the poor
get neglected. “Second, Nigerian hospitals lack the
infrastructure required to compete with
major hospitals around the world. It
would be an honour to one day
contribute to this transformation that is
necessary for improvements in Nigeria’s health care sector,” he said. He, however, advised Nigerian youths
who have the wherewithal, to go
abroad to study. Ohuabunwa also called
on wealthy Nigerians to invest more in
the education of the poor rather than in
acquisition of material things. Ohuabunwa, however, said that his
parents, who he described as his
greatest role models, contributed a lot
to his academic feat through Godly
training, counsel and guidance. He also
did not forget the impact that his short stay at Air Force school had on him. “I was definitely not the brightest at Air
Force. At that time, I felt like I spent
more time running away from seniors
than focusing on my studies.
Nevertheless, I learned three things at
Air Force that have served me well in the US. I learned discipline, adaptability
and resilience. These attributes helped
me a lot in US,” he said.
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