Seven years after an unwanted
pregnancy forced her to drop out of the University of Ilorin, Aishat
Farooq emerges the best graduating student of the Bells University of
Technology, Ota, Ogun State.
When Aishat Farooq gained admission into
the University of Ilorin at 15, to study Zoology, little did she know
that she was not going to be an alumnus of the institution. That was in
2003.
Despite the fact that she was a high
flyer in her first two years in UNILORIN, the now 25-year-old indigene
of Ilorin West-Local Government Area of Kwara State got distracted along
the line. She played the campus love game and got a shocking result:
she got pregnant. It was in 2006 and in her third year. She
was pregnant for a fellow student whom she had been dating. She was
disappointed in herself and thought the whole world was crashing on
her. Yet, she vowed not to terminate the pregnancy.
Although she wanted to continue her
studies in the university, she became disillusioned and dropped out at
18. She sought consolation in trading. But her father, Mr. Shehu Farooq, who
believed that his daughter’s academic prowess should not be wasted, was
determined to get her back on the academic track. Today, Aishat has a different story to
tell. On Saturday, she stood tall among her peers at the 5th convocation
ceremony of Bells University, Ota, Ogun State, where she emerged the
overall best graduating student with a Cumulative Grade Point Average of
4.93.
“The rebel in me won,” she declared while
giving the valedictory address on behalf of the 208 graduating students
of the university. “I hope my story will inspire at least
one person to change his or her circumstance. I was pregnant at 18 and
by 19 I was already a mother. I had disappointed my father who believed
so much in me. He had such big dreams for me and feared the dreams would
become unfulfilled,” she added.
Breaking the news of the pregnancy to her
father, who was at the time based in the northern part of the country,
was not easy. Aishat’s mother, Fatima, who stayed in Lagos with the
family, did not break the “sad news” to the man until the lady was
almost due. The mum feared her husband would be too angry. Fatima narrated to our correspondent,
“Looking back, we knew her to be very brilliant. But all of a sudden she
got pregnant. Though her father and I were always discussing on the
telephone, I hid it from him. Whenever he said he would be coming to
Lagos to visit us, I would quickly chip it in that I would like to be
the one to visit. So, I ensured I was the one always visiting him.
