A 28-year-old student, Aarinola Olaiya, is set to break a 28 years old record at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

Ms. Olaiya is expected to graduate with distinction and emerge the 2017 overall best student from the medical school of the university, one of Nigeria’s oldest universities.

She will thus become the first person to graduate with distinction in Surgery from OAU since 1989.

The Ife University Medical Students Association, IFUMSA, disclosed the superlative feats of Ms. Olaiya via Twitter during the weekend.

“Aarinola Olaiya becomes the 1st Student in 28yrs to have a Distinction in Surgery at the Faculty of Clinical Sciences, OAU, Ife. Congrats!” tweeted OAU Medical Students Association via its handle @IfumsaOau

John Owotade, now a professor, graduated with distinction in Dentistry in 1989. It is however not immediately known if Mr. Owotade’s 1989 achievement covered the whole College of Health Sciences, like Ms. Olaiya’s in 2017.

The President of IFUMSA, Matthew Kayode,who congratulated Ms. Olaiya told PREMIUM TIMES he would check the faculty’s records on Monday.

The graduation ceremony where Ms. Olaiya is expected to be formally announced and receive her accolades is set to hold in December.

“It is about determination, dedication and grace,” Ms. Olaiya told PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday. “I am happy!”

To earn overall distinction and become best graduating student, PREMIUM TIMES gathered, as OAU College of Health Sciences released the students’ final MBChB results, that Ms. Olaiya grabbed distinctions in the following 12 courses:

Part Three First MBChB Examination.
Distinction in Medical Biochemistry
Medical Physiological Sciences.

Part Four Second MBChB Examination
Distinction in Pathology
Distinction in Pharmacology
Distinction in CLI

Part five Third MBChB Examination.
Distinction in Dermatology and Venerology
Distinction in Mental Health
Distinction in Obestrics and Gynaecology

Part Six Final MBChB Examination Result
Distinction in Surgery
Distinction in Medicine

Distinction in Community Health.

Commenting on the young woman’s feat, one of her colleagues, Anthony Ifedigbo told PREMIUM TIMES that Ms. Olaiya had set pace for others and made everyone proud.

“She did very well because it takes grace to achieve such feat in college of health sciences,” said Mr. Ifedigbo. “We are proud of her.”

Another student, simply identified as Bimpe, said: “I know Aarinola very well. Although the going was tough but she became tougher to get going. I am happy for her. Whoever knows what this record means will definitely know that this beautiful young lady must have read her eyes out. It takes hard work to achieve great success in Great Ife.

About 17 prizes and awards await Ms. Olaiya during the December convocation ceremony to be held at the university’s Amphi Theatre.