BREAKING NEWS: 23 years old

NIGERIAN ONORIODE AZIZA,

Professors Son Bags THREE First Class
Degrees from Obafemi Awolowo University,
Nigerian Law School and Cambridge
UniversityReceived Scholarship for
Masters Law Degree in Cambridge
University, Defeats 25 Students from around
the world *Earlier turned down by Nigerian
elites, politicians for financial assistance to
study in Cambridge University *Attended
balls, garden parties and formal dinners,
undertook a pro-bono project with the Law
Faculty *Law Firms in Britain pleads to
have him on Board-INVESTIGATION * I
was motivated by a single goal: ensure the
world knows that the best students in Nigeria
can compete with, and excel against the best
students in the world-Onoriode BY DIPO
AYENI/EDUCATION REPORTER,
CAMBRIDGE
Written by EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | August 23, 2017 | 1
BREAKING NEWS:
23 years old NIGERIAN ONORIODE AZIZA, Professors Son Bags THREE First Class
Degrees from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigerian Law School and Cambridge
UniversityReceived Scholarship for Masters Law Degree in Cambridge University,
Defeats 25 Students from around the world
*Earlier turned down by Nigerian elites, politicians for financial assistance to study in
Cambridge University
*Attended balls, garden parties and formal dinners, undertook a pro-bono project with the
Law Faculty
*Law Firms in Britain pleads to have him on Board-INVESTIGATION
* I was motivated by a single goal: ensure the world knows that the best students in
Nigeria can compete with, and excel against the best students in the world-Onoriode

BY DIPO AYENI/EDUCATION REPORTER, CAMBRIDGE

A NIGERIAN GENIUS, ONORIODE AZIZA whose father is a retired civil servant while
his mom is a professor at the Delta State University has made Nigeria proud globally by
emerging a First Class graduate from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigerian Law School
and Cambridge University at the tender age of 23 years. This humble, highly intelligent
young Nigerian has brought glory to Africas most populous nation.

Not forgetting how much positive impression his parents had on him, Onoriode
praised his father for his counsels which helped my his remarkable achievements possible.

Onoriodes father is a retired civil servant while his mom is a professor at the Delta State
University. He praised his father for his counsels which helped my his remarkable
achievements possible.

Onoriode reportedly said: Although I had a penchant for childish excesses, good parental
discipline and support from my siblings led me in the right path, and into starting my
schooling at a tender age. I believe this gave me a spirit of extreme determination, a trait I
believe, is my most distinct feature. he stated.

I Was Never a Genius

After strenuous struggles at the prestigious Kings College Lagos, I was admitted to study
law in Obafemi Awolowo University at 15. Young, nave and free-spirited, I took up the
challenge of studying law and a daunting challenge it was! My initial years were rough. I
initially had a writing style used across all examinations, but wildly fluctuating grades
quickly taught me to pick courses only after careful enquiry, and tailor examination
answers to the tastes of the particular lecturers. After initial skirmishes with unpleasant
grades, I later became consistent and my CGPA hovered around a 4.4 from the second
semester of my third year until my very last result. The fact that I am the only first class
graduate of the Faculty of Law in the last four years confirms the difficulty of the task.

The Daunting Feat of Law School

Proceeding to the Nigerian Law School at 20 presented even more challenges: I was forced
to compete with my colleagues in the Yenagoa Campus and with the five other campuses of
the Law School system; I was exposed to seminar-styled lectures sometimes running into
six hours in length with only a thirty minute break, as opposed to the maximum of two-
hours I was accustomed to in the university; I was compelled to challenge myself on a
national scale against the best and brightest of students around Nigeria; and I was
constantly reminded that as the best graduating law student from OAU, I had to replicate
this excellence on a national scale. I had the benefit of fantastic lecturers at the Yenagoa
Campus of the Law School who showed me the nuances of the system and how to make the
most of it. After ceaseless hours of working through the year and during the externship
programs, I sat the bar examinations and made my 2nd first-class and finished as the
second best in Nigeria.

I recall joking with my friends that whilst I do not have the dexterity of Lionel Messi or
Cristiano Ronaldo on a football pitch, I may have the ability to score a hat-trick of first-
class results. The Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge was the venue, the flagship
Masters of Corporate Law (MCL) Degree was the target and I prepared myself for an epic
battle of intellect.

Challenges!

Funding a Masters in Cambridge is a big issue. Prior to resumption, and facing the
prospects of having my admission revoked, I wrote ceaselessly to prominent Nigerians,
Senior Advocates, Governors, Ministers and Governments, requesting funds and
promising to be bonded in service to them or to the country upon my return if granted the
funds. As expected, my entreaties were met with a mixture of deafening silence and
tenuous, pontifical excuses. Thankfully, I finally secured a scholarship just in time to
commence the program.

Cambridge and the MCL brought competing to an entirely new level. The minimum
eligibility requirement to take the MCL was a first class in the university, and the course
admits a maximum of 25 students in the world. With an eventual cohort of 23 students
spread through 16 countries and all continents, including students who had concluded
doctoral programs, and students working in the Central Banks and Securities
Commissions of their home countries, I had no doubt that around and beside me were
some of the best and brightest brains in their respective countries. The prospect of learning
with and competing against them was scary and refreshing in equal measure. Whilst
realism told me it would be difficult, optimism told me it is possible.

Lionel Messi of Academic Excellence! Hello Hat-trick

From my first breath in Cambridge on September 29th 2014 to my final examination on

June 5th 2015, I was motivated by a single goal: ensure the world knows that the best
students in Nigeria can compete with, and excel against the best students in the world. I
had no precedents to work with as none of my friends who had finished from Cambridge
before me made a first-class. Fortunately, I was classmates with an amazing senior
colleague of mine from OAU (who like me, also made the first class in Cambridge). His
presence gave me a compass with which to navigate the academic seas of Cambridge
amidst the tumultuous waves of a crashing Naira exchange rate, without sinking my boat.

Whilst ensuring a realistic sense of what was important, I ensured I made the most of
Cambridge. I traveled, met new people, explored and experimented (sometimes
determining not to eat the cuisine of one country more than once in a particular week)! I
secured vacation placements with law-firms in London, attended balls, garden parties and
formal dinners, undertook a pro-bono project with the Law Faculty, served food to the
homeless on the streets of Cambridge, and locked myself in the library when needed. At the
end of the second term, of my 4 courses, I had secured 3 first class results and 1 first class
with distinction. Mathematically, even with a term left, the deal had been done, and
nothing but an absolute shipwreck in my final term could deny me the hat-trick. The final
term went just as well as the previous terms and finally, the results were officially released:
I had my 3rd first-class in the bag, and I was just 23! The 1st first-class felt good, the 2nd
first class felt great; the 3rd was outright emotional: saying I was on the Mt. Everest of
ecstasy does not do justice to the feeling!

Keep Raising the Bar

Borrowing from the wisdom of an old English judge, it appears that those with a taste for
fairytales seem to think that in some Aladdins cave, there is hidden a virtue variously
called natural talent or genius and something in the art of reproduction confers it on
some children and not on others, which makes them excel better than others. Whilst I
cannot attest to the truthfulness of this claim in other disciplines, I know it is non-existent
in law. I can attest to the fact that I was born with no knowledge of commercial law, civil
litigation, or competition law: knowledge of the law resides in the pages of books. I thus
believe, as did Justice Melville Fuller of the US Supreme Court, that the world furnishes
many examples of the superiority of the truly earnest and laborious mind over the merely
intellectual. Academic excellence therefore does not reside in in-born gifts but in
unrepentant effort. Irrespective of your circumstances, I urge you to set the goal, raise the
bar, and pursue. Dreams are neither too big nor goals too high, but minds are either too
small to conceive them or arms too short to achieve them. Yes, you can!

#Additional Reports by BellNaija

Filed in: Africa

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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One Response to BREAKING NEWS: 23 years old NIGERIAN ONORIODE

AZIZA, Professors Son Bags THREE First Class Degrees from Obafemi
Awolowo University, Nigerian Law School and Cambridge UniversityReceived
Scholarship for Masters Law Degree in Cambridge University, Defeats 25
Students from around the world *Earlier turned down by Nigerian elites,
politicians for financial assistance to study in Cambridge University *Attended
balls, garden parties and formal dinners, undertook a pro-bono project with the
Law Faculty *Law Firms in Britain pleads to have him on Board-
INVESTIGATION * I was motivated by a single goal: ensure the world knows
that the best students in Nigeria can compete with, and excel against the best
students in the world-Onoriode BY DIPO AYENI/EDUCATION REPORTER,
CAMBRIDGE