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How I Finished With 5.00 CGPA – Edo-born LASU Best Graduating Student

Published

2 years ago

June 21, 2023

Editor

The best graduating student for the 2021/2022 set in Lagos State University (LASU) , Ojo, Aminat Yusuf, says right mentoring by lecturers, hard work and God’s guidance were major factors for her success.

Yusuf, whose father is a journalist and mother a business woman, also thanked her parents for motivating and inspiring her to achieve the feat.

She spoke in an interview with Newsmen on Wednesday, in Lagos, in which she shared her experience during her undergraduate days.

Yusuf, an Edo indigene, finished with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 5.00 (First Class Honours)

She said that the listed factors helped her to be the best graduating student of her set and in LASU’s years of existence.

“The events of the past few days have motivated me to share in brief my story, in a bid to inspire many others who are in similar situation as I was and are striving towards excellence,” she said.

Yusuf said this was considering the financial situation of her parents, coupled with the fact that was the first child.

”I called for financial support only under compelling circumstances, after I have exhausted all options.

“As a result, I experienced some serious financial constraints during my two plus four years stay at LASU.

“In 200 Level, second semester, just because I needed to get a browsing phone and get trained in computer skills, I saved up about 90 per cent of my feeding allowance,” Yusuf said.

She said that she settled for garri and groundnuts for a larger part of the semester, which one of her friends considered absurd and told every available listener.

“For most part of my days an undergraduate, I lived in the university premises, because I had no hostel, and going home everyday would have been absolutely inconvenient.

“The school had a stand-by security and standard lighting system, so, it was safe for me; my major challenge was having to attend lectures everyday in a neatly ironed white and black dress, acting like everything was perfect,” Yusuf said.

She also spoke on her first day in LASU for the physical screening, towards admission into diploma in law programme.

“I remember fantasising about achieving a remarkable feat in this prestigious university.

“I first did Diploma in Law programme, which runs for two years, in which students are taught compulsory law courses, with a view to offering direct entry admission to top class students.

“I studied really hard and prayed so fervently towards achieving excellence; I graduated from the programme with a CGPA of 4.98 and this was the best in my set.

“The possibility of graduating with such grade motivated the yearning to graduate with a perfect CGPA at the undergraduate level,” Yusuf said.

She called on well-meaning Nigerians to invest in the education sector and lauded the passing into law of the Student Loan Act in the country.

“I believe this will no doubt be of immeasurable value to our education system.

“While I struggled financially through my education, I don’t desire such hardship for students coming behind us, especially the female students,” Yusuf said.

She appreciated the LASU management for sustaining the congenial and conducive environment that contributed to her excellent performance.

“I am deeply grateful to my parents for their sacrifice, unwavering support towards my education.

“My parents really motivated me from their different careers; my father is a journalist while my mother is a business woman.

“Thanks to my faculty lecturers for their reflex of excellence, commitment and dedication teaching us to be the best.

“I will like to use this opportunity to launch a YouTube channel tagged “Learning Law with Aminat* with a goal of giving back to society through my immediate community,”Yusuf said.
VANGUARD

Headline

42 Killed In Israeli Attacks, Says Gaza’s Civil Defense

Published

10 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 42 people killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday, as the Israeli army prepared for a new assault on the Palestinian territory’s largest city.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there had been several air strikes around Gaza City — which the military is gearing up to capture — including one in the Al-Sabra neighbourhood that killed eight people.

Attacks were also reported elsewhere across the territory, he said, with the “total tally currently rising to 42 dead”.

The army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the figure.

“The situation is extremely dangerous… Each day, each minute, there are bombings, martyrs, death and blood — we can’t take it anymore,” Al-Sabra resident Ibrahim Al-Shurafa told AFP, explaining strikes and shelling were ongoing.

“We don’t know where to go. Death follows us everywhere,” he added.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

The October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,686 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

AFP

Headline

Venezuela Frees Eight Opposition Leaders

Published

10 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Venezuelan authorities released eight opposition leaders from jail early Sunday, including a former congressman and two Italian citizens, and granted house arrest to five others, an opposition politician said.

Most of those released had been charged with corruption in opposition-run mayoral offices.

Also set free was Congressman, Amirico de Grazia, detained amid protests that erupted during President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection in 2024.

“Today, several families are once again embracing their loved ones. We know there are many left, and we have not forgotten them; we continue to fight for everyone,” two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said on X.

Opposition leaders Victor Jurado, Simon Vargas, Arelis Ojeda Escalante, Mayra Castro, Diana Berrio, Gorka Carnevalli, as well as Italian nationals Margarita Assenzo and de Grazia were released, Capriles said.

Nabil Maalouf, Valentin Gutierrez Pineda, Rafael Ramirez, Pedro Guanipa, and David Barroso were placed under house arrest.

The Italian government confirmed the release of de Grazia and Assenzo, who must appear in court to clarify the conditions of their release. It also vowed to continue working on securing the release of other detained Italians.

“We have always said, and we maintain it: we will talk to whomever we need to talk to so that there is not a single political prisoner in our Venezuela!” Capriles added.

AFP

Headline

Russia, Ukraine Exchange Prisoners Of War, Civilians

Published

10 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Russia and Ukraine each sent back more prisoners of war on Sunday in the latest in a series of exchanges that have seen hundreds of POWs released this year, the two sides said.

Large-scale prisoner exchanges were the only tangible result of three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul between May and July.

They remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since Russia’s offensive began in 2022.

“On August 24, 146 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled” by Kyiv, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.

“In exchange, 146 prisoners of war of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were transferred” to Ukraine, it added. Ukraine did not confirm any figures for the release.

Russia also said that “eight citizens of the Russian Federation—residents of the Kursk region, illegally detained” by Kyiv were also returned.

Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August last year, seizing hundreds of square kilometres (miles) of territory in a major setback for the Kremlin.

Russia deployed thousands of troops from its ally North Korea as part of a counterattack but did not fully reclaim the region until April.

Among the Ukrainians released on Sunday was journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Khyliuk was kidnapped in the Kyiv region in March 2022. He is finally home in Ukraine,” Zelensky said on social media.

Also freed was former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, “who spent more than three years in captivity,” Zelensky’s aide Andriy Yermak wrote on X.

“In 2022, he was on the list for return, but Volodymyr voluntarily refused to be exchanged in favour of a seriously ill prisoner with whom he was sharing a cell in a Russian prison,” Yermak said.

AFP