Heartbreaking story of a UNN First Class graduate who turned cassava farmer in his village for survival

Emmanuel, a first class graduate of Mathematics, who graduated with a CGPA of 4.92 on a 5-point scale from the prestigious University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), is currently languishing in abject poverty.

The brilliant young man disclosed that he lost his father to diabetes and hypertension in 2005, while he was in secondary school, which greatly affected his plans of furthering his studies and applying for international scholarships.

In order to survive, he became a mathematics teacher for a while at the secondary school he finished from.

Despite getting the award of the Best Mathematics Olympiad teacher in Ebonyi state, he was earning a meagre N12,705.40 per month.

From his earnings, he was able to save some of his N185,000 annual salaries and further his education in a polytechnic.

According to The Cable, during his one-year internship after his polytechnic education, he took other teaching jobs and saved more money till he was able to fund his university education.

Emmanuel finally gained admission to the department of mathematics, faculty of physical sciences at UNN, eight years after graduating from secondary school.

In his final year, Emmanuel won the gold medal in the university category of the 2018 national mathematics competition.

After his one-year national youth service in Enugu, his primary place of assignment retained him as a teacher and was placed on a monthly salary of N35,000 per month.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic dealt him another blow so he had to return to Ebonyi state to make a living from planting cassava.