I met Bishop David Oyedepo :Graduating from Covenant University

Sometimes last year, I and some student leaders were hosted to a dinner by the chancellor of our school Bishop David O Oyedepo. During the meeting we had the opportunity to share our testimonies of how we had benefitted from the school and the obedience of Papa to the Vision. I shared my story, and I would like to share it here with you because I know someone needs it.

I AM HUMAN

In 2017, I gained admission into Covenant University to study Industrial Physics-Applied Geophysics. Renowned for its highly employable graduates in Nigeria and around the globe as well as numerous headlines relating to disciplinary actions that contradicts the basic lackadaisical attitude found in other universities in Nigeria.

I was happy I was given my dream course, but I was terrified by the rumors I had heard and my shattered dreams of studying abroad although I passed my SAT, IGCSE and TOEFL examinations. My admission into the university was one I considered as a punishment, and I was unmotivated to study.

Like most students I was scammed, It was the basic line of?“you will just school there for one year and you will eventually go abroad”.?I had listened to a lot of motivational speakers before gaining admission so I knew?“I could achieve anything I put my mind too”.?I deliberately avoided orientation events but the first one I attended, I learnt about the grading system. It sounded so easy to get an?A (just get 70%). I also learnt about probation and getting advised to withdraw. Since the promise was for me to spend a year and move to a new school, as a precaution my goal for my first year was to fail until I was advised to withdraw, and I will leave the school after a year to study abroad?(sounded like the perfect accountability plan to me).

FRESHMAN

During my first year, I barely sat with my course mates in the lecture theatre except during test periods, I recall not attending a couple of chapel services and deliberately skipping my first test in 3 courses (EDS, CIT and CST). My bedtime was way before 9:00 pm then I will wake up to sign rollcall and sleep back. I was basically passing time. I read for exams, but it wasn’t a serious preparation. Surprisingly I had a 3.95/5.0 in my first semester the least grade I had in all my courses that semester was a ‘C’’ (God definitely had better plans for me).

?In my second semester things were slightly different, I didn’t have a plan to do better or fail. I wanted to pass certain courses with an ‘A’ like my statistics and C programming which I did. My spiritual life in this semester was worse. I attended less than five services in this semester. I recall that parents of those who had over 10 chapel defaults were called, at the time I had about 12 but mine were not called. My result came out I barely had a B and my result was decorated with “C’s” my GPA was 3.61/5.0 crashing my CGPA to 3.78/5.0.?A number of students were affected by the OMEGA semester crash, but I was the cause of my own problem. By the end of the second semester, my parents made it clear that they had no intentions of changing my school. I had to decide about my future.

?Sometime in my first semester some of my colleagues kept encouraging me to join a student group on campus called ENACTUS. I went for the interview with barely any knowledge of the organization but with a zeal to be a part of something. Overtime I found my purpose and passion in volunteering. Volunteering changed my life and will always be a huge part of my success story. Overtime, I realized that my energy towards volunteer and the results I generated from volunteering was inversely related to the output in my academics.

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EXODUS

In the beginning of my second-year things were slightly different. I was sick. I visited the health center weekly, barely attended classes and eventually had to leave school on medical exeat. I had ovarian cyst and later within the semester I had bile at the same time (I was eventually healed).

I recall, the Sunday when the new chaplain preached my roommates went for service but I didn’t (I barely went for service in this semester for health and my own personal reasons which were not tangible).?When they came back, they kept saying?“Tolu you should go for chapel services, there is a new chaplain”?(I just thought to myself, if the people that are worse than me can say this then maybe I should go and maybe something good will happen). When it was time to write exams, I was worried about my attendance for health reasons, but I was favoured, and I had exactly 75% attendance in almost all my courses, it was about 80% for general courses. The Sunday before exam I stayed back for the?believers foundation class?and that was the day my life changed. The chaplain was busy, and?Boluwatife Morawo?(God bless you!) moderated the service. I received Holy ghost baptism (e shock me! I didn’t think it was that easy). I was reading a 3-unit course (Electronics 1) for over two weeks in preparation for the exam, I barely understood a thing but after that service I understood everything, and I passed that course with a ‘B’. My GPA was a 3.83/5.0 bring my CGPA to a 3.80/5.0 (I was happy about the progress, but it wasn’t even up to where I started from).

Overtime I decided to make conscious effort to break free from having GPA that started with the number “3”. It was still in the second-class upper region, but I wanted something better. And Pastor kept preaching about borderline result. When my dad saw my result for the previous semester, he told me about a point grading system he used for my brother from his first year to his final year. For every A he got in a semester he was gifted a certain sum of money and the range of the A affected the price money.?(This was the beginning of my second semester in my second year, maybe if I was serious, I would have cashed out big lol!)?It was a form of motivation that I didn’t also know I needed, in all honesty it helped. In my first semester I noticed that one of my course mates went for CHOP daily (then CHOP wasn’t compulsory) so I told myself that if could serve God like that then I could too. Her name is?Mokutima Okon?(God bless you)! I also had a course mate on probation, and I decided to tutor her. New semester, resolution to serve God better, motivation of money reward and helping someone else to grow academically which was a form of accountability what could possibly go wrong? (NOTHING!) The following semester was different I had a 4.48/5.0 and CGPA was a 3.97. I was so happy about the GPA, but that CGPA was just crawling, I thought to myself.

GROWTH X BALANCE

?I recall when one of my lecturers,?PhD. Kehinde Oyeyemi?(God bless you!) spoke to me after my second year second semester result. It was the first time my GPA started with a “4” it was a 4.48/5.0. He said “Tolu, I went to check your result and I was surprised, I thought you were on a 5.0/5.0 but I checked your result from your first year and I saw where the damage was done. It is okay, you are good! You don’t need a first-class degree just finish with a 4.0 and you will be fine”.

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?In my Third year, I had more responsibilities. The reward of hard work located me, more work. (Favour found me, this should be a different article) In the first semester of my third year my GPA was a 4.39/5.0 and my CGPA flew to a 4.05. The second semester was SIWES, and I had the same CGPA. In my first semester of my final year, I aimed for a 5.0/5.0 and I had a 4.62/5.0 bring my CGPA to a 4.13. I was devastated but I was happy about my growth. In October 2021, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Physics-Applied Geophysics, second class-upper honours, my CGPA was a 4.18. Looking back now, it has been quite a journey. I am happy I aligned myself with God and I am grateful to everyone that has been a blessing on this journey.