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My mom smiled as she read my
final year project’s dedication. It read: For
those who have learned to love chemistry despite all odds, for it is possible
that one dislikes a thing which is good for oneself and that one loves a thing
which is bad for one. But Allah knows and we know not. I had returned home to receive her blessings.
Seeing her sitting on the praying mat, I knelt before her and hugged her
simultaneously while she made dua’ for me. A mother’s love, what can surpass
it? She was elated when I called her earlier this week that I had collected my
final result and crossed the border line.
I flashback to when I collected my 500L Harmattan semester (was it
really Harmattan cos it seemed like Rain semester to me) result, my cumulative
GPA was 3.49. Alhamdulillahi ‘ala kulli haal( Praise is to Allah in all
circumstances). This was not how I had planned my final year. I had envisaged
that I would be in the comfort zone like having a strong 2-1 that practically
nothing could happen to. I had imagined that I would have time to do other
things than school work. I didn’t want to be reading like I was in 100 level,
trying to build a good GP but alas! I was on the border line I had no choice
but to still activate READING MODE. I recall telling Dr. Abdulhameed (Abu
Rodiah) that I was given a grade E in
CHM 545 (Food Chemistry, who would say
he got an E? After all the ‘dikoko- dikaka’ Prof. Faboya put my class
through in dressing ‘corporate’. He had often said he didn’t like a Dugbe class
(large class) and we were many in my class. Abu Rodiah had said jokingly that
maybe I didn’t pray well. I think he further said I must have prayed in this
format: ‘Olohun je ki gba E ninu ise yi’ ( A in Yoruba language is pronounced ‘
a ‘as in apple
and not a as in blade).
I think he continued by saying that next time I should say. ’Olohun Jo, je ki
gba a’(God, Please let me score an 'A'). There wasn’t going to be a next time. I didn’t do food chemistry the
following semester.
I tried to think when my plan for
final year started to crumble (comfy zone c G.P.A.). It was not news that
chemistry department was amongst the ‘crazy’ departments in school. I had tried
to cross in my sophomore year to CSE dept. It’s a difficult task when one is
trying to cross from one faculty to another. You try to attend the lectures of
your department and also try to attend the lectures of the department you want
to cross to. It’s like trying to look left and right at the same time. So what
I did was I gave myself a duration and
after that duration if my crossing wasn’t sure I will stay put in
Chemistry. Well I’m sure we all know
what I did. I had learnt of people who waited till a week before exams began before finally accepting their fate that they could not change courses had bad results that same semester. A good number
of them do not recover from the effect that semester had on their
CGPA. I tried hard to think again, to
ask myself when going down the hill began. Sometimes Chemistry department makes
you think you’re not smart, like you are pouring water in a basket. You think
of all the 7 a.m. lectures in the cold Harmattan, the long standings while
receiving lectures, the STRESS and then you collect your result. What do you
see? My set is a very special set. We’ve
been through a lot but then I’m glad we still achieved some feats (we didn’t
lose anybody to death, Alhamdulillahi). I think for most of my classmates our
dreams started crumbing in 200L. CHM 231 a 4- unit course dealt greatly with
us. I recall the exam vividly. It is one of those few exams I have written in
my life that I practically did not KNOW ANYTHING. Worse, it was a fill-in-the
gap type of exam. I was really tempted; I thought I was going to cheat. I
thought I had to cheat if I wasn’t going to fail but thank Allah I was able to
overcome the temptation. I had 59 C when I got my result (trust me I know the
value of 1 mark). Then there was CHM 211, another 4- unit course. Inorganic
chemistry has always been a mystery to me even till my final year. Sometimes
you’re confident that they should go and mark the script in heaven (as if that
is possible) that you’ll get an A but when people start collecting results and
you realize that ‘DEF jamz’ was distributed
around, you’ll be VERY GRATEFUL if you get a C. Then came second semester, the
infamous CHM 222(Angel of Chemistry) dealt another blow on us not forgetting
other courses borrowed from other departments like PHY 202 ( Dr. Yeye Odu punished us by not giving us constants in the test). Results were so bad generally that people started crossing in the
beginning of the third year. I sensed that we just got started in Chemistry
department. The coming times proved my thoughts right. I think in every
department, if you’re able to survive your third year then you’re a
genius. The third year for my set was
the year we became the black sheep of the department. My set became the set
practically every lecturer in the department loathed and it all started after
we collected our first semester results. CHM 311, an inorganic chemistry dealt
another serious blow on us not forgetting Prof. Ige’s CHM 331, I learnt people
sneaked out of the exam hall after seeing the his own section of the exam.
They sneaked out to go and delete the course. I recall a lecturer that
invigilated and saw the CHM 331 question paper,I think she said, ‘se masters ni
awon omo yi se ni?’(Are these students writing Master's degree exam?). But all this was just the beginning, few days after we
collected our 300L first semester result, my set became notorious in the whole
of LAUTECH. That incident caused so much pain to the members of my class, such
that some of us are still licking the wounds till now. A list was pasted around Chemistry department
with the names of the lecturers alongside grades which included 'courses' like
approachability, teaching skills etc. A few lecturers in the department passed
according to the list but it was unanimously concluded that my set was
responsible for pasting that list. After all, the Yoruba people will say ‘Aje
ke lana, omo ku leni, tani o mo pe Aje to ke lana ni o pa omo je’(The witch cried last night, the baby died this morning, who doesn't know that it was the witch that killed the baby). Alas that’s
how my set got into a trap we really never got freed from and most of us paid
dearly especially with our grades for that semester. I recall Dr. Adeoye when
he took us CHM 312. He had just returned from Canada, he wasn’t around when the
list was pasted but the news got to him. The first class he took us in CHM 312.
I think he said, I learnt you gave me two carryovers, I have come to do them’.
Then I knew we were doomed, only Allah could save us. But if you ask me, I do
not think we were responsible for pasting the list, what’s my alibi? Well there
were some lecturers whose name were on
that list that and they had never taught us, some were not even in LAUTECH
anymore so how could we have known. Though the odds were against us since our
predecessors were not in school as they were doing their IT (Industrial Training). Worse, our set was not given the
opportunity to choose, there was no INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY OPTION or ANALYTICAL
CHEMISTRY OPTION. There was no escape for us. To make matters worse there were two important
courses that the lecturer who taught us wasn’t the one who set our TEST and EXAM
questions. By the time we had resumed for our penultimate year, most of us knew
that the question wasn’t about graduating with a first class, 2-1 or 2-2 the
right question became ‘when will I graduate?’ . I recall someone told me that
300L second semester alone didn’t make some individuals go for IT.
**********
‘ONAWOLE ABDULMUJEEB’, Dr. Abdulhameed called.
‘Sir’, I replied. He was sitting on the podium in the old chemistry laboratory.
My class rep. assisted him in distributing our final results. I could feel my
heart beat faster, I had remembered Ukty Monthurat Ogunyemi’s comment on MSSN
LAUTECH’S Facebook group . She had talked worshiping God wasn’t a business
deal such that it was only when things happened your way you were a true
servant and if otherwise you were rebellious. One had to be true to God in all
circumstances. May God help us have faith in all circumstances because
seriously it's not easy. I flipped through the pages till I got to the last page
(all the results right from 100L was printed till date). I scanned through till
I saw to the bottom. Cummulative Semester G.P.A =.3.62, Cummulative Semester
Class=SECOND CLASS UPPER. Immediately I prostrated not minding that I was still
on the podium. Alhamdulillahil ladhi bini’ matihi tatimus saalihat (Praise is to
Allah who by His blessings perfects all good things’. I left the podium and hugged
the person that wanted to ask me a question about CATENATE CHEM E-BOOKS he had
bought, he was a fine chap in his third year. I called my Mom some moments
later and then my Dad. Mom was so glad no doubt and Dad was happy but still I
could sense a little bit of disappointment in his voice, he reminded me a
little bit of KAMBILI’S father (Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus) when she
came second position. I know the idea of having to cross the border line at the
final lap makes one sound like an average student but then I can vouch for even
those that will graduate with a third
class in my set. We’ve been through a lot and I know most of us were the best
in the various industries we worked during our IT. Our results might not say
it. But we’re TRULY LADOKITES and I know someday the world would come to give
us the positive recognition we deserve. Insha Allah we’ll FLY HIGH. The most
important thing is Allah’s blessings. I pray He blesses us in all that we do
and I also pray I am one step closer in building the BRIDGE. I am grateful or
the friendship of all those wonderful people I have met during my journey in
this great citadel of learning. Thanks for proving that water can be as thick
as blood. Till we meet again.
