A 27-year-old Mbagwu Chilaka, an Imo indigene who recently graduated from the Imo State University, Owerri, after taking the United Matriculation Tertiary Examination seven times, years after leaving secondary school in 2010, shares her joy with GODFREY GEORGE
What is your current occupation?.
I am a freelance search engine optimisation content writer.
It was reported that you spent 12 years after leaving secondary school before you secured admission to a university. How exactly did it happen?
I completed my secondary education at the Girls’ Secondary School Ikenegbu, Owerri, in 2010. I took my first United Tertiary Matriculation Examination that same year too. At that time, I desperately wanted to leave home. My parents and I lived in a university (Imo State University) environment, and I didn’t want to be close to home. Also, my father wanted me to study Medicine and Surgery at the university. It wasn’t what I wanted for myself.
I was just a young, naive girl who wanted to sing. Living in a university environment saw me admire the passion even more. Some of the great up-and-coming artists back then were people I looked up to. Soon enough, I wanted to become a musician too, but my father wouldn’t have it. Because I lived in a student environment, I sang at hostel parties and won some prizes. So, this was the main reason I wanted to leave home so badly – to have some freedom and peace. (Laughs).
What did you want to study at the university?
So, when I filled out my first Joint Admission Matriculation Board form, I chose Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, to study Economics. The subject combination in my West African Senior School Certificate Examination could allow that but my father wouldn’t have that either. I had gone behind his back to choose Economics, so he made me take UTME again the following year and made sure I chose IMSU and Medicine and Surgery. It never worked. That was the beginning of many beginnings. I took UTME the following year and the one that followed, and it was the same – no admission, no success.
I tried again in 2013, and when it didn’t work out, as usual, I enrolled in a pre-degree programme at IMUS and opted for Medical Laboratory Science this time, at least, it was close to Medicine and Surgery. While I was doing my pre-degree, I took UTME again that same year (2014), and it didn’t work out. After all these failures, I decided to try a polytechnic, and it worked.
Who funded all of the examinations and the like?
We didn’t have financial issues. I may not have come from a very financially stable background, but my parents would give anything to make sure I went to school, my mother, especially. So, finance was not the issue.
Since your dad was particular about you going to university and studying Medicine and Surgery, how did he feel about you being in a polytechnic at that time?
He felt sad that I ‘settled’ for a polytechnic even though I studied a course in the sciences – Dispensing Opticianry. But it pained him that I cried on every matriculation day at IMSU. The stories I told him of my secondary school classmates being in the university saddened him too. He felt so bad for me, and when there was nothing else he could do, he allowed me to apply to a polytechnic. I studied Dispensing Opticianry at Federal Polytechnic Nekede, Owerri.
You said you lived in a university community. Is your dad a lecturer?
No, my father is a carpenter and an electrician. The best you’d ever find. (Laughs). We just lived in the university area known as Aladinma, in Owerri. It was just a stone’s throw from IMSU.
Did you blame your dad for not letting you study Economics at UNIZIK when you had the admission?
Yes, I used to blame my father for the delay. I had told him once too. I don’t blame him anymore. I later got to know that he wanted the best for me. I am not mad at him anymore, and the delays that followed weren’t his making.
Did you ever feel like giving up at any point pursuant to your university degree?
I gave up multiple times, but I just knew I had to keep moving if I really wanted a university degree.
What went through your mind when you kept failing and kept coming back only to be greeted with failure again?
Hmm. At first, I thought it was ill luck. Even worse, a woman in a church I went to meet for advice told me that I would never get into a higher institution no matter how many times I tried. She said I was a ‘star child,’ and the devil was fighting my star. (Laughs) From what she told me, I sort of confirmed that a university education was not for me. But then, almost seven days later after she said that, I gained admission to study Dispensing Opticianry at the polytechnic. That was in late 2014. So, I didn’t even know what to think anymore.
Do you think this ‘obsession’ with going to university was simply because of the attitude of Nigerians about polytechnic graduates?
For my father? Yes. Certainly not for me. I could say then that the main issue for him was the attitude Nigerians, especially employers, have about polytechnic graduates. But I will not say that anymore. I will say that my father didn’t know better and he wanted the best for me!
How old were you when you earned your ordinary national diploma, and why didn’t you opt for a higher national diploma?
I earned my OND in 2016. I was 21 at the time. I didn’t go on to complete my HND because the department was a new one in the institution at the time and the plans for an HND had not been put in place. It does (have an HND programme) now.
After earning an OND, did you ever imagine that you might not go on to get a bachelor’s degree?
Yes, I did. After my OND, I didn’t think I’d go further into a university. I was tired of trying, but my father stopped at nothing to encourage me. I wanted to be a university graduate too. I wanted to experience university life. I wanted to share my experiences and the way the students in my neighbourhood shared theirs. My mother was the biggest motivator. I didn’t know how she did it, but she never stopped assuring me that things would work out. I graduated from the polytechnic in 2016, and I didn’t purchase a JAMB form as expected that same year. I was tired and exhausted from taking UTME over and over again.
So, in 2017, my mother told me to try again. In her usual way, she assured me it would work, and it did work! I got admitted to IMSU to study History and International Studies.
Did you have people mock you at any point in time during your storm?
Yes, I had an uncle tell me one time that it was sad that I was still at home while the people who were my juniors had gone ahead of me. This was because my younger sister gained admission into university in 2016. He didn’t think polytechnic was anything to go by, too, just like my dad.
In search of admission, what were some of the challenges you underwent?
Being religiously taken advantage of.
What do you mean by ‘religiously taken advantage of’?
Remember the prophetess I told you met me in church, who said the Devil was fighting with my star? She also told me that my uncle was the one who didn’t want me to succeed in life. I fell for it. I believed it. It almost damaged my mind. I’m glad for my parents who made sure I never went back to that church. She had even asked me to come for special prayers which I had planned to go for just so I could get into university. I suffered. My parents wouldn’t let me.
It doesn’t seem like you were not an intelligent student. What really will you say was responsible for the delays?
People hardly ask me this question; I am thrilled you noticed. I was never a dull pupil right from primary to secondary school. Now that I know better, I think there were two things most responsible for the delays – fate and that I didn’t score up to the cut-off mark in some of the attempts. I did in some and not in others. The times I did, my post-UTME failed me.
What were your UTME scores for the seven times you tried and what courses and universities did you register to study?
I only remember that I scored 214 in 2010 when I applied to study at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, and I chose Economics. I also remember that I scored 160 twice. (I scored) 179 another time. Then, I remember I scored 205 one time. I don’t remember the rest. The last was 211. The first UTME was for UNIZIK. The rest was IMSU to study Medicine and Surgery, then Medical Laboratory Technology, then History and International Studies.
How did you go from Economics, Medicine and Laboratory Technology to History?
(Laughs)
When you finally started studying for a BSc, how did it feel?
It felt like I was in heaven. I felt like everything I wanted in life was possible. I still remember my first day in school like it was yesterday. I was overjoyed! I was finally living life.
What were some of the high points of your stay at the university?
Some of the high points of my degree programme will be getting into school and deciding to make a name for myself. First, I met some friends with whom I started a YouTube channel, 1816 Media TV, where we documented our induction into the History and International Studies Department. Another would be reading my debut story titled, My Vagina Story, at a conference at the Abia State University, Uturu.
What was your support system like?
My mother was my biggest and strongest support system. I also had good and coursemates like Obianujunwa Peace and Tasie Vincent, who never left my side, not even for a day.
How did you feel the day you graduated?
I felt like I had achieved the most impossible thing that there was to achieve. At first, I was so excited I felt like I was going to burst. I was also apprehensive because I didn’t know how I was going to feel. It felt surreal. So, I cried my eyes out the night before, and on the morning of the day, I graduated. I was very emotional. I felt the same way, too, after my final examination, only that I couldn’t cry anymore. I was overjoyed, but I was a little scared, too, that life would begin for me for real.
