Royal Tribe: Wukeh Egem-Odey, The 19 Year-Old Business Man and ...

Royal Tribe: Wukeh Egem-Odey, The 19 Year-Old Business Man and ...:     As he, read out his valedictory speech, the crowd could not help but cheer him as ...

Royal Tribe: Wukeh Egem-Odey, The 19 Year-Old Business Man and ...

Royal Tribe: Wukeh Egem-Odey, The 19 Year-Old Business Man and ...:     As he, read out his valedictory speech, the crowd could not help but cheer him as ...

Wukeh Egem-Odey, The 19 Year-Old Business Man and Fashionista That Emerged 2012 Best Graduating Student, Covenant University.

   

As he, read out his valedictory speech, the crowd could not help but cheer him as he beat 1,338 other graduating students of CU. He scored a CGPA of 4.89 out of a possible 5.0 to bag a first class degree in accountancy.

I did not interview him, but read different interviews of him from different sources and I am simply humbled, he is indeed a bundled of wisdom with his priorities right and knows how to have fun without getting into trouble. Above all, he concluded that he owes everything to God who has granted him the grace to top of this graduating set. Meet Wukeh as he tells his story.

My name is Wukeh Egem-Odey, from Cross-River State, the third of my parents’ five children, I attended Loyola Jesuit College, but I was never at the top of my class, I was an average student among the brightest students and I was very playful at that time, did not know the essence of education till later on in SS3, thank God it wasn’t too late. I turned 10 in JSS1 and 16 in 100level, I grew with a slogan that says: ages is just statistics, you are as old as your mind tell you. My graduating at the age of 19 is mainly God’s speed and my parents’ belief; they never saw us as small, they belief once you can stand it, just keep going.  I have always been one of the youngest students in my class all through my years in school and it did affect my performance in secondary school. I was not matured at that time and saw life as playful as it was in primary school, it took me time to find my footing and there were times I was shy about my age. But as I entered the University, my self-confidence was no longer an issue, people would not even believe I am 19, I look, behave and talk like I’m older.

My parents and my older siblings ensured that I did not make the mistakes a lot of my peers made. I never played video games, I never did a lot of what my peers did even though I wanted to, but I did not find myself doing them. I always tried to act my class and not my age and that did help my performance in the university and my self-confidence. I knew the University is a different ball game entirely for reasons I figured out later, so, I was more serious, knew my left from my right and knew what was important. I stayed fly, I was known as a Fashionista, but I had that serious look a times, but the “swag” was always fake. The most amazing part of it all is how I combined it all with starting business, but I’ll answer in 3letters: GOD.

When I got into CU, I had the determination to excel, but I was not so interested in being the best; I just wanted to get to school, have impact on many lives, excel in my studies and make a difference. “I saw the need to make people succeed in life as being more important than anything else. I did not know I would be the best, but I knew I would not be just good or average, I knew I would be great and I ensured I was close to God all through. I know most people would expect me to be unsocial or a nerd, but, I am opposite. Remember, I was playful, so, I would be difficult to leave they play, I had figure out how to fit my play into my books without suffering my books. I was the captain of my basketball team, did a lot of fashion designing and modeling and still hung out with friends, but I never had any official girlfriend in school, even though I was friends with a couple of girls. I tried as much as possible to maintain his chastity; I made a vow to my mum that I would not have a girlfriend.”

” Throughout my four years in university, I battled with a series of health challenges, nobody considered me for this award because I was always sick and on drugs, my mum brought me drugs every month. That I’m alive today is God’s grace.

Vice Chancellor of CU, Wukeh and his mum.

I studied accounting because it is the language of business. I love investments; in fact, I started business off with investments in other businesses, then took the bold step to partake in an annual trade fair. I had always been a customer, but this year, I chose to be on the other side. I sold bread, plantain, egg and indomine, did this with some other people and made a huge profit. Some people laughed at me, but it is foolishness to be shameful of what is gainful. Then, I saw that money is actually easy to make, all you need to do is to create channels to wealth and start small. I have wonderful business partners and we have made hundreds of thousands together. I have made money doing business and also lost money too, but God has been my strength all the way. I just became a partner to two companies, UPGRADE and BINAZONE; watch out, we will soon be on the stock market. I am currently a bronze distributor on Avenue to wealth and hope to rise to platinum soon. Also, I am an Assistant Supervisor in Forever Living Products.

I am considering a career in forensic accounting and also take certification examination in relevant fields, get chartered, get a masters and even a PhD by the grace of God and also, I hope to have professional knowledge in an area that will be directly relevant to Nigeria.

FOUR NIGERIAN TEENAGERS DEVELOP URINE POWERED GENERATOR!!!

In this season of fluctuating availability and high (even inconsistent) fuel price with the need to run an electricity generating set due to rampant power shortage, these four Nigerian teenagers have decided to help us out of this predicament, all we need to do is to take plenty of water (good for our health) so that we can have a larger volume of urine to power the electricity generating set!!!!

The talented young female scientists -- Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola and Faleke Oluwatoyin, all 14, and Bello Eniola, 15 -- debuted their urine-powered contraption at Maker Faire Africa in Lagos, Nigeria. The system works by pouring urine into an electrolytic cell to separate the hydrogen. The filtered hydrogen then goes into a water filter for purification where it then be pushed into a gas cylinder.

 How does it work? 

• Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which separates out the hydrogen.
• The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification, which then gets pushed into the gas cylinder.
• The gas cylinder pushes hydrogen into a cylinder of liquid borax, which is used to remove the moisture from the hydrogen gas.
• This purified hydrogen gas is pushed into the generator.

P.S:

• One liter of urine generates 6hours of electricity (sounds very economical to me :-) )

•  In order to cut down on the explosive risks associated with hydrogen, the team used one-way valves, although it is pointed out that there might still be some danger involved.

Way to go girls!!! I am so proud to have this happening in my country, especially coming from teenage girls, way to go!!!!...

CONGRATS DR.TEMITOPE ADEYEMI

Remember the post "WHEN GIRLS DREAM, RECORDS ARE BROKEN"? Refresh your memory by following this link:  http://royal-tribe.blogspot.com/p/role-models.html
Yesterday, she won "Hallmark of Labour Awards, 2012". She was won NIGERIA’S FIRST YOUNGEST PH.D RECIPIENT 2012. She broke academic record when she became Nigeria’s youngest ever P.HD holder at age 25. 
Congratulations Dr. Adeyemi, more laurels to go!!!!

Below is the list of the awardees:

The two youngest Ph.d reciepients in Nigeria:  

Dr. Temitope Adeyemi and Dr. Opeyemi Sodipe (both ladies and they got their Ph.d at the age of 25.)

Nigeria’s Best Student in WASSCE 2011:

Miss Christianah Adeloye

The next award to One of Africa’s Youngest Exhibiting Artists:

Eight year old, Onarietta Isabella Remet.

Youngest Successful Candidates:

London Based Twins Peter and Paula Imafidon who passed the University of Cambridge Advanced Mathematics Examination at the age of nine.

Royal Tribe: BAYO OMOBORIOWO, A MUSHIN BOY TURNED AN AWARD WINN...

Royal Tribe: BAYO OMOBORIOWO, A MUSHIN BOY TURNED AN AWARD WINN...: Bayo Omoboriowo My name is Bayo Omoboriowo, I spent the first 15years of my life in Mushin, a suburb of Lagos state, rough and tough. ...

BAYO OMOBORIOWO, A MUSHIN BOY TURNED AN AWARD WINNING PHOTOGRAPHER

Bayo Omoboriowo

My name is Bayo Omoboriowo, I spent the first 15years of my life in Mushin, a suburb of Lagos state, rough and tough. I am currently a post graduate student of the University of Lagos, the same institution where I got my first degree in 2009. I graduated as one of the best student in my class, even though I started relatively poorly, but I was able to pull through somehow. I studied Chemistry not because I wanted to, but because my parents advised me to as against Food Science and technology because they thought it was a feminine course. Growing up for me was not child’s play, I did not have a silver spoon in my mouth, I remember my family going through a major trying time while I was in the primary school and I had to hawk pure water to aid my family’s survival; I was well known with it to the extent that some people branded me “Bayo Pure-water”. I remember seeing some of my classmate in cars while I hawked. I hid from them to avoid the embarrassment of being seen. Looking back now, the experiences helped me build a strong inner man obliviously.  

As a teenager in the secondary school, I was academically poor because I was very playful. All I wanted was to flow with the latest trend, roll with the most popular students in school and to form “big boy” even at the expense of my academics. I was so bad that I almost failed my WASSEC (West African Senior School Leaving Certificate), but I realized passing WAEC was not the main point, but whether I was an excellent student, who could be able to succeed going through higher institution? It dawned on me that even though I had a good foundation which I did not maximize, I could not go into the higher institution with the foundation I had built for myself and succeeding in the university would be difficult. Fortunately for me, I gave my life to Christ during my first year in the university. It was at that point that my life got a direction; that was when I realized I had to pass with good grades with no form of examination malpractices; I simply started life from the scratch. This made me study really hard, as I spent all the spare time I had studying, all day, all night, on the street, in the bus, anywhere I found myself free enough to pick my books and at the end of the day, God really helped me. I became so brilliant that I started taking my classmates tutorials. As an undergraduate, my dad gave me an allowance of two thousand naira (2,000) per month, out of which I would pay my tithe, give my offering, pay cab fares, buy school materials and still help others; it was a very meager amount while I had friends who collected fifteen thousand naira a month (15,000)but thank God I was a Christian and I had contentment fortunately for me, so, no funny ideas of making money through illegal means crossed my mind. This taught me how to manage money and be strong irrespective of what situation I found myself. There were times I felt so bad about my lean pocket, there were times I cried about it, there were times I simply had nothing to eat. I had people laugh at me because I didn’t have fine cloths and I just could not blend into the current trend. But all these never pushed me to do anything illegal in order to make money. Someone once requested that I be their examination machinery because I was brilliant. Honestly, the money was attractive, I gave it a thought, but my love for my heavenly father did not allow me break his heart, I declined the offer. I was even an executive in my school fellowship at that time.

As we all know, necessity is the father of all inventions. I have always had photography as a hubby although I had no camera; I borrowed cameras from everyone I could borrow from. Soon, I had people invite me to their events in school to come take pictures for them and before I knew what was happening, I was making good money from photography with which I was able to sustain myself through my University days, enough to buy me food and groceries. Looking back now, I will tell you I do not regret those days, even though they were not good days, but they were the days that built the man I am today. I am grateful to God I was not born with a silver spoon, the experience I had molded me, if I did not have them, maybe I would be doing a white collar job somewhere while my talent rots within me. It built in me a strong inner man, it made me dogged, so much that now I can take my photos anywhere no matter how rough the terrain might seem. I have this strength that makes me pull through anywhere or anything!

I got my first camera right after my graduation. I used my father’s money to buy it and I took it with me to the NYSC camp. Youth corpers loved my photos, so, I made money taking photos while in the camp, I was simply on top of my game. The truth is I wanted to be a cooperate guy with a white collar job wearing suits and feeling good with myself, not a photographer, but by the grace of God, I got some accidental mentors that made me fall in love with photography and made me see a future in it. It was at that point that I started thinking of going professional. I partook in exhibitions like Nigerdelta Fototales, Rivers State and  Delta Fototales Photo Exhibition, both in 2010 during my youth service year and people loved my pictures. That marked the major beginning of my professional photography and God has since being blessing me. By His grace, I have the following nominations and awards so far:

·         2 categories Nominee (Lifestyle and Still life) Nigerian Professional Photography Awards 2012

·         AAF Etisalat Amateur Photography Competition 2nd place

·         National climate change photo contest 2012- 1st position

·         Future Awards Creative Artist of the Year 2012.

My advice for teenagers from some lessons I have learnt so far: God has a plan for you and He will like you to trust Him with your life, do His will and He will crown it all with His success. Do not let hunger and poverty drive you into crime, your maker has already deposited in you what will feed you, all you need to do is to follow your inner man and do everything you do with diligence. You are not a dullard, you are born brilliant, you only need to focus more on your books and ignore the abundant distraction that abound. Sky is not even a limit for you, it is a stepping stone for you and with God on your side, you have all you need to go through life. And also, never hate your parents for not giving you a silver spoon; u can always carve out a platinum spoon for yourself. God bless you!

Enjoy viewing some of Bayo's award winning photos....