16 YEARS OLD WITH 6A'S

In this report, SEGUN OLUGBILE highlights the feat of a 16-year-old Nigerian pupil who made 4A*s and 2As in the last International General School Certificate Examination of the Cambridge University

Sixteen-year-old Adenuga Victoria brilliant boy. It is unfair to deny him an accolade like this. And arguably, the teenager could be the best Nigerian candidate that sat for the 2012 University of Cambridge International General School Certificate Examination.

The boy, who is the Senior Prefect of Doregos Private Academy, Lagos, registered for six subjects and cleared all his papers. This he did in style – securing four A*s and two As in the examination that involved pupils from about 150 nations of the world. The SS3 pupil obtained A* in English Language, Physics, Chemistry and Biology and As in Mathematics and Additional Mathematics.

With this result, Adenuga is qualified to study any science-related course in any university in the world. Several universities abroad are already wooing him with scholarships. He has also been named the Dorego Academy Ambassador.

While the boy, whose father is a pastor, aspires to study medicine, he said he would just read medicine for its sake, as he intends to end up on the pulpit just like his father, Apostle Paul Adenuga, the General Overseer of Faith Revival Apostolic Church, Idimu, Lagos. Boy Adenuga also says Billy Graham, an American Christian evangelist, is his role model. Graham is notable for having been a spiritual adviser to several United States Presidents, including Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon.

Adenuga was the cynosure of all eyes during the prize-giving day of the school last Saturday. He was the first pupil of the institution to have put up such a spectacular performance at the Cambridge’s IGSCE since the academy started presenting pupils for the examination 10 years ago. The pupil that held the record before Adenuga shattered it was Aishat Abdulrasak, who, in 2007, had three As and three Bs in the examination. Aishat is now a medical student at the University of Lagos.

Speaking with newsmen after he received his award and prizes from the Chairman of the occasion, Mr. Duro Aina, Adenuga said he was overwhelmed the day the school Principal, Mr. Oluyemi Faleke, announced the results on the school assembly ground.

Giving God the glory for his performance, the boy, who was accompanied to the award ceremony by his parents, Adenuga (senior) and Elizabeth, said though he prepared well for the examination, it was God that crowned his efforts with success.

“Before the exams, our teacher prepared us well and I prayed to God to see me through. What I learnt in my JSS days also guided me in that exam and my parents also supported me academically and spiritually,” he added.

Adenuga said he had been nursing the ambition of coming top in any examination that he would participate in. But is his life in school all about books? Faleke and some of his classmates said no.

“He loves football. He is a member of the school team and he is also a member of the athletic team. He runs well and supports Manchester United in the English Premier League,” one of his friends, who simply identified himself as Dayo, said.

Speaking on his role models, Adenuga said, “My dad is my role model, I want to become an apostle like him but I want to study medicine if God says. But I also love Billy Graham, he is also my role model, he is a well respected man of God. I follow him diligently by listening to his sermons and I read a lot about him on the Internet. Graham, now 94, has successfully converted more than 3.2 million people to Christianity worldwide with an estimated lifetime audience including radio and television broadcasts of 2.2 billion. I want to be like him,” he said.