February 17, 2025

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Delay Is Not Denial: Olamide Emida’s Remarkable Path to Success

By Mighty Oluwayemi, Olowo Olaide Sherifat, Ebhomien Favour, Yusuf Toyyeebah, and Shorungbe Olufisayo

How long does it take for you to give up on your dreams? How many attempts do you take before you decide this path might not be yours? How strong is your armour in the face of adversity? Well, Olamide Idris has turned his setbacks into comebacks. This is how.

Idris wrote JAMB three times in an attempt to study Accounting, his long-desired course of study. In his first JAMB, he scored 254 and missed the cut-off mark by less than 0.25%. This propelled him to go to Yaba College of Technology for his ND. Unfortunately, he couldn’t settle with his decision.

“How could a senior prefect settle for a polytechnic? Why should a university be hard for you? Why can’t you get university admission if others are getting university admission? So that was the mindset.” he shared.

Idris eventually took his second JAMB in 2016, believing it would be a success. However, it turned out to be the worst of his attempts. This time, he scored 184.

“That is what they gave me,” he asserted, that the result didn’t correlate with his effort.

He didn’t stop there. He completed his OND programs in 2018 and decided to attempt JAMB again. Unbelievable for him, in a period of less study and other occupying activities, he passed JAMB with a score of 315 and scored 20 in Post UTME and eventually gained admission to the university of his first choice. 

“… 2015, 2016 and 2018. And the third one allowed me to gain admission to the University of Lagos,” he said.

Idris is the best graduating humanities student overall, with a whopping CGPA of 4.95. His commitment to excellence and career progress led him to complete his ICAN certification in year two. He emerged as the best-qualifying male candidate and third-best-qualifying candidate in the ICAN November 2021 diet. Before that, he was a prize winner for the ICAN March 2019 diet, as he was awarded for being the best student in three courses and the best overall student in ATS three. He was also the Liason Officer for the UNILAG Tax Club.

In addition to this accomplishment, he received a scholarship from Udacity to study Data Analysis, which he completed and certified.  

“If you follow me on LinkedIn, you’ll see that I’ve posted several data visualisations using Power BI by Microsoft. So, it’s just to show that it’s not just about CGPA alone. I realised that I need to do other things to show that I am valuable.”

Idris revealed that this lifestyle was influenced by the lecture he attended in year three organised by FABAMSA (Faculty of Business Administration Muslim Student Association), when Dr Ayodele Shittu, the guest speaker, said,

“Your CGPA will only matter for two years after you graduate.”

He mentioned that this speech made him reflect on how he must add value outside his academic walls and has achieved just that.

In an interview with us, he shared the challenges he encountered during this period, including his juniors’ curious questions about him still being in school, the lack of accommodation in his first year, which led him to sleep in the central mosque, and the lockdown, which caused him to spend over two years at the 300 level.

“We resumed year three in October or November 2021. Then, we eventually finished around June 2023. It was the most extended session in school. And that was because, in 2022, we went on an 8-month strike. It’s also the most challenging session for me. I had my worst CGP in the semester, which was 4.63. It should be because of the strike and everything. The uncertainty was not helping,” he explained.

Idris shared that he is inspired by Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms. He wants to be a leader in his field and become renowned in accounting, making implementations like Taiwo Oyedele.

He advised students to be mindful, focus on controllable actions and excellence, practice delayed gratification, trust time and persistence, self-validation, believe in themselves, and be resilient.

 “Overcoming setbacks with the mindset that delay is not denial.”