Imisioluwa Bamidele

For someone who was actively serving in different capacities in his fellowship, running his photography business, doing different things alongside to sustain himself as a student and also being an active student, Ololade seems to have hacked the work-student life code.

In an interview with the NASELS Press, Ololade Samuel Odefemi, a student of the department of Yoruba Language and Culture from the faculty of Arts and Social Science Education who graduated with a 3.3 CGPA shares his secret to being a multitasker without any egging on the other.

Appreciating God for the journey so far, he said; “I give God all the glory because he believes he is the giver of Strength”. “Without him, we can do nothing as a man. It has not been easy and as you will expect from every Uite, you will know that being a Uite, it has never and I don’t think it will come to a time that it will ever be easy”, he added.

“As a Uite, you have to combine a lot of things together. You just do many things at once. You have to read even before exams. You have to prepare and for people that have other things we are doing, so we have to just know how to put them together without one affecting another one but then I give glory to God”, he added.

Responding to whether he has had moments of wanting to give up, he retorted: “No, playfully, maybe I have felt something like that but I have never really thought of giving up. Why should I give up? I know what I was coming here to face in the first place when I got the admission. I was prepared for it.”

Corollary to the above, he added that “But you know you can never be fully prepared for U.I but I know that giving up is not an option and as a Child of God, I have learnt that whatever we pass through, God is there with us.”

On combining academics with other things, he explained that “Well I don’t want to be over spiritual because I will have to say again it is God. In the beginning, God and at the end, God because he is the giver of strength”

 Acknowledging the need for structures, he stated that “but as spiritual as we want to be, there are also structures that we have to put in place. The Bible says : Wisdom is profitable to direct.” Giving context to this, he said: “Now the way I balance things is that as a photographer, for instance, there were times you have customer and you have exam but you have to learn to say no when you have to say no”.

Emphasizing the need for effective time management, he added that “Handiwork with academics, you just have to manage your time. Learn customer relations- how to relate with customer and all that. If you can do that, you need to learn how to rest too.”

Expressing gratitude to God, he said “The first thing I am grateful for is the salvation of my soul. I am grateful to God for growth. I am talking about spiritual growth firstly. You know my admission to U.I to fellowship- CACSAUI. I am grateful for life and I am grateful to God for physical growth because I know I am not where I used to be”.