How I topped my department despite hardship, family’s financial struggles
By Ojiaku Kalu and Ekwunife Raphael
Chinaza Blessing Uzo made headlines when she emerged the overall best graduate in Nursing Science at the recently held convocation of the Evangel University, Akaeze. The third child in a family of 10 – five boys and five girls, she struggled through primary and secondary schools, and had resigned to fate, selling okpa, a bean cake delicacy before she got admitted to the university where she graduated with a first class in Nursing Science.
How was your childhood like?
My childhood was not easy. My family toiled and hustled to make ends meet. My schooling was constantly disrupted due to financial hardship. I stopped my primary school in the first term of Primary 5. I did not do second and third terms, but managed to continue to Primary 6. It was a problem of funding. Before that, I had stopped at Primary 3 when my parents sent me to live with one of my aunts in Lagos. I was never enrolled in school for an entire session. I had to return to my parents. I was reenrolled into school and was admitted to secondary school.
As a result of perennial lack of funds, I did not do SS3 at all. After SS2, I joined my mum in her petty business. She sells okpa. It’s a bean cake delicacy common to Enugu people. But she didn’t have enough capital for the business. So, in order to contribute to my family upkeep, I started working in people’s farms as a labourer. I also did other menial jobs to support my family, including selling firewood. I later got some money to register for my Ordinary Level exams. I had to register for NECO instead of WAEC.
For the university education, there was no funding. I had to fully join my mother in her okpa business. I sold from Sunday to Friday. Saturdays were out because we are Sabbatarians. Later we started producing the okpa ourselves and supplying to those who sold in retail. Yet the financial crisis persisted, even in the university.
But in all this, I never went into hook-up nor was I into begging. I was only begging God to come to my rescue. And he brought a young man who incidentally became my husband toward the end of my course. This is why I owe all my gratitude to Him alone.
Doing immoral things never crossed my mind because of the way my parents brought us up as a Christian family. Again, my elder sister also played a great role. She’s the one that showed me the value of hard work and self reliance. She’s the one that actually started working on people’s farms to earn a living.
How come you still attended a private university in spite of your financial difficulties?
My only answer to that is that I trusted God. Mind you, this is not the first university I ventured into. I started with the Anambra State University Igbariam – Uli campus. I was there for one year. But I wasn’t paying attention to anything. My mind was just not there. It was the President of my Department’s Association at Anambra State University that introduced me to Evangel University. I had to take another JAMB. I trusted God that I was going to start and finish regardless of the high fees; and He saw me through.
How were you able to make a first class at Evangel University and become the best graduating student of your set?
I had that target from my first year. But after the first year, I felt I had lost the target and stopped hoping to make a first class result. I had one carryover in my first year, and it was due to some mistake. Then, COVID 19 came with its negative effect. Our exams were jam-packed, with three papers each day. I failed that course. I rewrote the exam and made an A, but failing it in Year 1 affected my CGPA which was 4.17; and that dashed my hope of making a first class.
I met a lecturer with my CGPA of 4.17 for counselling and he convinced me that my hope of first class was already quashed. However, in my first semester of 200 Level, somebody checked my result and told me that I had a CGPA of 4.58. I doubted it until I saw it myself. Then I knew I could still make a first class. From there, I picked up, worked hard, and maintained it through graduation as the best student in the department.
What was your greatest challenge at Evangel University?
The prominent challenge in Evangel University is the desert-like sun, especially when we had to go for lectures climbing and descending the hills. Again, there are those tiny flies that bite during the rainy season. On the other hand, the mode of lecture in the system is good; and that helped me to recover all I missed in SS3.
What particularly informed your choice of nursing? Was it intentional or accidental?
For me, it wasn’t nursing initially. I wanted medicine and surgery. I merely entered nursing because I wanted to gain admission into the university. One of my uncles sat me down talked me into nursing. Because of the auxiliary nurses, I saw all nurses as fake or quacks; but when I eventually started the course, I realised I should have chosen nursing earlier than I did; instead of medicine. Today, I’m not regretting that I did nursing. I will still choose it over and over again now that I fully know.
What is it you have discovered that would make you choose nursing all over every other course? What purpose has nursing given you?
In any healthcare facility, patients come in contact with us first. We deal directly with patients, we know their problems. The holistic approach of nursing: the psychological, the emotional, the social, everything about the vocation becomes a motivation to anyone who truly belongs in it. Nurses are known to empathise with patients. We take care of patients – unlike doctors that just come and write some instructions for nurses to carry out. For me, it is the care for humanity that gives me joy. Now, I can’t change from nursing to any other course now.
During your posting as a student nurse, did you find nurses at the hospitals exhibiting that empathy or did you find that missing?
Yes. Majority of the nurses do, while some don’t. I believe that the show of empathy is a product of individual personality, not even of just being a nurse. Sometimes, the number of patients a nurse meets in a day is enough to turn the nurse off – especially because of their shortage in country’s healthcare system. So, this is where the personality makeup of a given nurse becomes a factor in containing the challenge.
Do you think that older nurses are providing enough mentorship for younger nurses in Nigeria?
Yes. During our postings, some of the matrons mentored us while some were busy comparing us with our counterparts from the schools of nursing. Some of them would deliberately refuse to teach us the craft of nursing or even speak to us. Those are the ones that claim that those of us from universities are pompous. But it’s not true. In such a situation, if you are from a school of nursing, they attend to you differently and even assign patients to you to take care of. The antagonism of matrons is so pronounced on nurses from universities. Some chiefs, however, do not mind. Interestingly, those are the ones who have obtained their degrees in Nursing Science. This set keeps encouraging you to up your act in the profession. Another challenge I see is that sometimes when you go to the wards, the senior nurses keep sending you on irrelevant errands like ‘go and buy something for me’. I think this is wrong and should stop. Another challenge I see is that the doctors leave the student doctors in the consulting room while they send the student-nurses on errands such as movement of patients’ folders. Yet both the student-nurses and student-doctors are there to learn. It pisses me off when I see student-nurses being asked to carry folders up and down during such important sessions.
If you were given an opportunity to correct the situation, what kind of campaign would you mount?
I will start with the heads: the heads of medical and the nursing units, because all these problems start from the heads. They should be sensitized to learn that medical and nursing practices are a team thing. The feeling of superiority and inferiority must be dropped. Nobody is a master or a maid in the practice. Coming to the wards, the head nurse should avoid discriminating against students from universities.
How do you think international bodies will be able to help you and your colleagues to advance?
International bodies can help by giving us scholarships to further our studies. They also can assist students and young graduates in the field with practical mentorship to improve their performances in academics and clinical practice.
If given an opportunity for further studies, what area of nursing would you go into?
I will go into public health nursing so I can reach out to a large number of people, especially those in remote villages. I would actually love to work at primary healthcare centres in rural communities. I had wanted to go into anaesthetics but I discovered I will be limited to the hospitals and the theatres.
Looking at your outstanding performance and several awards on the day of your induction into the nursing profession, how do you feel?
I am simply overwhelmed because everything I worked for has been appreciated at the end. Starting from the leadership award I received, I have had to find myself in leadership positions from childhood. In my primary 5, I was the class captain; in my SS2, I was the deputy senior prefect; at Evangel University, I constantly found myself in leadership positions. I am excited to have been given the Leadership-Skill award, the Outstanding Performance award and the Best Research Students Award.
Interestingly, on the day I did that exam, I was attacked by hoodlums and my phone was snatched from me. That phone contained my study materials and I was using it for revision. The exam was to hold at 3:00pm and the phone was stolen around 12:00 noon that day. That was a very bad time for me. Before then, Dr. Samuel Okpan (now my husband), had intuitively printed out the material saved in the phone. So I had to return to the printouts. I thank God for the achievements and the corresponding awards.
With all you went through, what advice do you have for your peers, especially the girls?
I would advise them not to resort to hook-up. They should find something to do with their hands – by acquiring some skills that may enable them raise the needed funds. With that, they can become an entrepreneur and employ people while they go back to school. Engaging in hook-up is completely forbidden. In fact, those ‘odd’ things I did back then exposed me to many opportunities. Due to my doggedness and industry, I actually got a scholarship to study medicine and surgery overseas; but I missed the opportunity following the death of the scholarship funder. So in all, youths who are financially challenged should get something legitimate for meaningful engagement.
I used to load firewood too, even as a girl. I would ensure the vehicle was filled and very well loaded on each trip. I did that alongside the okpa business till my father bought a bike for me. Any site where works like building or other projects were on, I would ride the bike to such places to supply, even to the point of way-billing it to Lagos and Abuja. With that business, we were eventually able to erect a building on my father’s portion of land. But I told myself that I needed to pursue some meaningful career – hence my resolve to enter university. No man will say he ever slept with me for me to make money. Never! Such a lifestyle is not part of my upbringing.