Ifebube Benson lived in South Africa before the 2023 National Examination Council (NECO) where she proved that adversity could be converted to the threshold for excellence for those determined to navigate through the vagaries of life.
The 18-year-old Amazon who won N750,000 for being the best female student and the first runner-up at the Learn Africa –NECO Excellence Awards, said coming to Nigeria for the examination exposed her to an unimaginable shock and difficulty because of lack of resources to study such as internet which left her with a bitter learning experience different from what she was used to.
“When I came here, it was a shock because the education system was different. We were on different levels, and this made it difficult for me, but being a brilliant student; though it was difficult, I had to prove myself,” she said.
The Orumba North, Anambra State-born genius made nine A1 in the 2023 NECO June/July examination where she sat English Language, General Mathematics, Civic Education, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Further Mathematics, Economics, and Data Processing.
The amiable Amazon started her academic journey at the Crawford International Lonehill in South Africa before moving to Renaissance Garden Secondary School, Ago-Okota in Lagos State. She is now a student at the University of Abuja where she is studying medicine and surgery.
She attributed her success to God’s factor in her life and hard work. “I would like to say that it is God, honestly because when I came to write these examinations, I had missed a whole session.
“I was severely behind and it took a lot of hard work. I had to drop all my social media. I had to drop off phones and internet to make sure I was putting everything into the examination,” she said.
Besides, she applauded her parents who stood by her, ensuring she had the support needed to excel during the examination.
“When I was writing my examinations my parents reduced the amount of work they gave me, and also made sure I had snacks in the house.
“They made sure there was a quiet and conducive reading environment because I have six siblings. So they really helped me to get in the mood of studying constantly, and also helping me to stay off my phone,” she recounted.
She admonishes younger students who have the ambition to excel in their examinations to stay away from social media because it can be a distraction to learning.
“I think social media can cause a student’s attention span to be reduced by constantly scrolling and checking the phone, we can become irritated after 10 minutes or thereabout of doing such a work.
Social media is a huge distraction and I advise anybody who’s going to write an examination to let go of his/her phone. I know this lyric excuse that there are resources online. Let me go and watch a YouTube video that’s gonna explain something better to me,” she noted.
The first among six children revealed that her best subject is Mathematics, and according to her, her love for the subject was a result of the academic foundation she got from Crawford Lonehill School.
She loves watching television and travelling; and would love to become an oncologist, and orthopaedic surgeon, while still nursing an interest in mathematics.
