Recently updated on November 28th, 2019 at 12:31 pm
17-year-old former student of Nigerian Airforce Secondary School, Ikeja, Lagos, Peter Seunara Arotiba, has emerged the best overall candidate in the May/June 2018 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in West Africa.
Peter Seunara Arotiba emerged the best candidate in the West African sub-region with eight A1s in the May/June 2018 WASSCE, beating over 1.9 million candidates that sat for the examination.
In the May/ June 2018 WASSCE, Peter Seunara Arotiba with examination number 4251112045, obtained A1 in eight subjects, which are Economics A1, Civic Education A1, Tourism A1, English Language A1, Mathematics A1, Biology A1, Chemistry A1 and Physics A1.
The second and third positions went to two Ghanaian students, Wilhermina Opoku (2nd) and Brago Afrifa, (3rd).
Opoku, 18 years old and former student of Wesley Girls High School, Cape Coast and Afrifa, former pupil of Yaa Asantewaa Girls SHS, Kumasi, recorded A1 in all the subjects during the May/June 2018 WASSCE.
The Head, Public Affairs of WAEC Headquarters, Accra, Ghana, Mr. Abiodun Aduloju, said the three candidates were honoured with the WAEC International Excellence Awards for their outstanding performance in the May/June 2018 WASSCE at the 67th Annual Meeting of WAEC in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
According to him, the three winners emerged from 1,976,537 million candidates who sat for WASSCE in The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
Peter Seunara Arotiba has been awarded the National Distinction and Merit Award by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) for emerging overall best student in the 2018 examinations.
Peter Seunara Arotiba, is currently studying Medicine and Surgery at the University of Ibadan.
He was recognised alongside two others at the opening of the 57th Annual Meeting of the Nigeria National Committee (NNC) of WAEC, in Abuja on the 21st of November 2019.
Speaking with journalists after the awards presentation, Arotiba said that achieving success was a function of so many factors, the chief of which was God’s grace and hard work.
According to Peter Seunara Arotiba:
“A lot of heroes, who have participated in building me up to whom I am today, instilled the spirit of excellence in me – my parents, my teachers and, personal hard work.
I have a natural passion for reading, so studying was not an issue to me. When you work hard and depend on God’s grace, one will never be disappointed.
The sacrifice made to achieve this feat was a high level of discipline during examinations as I let go of other programmes I enjoyed and concentrated fully.
I study ahead by studying during the holidays. Lazying around during the holidays and playing around with friends during holidays were some of the things I refused doing.”
WAEC also named the three overall best schools from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the 2019 WASSCE to include Loyola Jesuit College, Louisville Girls’ Secondary School and Stella Maris College, Abuja.
