The John Okuwobi Foundation Trust (JOFT) has, through its maiden edition of the UTME Scholarship Examination initiative, purchased the 2024 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) forms for 20 students in Ibadan South West Local Government Area of Oyo State.
The founder of the foundation and also the founder of the Mustard Seed Unilab Centre, John Okuwobi, stated on Friday in Ibadan that the initiative was supported by the alumni of the tutorial centre, both in Nigeria and abroad, to assist brilliant and vulnerable prospective JAMB candidates to purchase their forms.
“If you have a vision, you must have people around you that will help you achieve that vision,” he said.
While encouraging the students and urging them to be up and doing in their studies, Okuwobi stressed that education is not a scam and that hard work and prayer are the sure way to success.
Delivering the keynote address, the educator and doctoral student of the University of Ibadan, Mrs Olufunke Ajayi, emphasised that, as a student, determination for excellence is key to whatever one wants to achieve in life.
Ajayi urged the students to believe in the power of determination even when they fail in their examinations or quest for better things in life.
She recounted how she started secondary school at the age of 15 and failed in many of her academic and life pursuits, but still succeeded in most of her endeavours.
“There is no crime in failure. If you study hard, you will see the results. Therefore, limit the use of your phones and social media so that you will pass your JAMB examinations well,” Ajayi advised.
An Ibadan alumnus of the centre, Emmanuel Ojo, stated in his address that the centre is beyond a tutorial centre and that it is a home for people who seek excellence in their academics and lives.
While appreciating the alumni for supporting the scholarship initiative of the foundation, Ojo said that many of the alumni are spread across the country and abroad and are doing well.
Stressing that education is not a scam, he charged the students to be inspired by the success stories of the alumni so that they can be able to get to where the alumni are or even become better than them.
“In months, years, and decades to come, you will remember the things Mustard Seed did for you and be encouraged to support someone’s education the way the alumni are doing today,” Ojo said.
Another Ibadan alumnus of the centre, Tobi Okeogbe, stated that, in the last two decades, the centre has set the structure and pace for others to follow and succeed.
“Mustard Seed is a home of discovery. In years to come, you too will be an alumnus doing great things,” Okeogbe told the students.
Some of the alumni of the centre residing abroad who spoke to the students through recorded videos were Dominic Oshoba (New York, USA), Abdulkareem Sikiru (Atlanta, USA), Ajayi Samuel (Florida, USA), Jeremiah Oluwadare (Nigeria), Oni Samuel (Georgia, USA), and Awodunni Bolaji (UK).
Iyanuoluwa Robert, Deborah Olowolayemo, and Joseph Onokpe were some of the beneficiaries of the foundation’s UTME Scholarship Examination initiative who spoke at the event.
They expressed their gratitude to the foundation and the alumni for their kind gesture and for supporting their education. They promised to use the opportunity to develop themselves.