After Surviving Self-doubt, Deborah Ademola-Muriana Emerges Computing and Informatics BGS

By Success Essien and Jacinta Ijeoma 

Deborah Ademola-Muriana, the best graduating student of the Faculty of Computing and Informatics, didn’t spend the last seven years in UNILAG feeling like a winner. In fact, for the first three years of her degree, she didn’t even realise she was at the top of her class. She was just a girl who loved math, trying to make sense of a computer science degree that often felt too abstract and too loud.

“I just came in as, ‘Okay, let me just do this. Let me just go to university and see what it’s all about,” she recalled.

That attitude eventually turned into a record-breaking reality. Today, Deborah is the BGS of her faculty. But she is the first to tell you that her journey was not a straight line of genius; it was a long game of surviving self-doubt.

Most top students are tracked from their first semester, but Deborah was a late bloomer in her own mind. She spent the better part of her journey assuming she was just another face in the crowd.

“From the first year, I was not the best student,” she said. “I think it was around year four that I realised I was top. I’m surprised, but I think it’s good.”

This surprise stayed with her even through her final year project. Despite her grades, she admits that she often felt like she was failing to meet her own expectations. “I’m someone who underestimates myself a lot, so this is big for me. I’m really glad to be the best graduate student, but I know I’m not in my best place yet.”

One of the most refreshing parts of Deborah’s story is her blunt honesty about how she actually learned. While the lecture halls provided the syllabus, it was the internet that provided the understanding. When courses like Principles of Software Development became too theoretical, she stopped fighting the textbooks and started searching for videos.

“Going online… it will even explain it better than the lecturer,” she said. “Everything that you need these days is online. If anything is giving me difficulties, I just go online, check it on Google, watch videos on it, and try to understand better.”

For Deborah, being a top student was not about memorising the board; it was about being resourceful enough to find a simpler explanation when the classroom version did not click.

If she could go back to 2018, Deborah said she would change more than just her study habits. She would change her life. Having spent seven years focused almost entirely on her CGPA, she now views her “books-only” approach as a missed opportunity.

“I don’t want to say I regret it, but it’s one of the things that I feel like I should have done better,” she reflected. “School is not just for books, books, books. You should also have communities, people you can connect with.”

She now tells incoming students that the smartest thing they can do is find a squad. “Try reading with people. Sometimes what you think you don’t understand, when someone explains it for you, you’ll be like, ‘Oh, so this is how simple it was.’”

As she moves toward a career in Data Science, Deborah is finally merging her love for math with the technical grind of the last seven years. She has already started external training with ALX, proving that her hunger for learning did not end with her degree.

As a student who was unsure of her path to the top graduate in a high-tech faculty, Deborah’s story is a reminder that you do not need to be the best from day one. You just need to be the one who refuses to stay confused.