By: Aisha Lamidi
UCJUI
How would you introduce yourself?
My name is Osarennoma Ogbeide. Most people call me The Edo Queen, my personal brand because I’m very passionate about my culture and royalty because Edo people no dey carry last. I’m a graduate of the Department of Psychology, University of Ibadan. I’m currently serving my fatherland, Nigeria. I am currently serving in Lagos, Nigeria.
Apart from school and psychology, I’m pretty much involved in the media space which I love, so I’m currently into Media and TV producer and Presenter as well. I’m a family person. I love family, I love my friends. I don’t like stress, I like food. I just like a soft life.
UCJUI
What does it take, in your opinion, to emerge as the Best Graduating Student in a Faculty at the University of Ibadan?
Hmm. I mean it’s University of Ibadan, it’s the first and the best. The reputation is like high up there.
To be honest, I would say, hard work, determination and God’s grace; like those are the three things I would say because, Hardwork is very important, right. There is no way you can achieve a goal of yours or anything, without working hard.
With working hard, there are so many obstacles which is why you need to be determined to keep at it. And when you have God by your side, you know that He would crown your hard work and your determination with success.
So, yeah, definitely hard work, determination and Gods grace, because it’s not an easy one. But, it’s workable, definitely attainable.
UCJUI
When you gained admission to UI, did you make any decision towards what you wanted to achieve or you simply took it one day at a time?
When I got into UI, I was very bland. Like I had a very bland mind set. I wasn’t really enthusiastic to be honest because I didn’t want to come to UI. I was shouting Canada way, Canada way, this is not my country, this is not my country. But when I eventually ended up in UI, I’m like let me just do this and graduate and get out of here to be honest. So, I didn’t exactly come in with a goal or target, like this is what I wanted to do, this is how I want to achieve it.
It was until my first year, my immediate older sister also passed through UI and at the time I came in 100L, she was in her final year.And there was this time she told me that, she sees me leading my class. And I’m like pele o, Joseph the dreamer. And I saw my first year result.
When I saw the GPA, I didn’t even know what the GPA meant at the time. Because it was my set that started the 4 point grade system. So, when I saw my GPA, I didn’t even know if it was a first class or a second class.
And my sister was like, so you’re the highest in your class. I say you mean it? I mean it was from there that I realised that see you’re already in this school, right and I’m a child of God, I can not fail, I can not perform below expectation. And if this is a good foundation, a good start for me, then I might as well just propose in my heart to do excellently well in all I’m doing. It was right then that I proposed in my heart to, like I would say, show God’s excellence even in my academics. I was determined. Like you know what, I can do this and I’m going to do this by God’s grace. And that was how I started my journey of academic seriousness.
UCJUI
At what point did you realise that you would emerge as your Faculty’s BGS?
So, I actually never knew I would be BGS not even in my department, it was literally until they released the list of all our grades before they send our name to NYSC that i visibly saw that first of all that I had a first class. That was all that I knew. I didn’t even know what my CGPA was, I still don’t even know what it is because I haven’t got my transcript yet. I didn’t know what my CGPA was, I just knew I has a first class and then I remember having a conversation with one of my classmates and he was telling me that I’m the BGS and I said, “How do you know?” that it’s better not to raise my hopes up, let me sha know that I finished with first class, that’s all good.
On the day of the graduation ceremony, I mean it was just two of us in my class that had first class. So, I’m like it’s probably either her or myself. And she was telling me that you’re the BGS and I’m like how do you know? Cos we had seen the soft copy of the programme of the event and in the slot of the BGS for the department, it wasn’t there, like there was no name there. So, there was no way I could have known. So, she was saying I’m the one, then I told her I had seen the softcopy, it’s not there. And then we got the book and then she showed me. That was how I knew I was BGS in my department.
I think about 3 days after the graduation ceremony, my Faculty’s official Instagram page posted and they posted my picture saying, “Osarennoma, BGS Psychology and BGS Faculty of The Social Sciences”. And I’m like wait, this is not right, cos there were a couple of other first class students in Economics and in fact the Valedictorian for the day was from Economics. So, I was about to DM and say, you made a mix up somewhere..
And I kept reading the caption and I realised that, okay, Economics is now a faculty of it’s own. They’ve been on this process for like since last session. Economics being a faculty, having it’s own building and we were fighting them for leaving Social science and all. So, I’m like oh, okay. If economics is on its own, then it really just leaves my department, cos it was only Psychology and Economics that had first class. So I’m like if economics is out of the Faculty, then it leaves just Psychology and if I’m BGS Psychology, then it definitely means that the post on my faculty page was correct. And that was when I realised. Then I sent it to my sisters, “you people comman see something O, it’s like I’m BGS for my Fcaulty.” So, I didn’t even know until couple of days after.
UCJUI
Were you able to combine your academics with other extracurricular activities?
Well, I mean, thank God I was actually able to combine like school and my extracurricular cos I actually was doing a lot to be honest.
In 100L, I was just in the press. I mean I was not doing too much then. In 200l, I was still in press and I was writing publication for a national paper. I joined SMPN as well. As a media organisation. And there were obligations there: I was in the content team, I was in the news casting, newsroom group as well. 300L I started radio and I was still doing everything else I was still doing. I was an exco in Fellowship, you know. So things basically kept, responsibilities and my activities kept increasing and my finally year, id say was even the most because I was doing all I was doing, and I was also doing my project, I was working on my project and I was also doing the data analysis by myself. Sometimes, people outsource the analysis for their project, but I did it all myself. I was still radio, and I was head of my radio team, I was still in SMPN, I was now even creating content on YouTube as well, still like uploading videos regularly. So, it was a whole lot.
But, I would say Time management helped me. Planning ahead helped me, and taking breaks when necessary as well. Just knowing what works for you is really what you need to know. Time management. Realising that there is no time to waste time. If you know this is the time you’ve allocated to do something, then you do it.
So, for example, for radio, I would tell my team, from Monday, our show was every Saturday. I don’t like last minute things, they know me, I don’t like rush hour action. So, I dedicate Monday to Wednesday for us to prepare for us to prepare for the show. Get all the items that we need and Saturday we show up. So, I know this is a time dedicated to this and I know if I have a vlog to be uploaded by Saturday on my YouTube channel, then I know it has to be ready before then and I schedule it for it to be posted. I’m creating the Bc’s that I need to create, every deliverable that I need for that to be ready.
And for school, I don’t miss classes. I’m not passive in group works. I’m always very active cos these are my grades, they matter to me. So, I would always go to class and be on time. I’d work on my assignment early enough and I think when we had term papers and things like that, I work on them as we’re being given. So, I don’t wait till last minute to start rushing. For group work and group projects, the ones I headed, I ensured to distribute task so there was division of labour and everyone would participate. So, time management, planning properly. I like to write things down, I like to journal. So, I have a to do list of things I have to do, things I need to accomplish either for the day or for the week and I try to stick to it.
And seeing that this is a lot, combining school, extracurricular and even my final year, I was also working. I had a part time job in a media organisation in Lagos. So, I was also having work demands and expectations. So, there is so much going on in this beautiful head of mine. And as a psychologist, I realised the importance of rest, so I try to cool off as much as I could. I never joked with my sleep, especially during exam time. During exams was when I would sleep very well. I would watch movies too and relax my mind. I would eat well too. My sister used to say that I eat as if I was pregnant. Just basically take care of myself to compensate for the stress.
UCJUI
What were your most memorable moments and worst moments, if any, in school?
Well I would say my most memorable moments were moments with my squad. Like I had a group of friends, we were 6 and we’ve been friends since 100l. We didn’t know each other before we came to school, we met in UI and we’ve been friends veer since. They are literally people id say friends turned sisters. So, we had moments wed eat together, pray together, study together, we’d laugh together, we’d gist together, cook together. So, I’d say my most memorable moments were times when we had squad moments. Literally, it definitely has to be times with my squad when we made epic memories.
I remember one particular time we were all going for TDB on tech road and one of my friends literally just sat in the middle if the road. We were just joking and laughing about something, and she just sat in the middle of the road and was laughing. It was so funny. We had amazing memories.
Worst moment, hmm, worst moments….ermmm, maybe just the stress of everything. Just the stress of school generally. I really detested the time there was no light and no water, because, it just made living hard. And I don’t like stress. So, whenever there were hard living conditions, tough living conditions; I was in Awo in 100L, I really experienced a lot of tough living conditions.
So, I’d say worst moments were like tough living conditions that impeded the smooth running of my academic journey. And the strike actions as well. Particularly, there was a strike in my 100L that really got me feeling very… It was just very terrible. So, I really dreaded strikes and tough living conditions to be honest.
UCJUI
So what next? Postgrad?
Well yeah, I’ll finish serving my father land then by God’s grace, I’ll be aiming for my graduate studies
