The West Africa Examination Council has honoured an 18-year-old Nigerian, Peter Arotiba from Kogi State, with a Merit Award and National Distinction Award, for emerging overall best students internationally in the 2018 examinations.
Arotiba, bagged the 1st prize winner as the best candidate topping in the international examination from the five WAEC nations- Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Gambia, with a cash gift, as announced by the Council at the opening of the 57th Annual Meeting of the Nigeria National Committee of WAEC in Abuja on Thursday.
He is currently studying Medicine and Surgery at the University of Ibadan, graduated from the Nigeria Air Force Secondary School, Ikeja, Lagos State, where he had obtained distinction in all the eight subjects offered in the 2018 West African Secondary School Certificate Examination.
Arotiba, who spoke with newsmen after the award presentation, attributed his success to many factors, stating that God’s grace and hard work played a very vital role in his accomplishment.
He said “A lot of heroes who have participated in building me up to who I am today instilled the spirit of excellence in me – my parents, my teachers and personal hard work.
“I have natural passion for reading; so, studying was not an issue to me. When you work hard and depend on God’s grace, one will never be disappointed.
“The sacrifice made to achieve this feat was high level of discipline during examinations as I let go of other programmes I enjoyed and concentrated fully.
“I study ahead by studying during the holidays. Lazying around during the holidays and playing around with friends during holidays were some of the things I refused doing.”