Nengi Donald Jaja, ABUAD best law graduate, with 12 awards.
A beneficiary of a scholarship awarded by former Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, in 2017, Nengi Donald Jaja, has emerged as the overall Best Graduating Student of the College of Law at Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, winning 12 awards.
Jaja disclosed this in a post shared on X on Saturday, reflecting on how the scholarship, awarded after he performed a song at an event in December 2017, changed the course of his life.
“Thanks to the scholarship awarded to me by the Rivers State Government in 2017, I dared to dream, and today, that dream has become a reality,” he wrote.
He said the scholarship was intended to cover his secondary and tertiary education, adding that although he was initially too young to understand the magnitude of the opportunity, it inspired him to pursue academic excellence alongside his ambition of becoming an R&B and soul artiste.
Jaja said he had set a goal of graduating as the best Arts student in secondary school and achieved it, alongside other awards recognising his character and conduct.
He added that he carried the same determination into university, despite the pressure of combining his studies with several leadership positions.
“Across my ten semesters as an undergraduate, I had eight semesters with a 5.00 GPA, with a 4.96 and 4.87 in the remaining two. Altogether, I graduated with 69 As and 2 Bs,” he said.
Jaja described his emergence as the overall best graduating student and salutatorian of the College of Law as the fulfilment of a promise he made to himself as a child. He also said he was the first male student to attain the distinction.
He credited God, his family, friends and lecturers for their support, while acknowledging singer Tems’ music for helping him remain emotionally grounded throughout his academic journey.
“What began with a young boy simply singing a song became an opportunity that changed the trajectory of my life,” he said, expressing gratitude to the Rivers State Government for the scholarship.
A report published by Tribune on December 24, 2017, said Wike awarded Jaja a ₦40m scholarship after the young singer performed at a thanksgiving service in Port Harcourt. The scholarship was to cover his education from secondary school through university.