It was a joyful occasion for parents, friends and family members of 22-year-old Dr Ginika Okafor, as she emerged the best graduating medical student of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), with eight distinctions, during the fifth induction ceremony into the Medical Profession (MBBS) Class of 2022 of the university, by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.
The ceremony was held at the Alfa Belgore Hall, ABUAD.
The prodigy received cash awards totalling N900,000, with N50,000 for each distinction. The founder and chancellor of the university also gave her N500,000 at the induction ceremony for emerging as the overall best.
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A delighted Ginika, who hails from Abatete, in Idemili-North LGA of Anambra, said, “I feel very happy. Delighted is the word to express my emergence as the overall best graduating medical student. I thank the university for finding me worthy, and I am very grateful to my parents for their efforts and sacrifices in sending me to ABUAD, which, no doubt, is the best university in our clime.”
She said her initial challenge as a medical student was the stress of studying the course.
“You won’t have time for any other thing. Initially, I found it difficult to cope. Sometimes, I nearly caved in to the heavy weight of academic work with attendant stress, but with God, time and determination, I was able to surmount it all,” Ginika explained.
“Now that I am a doctor, I have more responsibilities in impacting and giving back to society as a finished product of ABUAD,” she added. “I am so grateful and can’t wait to start discharging my duties via contributing my quota to Nigeria’s health sector.”
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In his remarks, Aare Afe Babalola noted that Times Higher Education Impact Ranking in 2022 ranked the university as the number one university in Nigeria,
“John Hopkins Hospital in America has also entered into (an) agreement with your university under which some students will be going on scholarship training annually to America. The first set will leave for the US in April this year,” Babalola stated.
The Vice-Chancellor of ABUAD, Prof. Smaranda Olarinde, said the university started carting home enviable commendations from national and international education stakeholders including UNESCO which acknowledged it as a “world-class institution of higher education” and the National Universities Commission (NUC), the regulatory authority for university education in Nigeria, which also endorsed ABUAD as “the pride of university system in Nigeria.”
“The icing on the cake of acknowledgements came last year when the university was rated by the highly respected Times Higher Education Impact Ranking as the ‘number one out of the 220 universities in Nigeria and number 321 in the world,” explained Olarinde. “This is a no mean global achievement which was commended by eminent Nigerians, including President Muhammadu Buhari.”
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