Thanksgiving Chronicles Day 3: He Crowns my effort

Put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success Prov 3:6

When God gives you the 'expo' who is the lecturer that can fail you?

I was very academically bright as a child. We really didn't have a choice. Our parents put us in the best schools, were hands on when it came to their involvement in our education. Daddy was the Current affairs, Chemistry and Biology tutor and Mum was the Maths tutor. That is not to mention extra lessons out of school and during holidays. We had every book on the school's list of books and either Mum or Dad will travel from Akure to Ibadan during the long vacation to shop our textbooks at Odusote Bookshop. We all skipped at least 1 primary school class to get into secondary school. I and my brother went to secondary school from Primary 5 and my sister crushed Federal government exams and left for Secondary school from Primary 3. You could say we were the highly 'alakowe' (literate) family but I'd say God really pulled every stop out to crown our efforts with success.

In 1995 (aged 15), in SS2 I was enrolled for the GCE exams and typically at least one year before, my Dad had gone to the WAEC office and bought 10-15 years’ worth of past questions to support my preparation. My friends and I studied hard in preparation for this exam but when the exams started, it was discouraging to hear daily that the papers had leaked and some students had seen it in advance. We were not just hardworking student, we were also born again Christians and refused to be drawn into the search for leaked paper (also called expo). We kept one another motivated. We would study together and had the habit of regularly locking ourselves up in our rooms to pray together. 

Eventually it was time to write our Biology paper. Again the paper had leaked but we were not interested. The night before we decided to go through past questions. I brought out a past questions and we went through all the questions together. When we got into the exam the next day, our Biology exam questions were taken verbatim from the past question we had studied. I don't think the order was even changed. It was a smooth ride. Only God could have orchestrated that.  It was also during this exam that we were attacked by an armed robber in the hostel. That did not stop what God would do. I passed in flying colours.

Fast forward to University days. I had joined in 200L coming from polytechnic. I had gone into FUTA with my eyes on a 1st class honours and had hit the ground running from Day 1 never falling below 1st class in any single semester. My motto was not Work hard, Play hard. It was Serve God, Work hard and Prepare for the future.  I surrounded myself with like-minded focused friends. We used to say, Christianity is not a call to failure. 

I remember when we wanted to present our industrial experience work. We had this Lecturer nicknamed 'Aunty'. She was the terror of the department and no matter how prepared you were, when Aunty questions you, you lose every sense of composure. I had called home and we had specifically prayed about Aunty in our family devotion. On the day of the defence, Aunty was in the front row grilling people. Then it was my turn…. we now call on Yemi Agbaniyaka. I mounted the podium and as soon as I introduced myself, before I could even introduce my topic, someone peeped through the door and beckoned to Aunty to come. She rose and left the room. I had a swimmingly confident presentation and soon I as I concluded and rounded up, guess who walked back in- Aunty of life (Lol!!). God moved that mountain of a lecturer for me that morning.

When you get into the University through direct entry in those days, you still had to complete four 100L University prerequisite courses along with your regular 200L courses. Although these courses were allocated 0 units, you had to pass them or else you keep retaking them until you pass. It was a difficult time juggling it all as lecturers were not considerate with class timings and cared less about direct entry students. There were so many clashes and I remember my first time in one of the classes was the exam day. I had all Cs and Ds in the prerequisite courses but didn't mind as they were 0 unit and didn't impact on CGPA.

Despite all, I managed my least 1st class GPA of 4.53 in my 1st semester in Uni and with continuous focus, consistent hard work and God's help built my CGPA up to 4.79 by the 1st semester of my final year. Then I decided it was time to let my hair down and have a relaxed and laid back semester. I had started to do this until few weeks into the semester, in my dream, I saw one of our lecturers who also happens to be my Dad's friend. He strongly warned me and told me to get up now get my books, now is not the time to relax! I didn't take that dream lightly. I reverted back to my efiko mode and that last Semesters had As all through in all my courses that semester and the max possible GPA of 5.0. Call it finishing strong. Little did I know what God was doing!

 After our final exams, someone on the University Senate decided there were too many 1st class students in our set across the University and the decision was taken to allocate course units to the those four 0 unit prerequisite courses we had done in 200L where I had all Cs & Ds. When my friend Taiwo called to inform me over the phone, I was distraught. All those years of hard work seemed to be crashing down right in my very eyes. We need to pray it doesn't affect you. Even though it wasn't going to affect Taiwo, we were both 1st class students in the same class and had this very healthy relationship rather than competition and she was genuinely concerned. Cut the long story short, the decision was implemented and this slashed my CGPA terribly but not enough to take me down. My CGPA landed from 4.79 back to 4.53 - the GPA I started with in my 1st semester. While it may have seemed all the hard work of the years in between went into waste, I know if God has not warned me in that dream, it would have ended a different story. When men say it is a casting down, God says it's a lifting up. That was my University testimony. I came, I saw, I fought and I finished strong. I dreamt it and despite all oppositions God made it happen. The photo there was my Graduation finishing with a 1st class honours in food science & Technology. 

God showed me success is not just a function of hard-work but of God's grace.