A 43-year-old father of four, Mr. Saviour Asuquo, has graduated the same day as his daughter, Joyce Asuquo, from the Cross River State University (UNICROSSS).
Asuquo, a former staff member of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Calabar, and a freelance cameraman with Channels Television, attributed his motivation to pursue a university degree at the same time as his daughter to the need to break the barriers that had prevented his family members from acquiring university education.
The Mass Communication graduate, who hails from Ikot Eyo Edem community, Akpabuyo local government area of Cross River, said, “I wanted to get a university degree because no one in my family has a degree certificate.
“The determination to acquire a university degree is like breaking a covenant that has held my family spellbound.”
“I advised people to take a bold step and pursue whatever university degree they desire. Don’t wait until your parents send you to school. On your own, you can struggle to get one.
“I began the academic programme without a father or a mother to provide me with the necessary financial assistance. My mum, who passed away a few months ago, was old, and I struggled to bury her, as an old woman whom I also struggled to keep alive,” he said.
Asuqou, who also runs an online television company (Impact TV), said that apart from shouldering the responsibility of seeing himself and his daughter through school, he had other relatives he claimed to be making contributions to ensure that they scaled through school.
“If I can do this, without waiting for anybody, other young men can as well do the same without waiting for someone to assist them. They should take bold steps rather than wait for their parents to train them in the university.
“I didn’t wait for anybody; I had relatives who always came to me to assist them, notwithstanding the meagre earnings that I make from my day-to-day hustle from online television,” he said.
An elated Asuqou continued, “Today I am a Mass Communication graduate, while my daughter graduated with a B.Sc. in Laboratory Science.”
According to him, the desire to further his studies made him quit his job with NTA after he was posted to Ogoja, which he considered too far from the state capital where the university campus operates.
Asuqou said he had to sit for the West African Certificate Examination (WAEC) at the same time as his daughter before proceeding to UNICROSSS in the same academic session with Joyce.
“My desire to start a family early is to ensure that I break away from that jinx of not having educated people as siblings. My first son is 25 years old, the second, who we graduated together, is 21, the third one is 17, and the 4th, the youngest, is seven years old,” he explained.
