Sophia Michaels
Uzonna Umeh, a Nigerian man who happens to be the father of Nkechinyere Umeh, the student who got the highest score of 360 in 400 at the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) has made a new revelation,
The man revealed that a Nigerian government federal school refused to admit her daughter into Junior Secondary class 1 because the family did not have “connection.”
Nkechinyere, 16 years old from Anambra State, attends Deeper Life High School, Mowe, Ogun State, and is from a family of four children.
Going by her feat at the UTME, she has already been contacted by the Nigerian Society of Women Engineers and was also offered a scholarship to study at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University.
Speaking with PUNCH in an interview, the father recalled how the family was turned down at the government school he did not name when they were seeking secondary school education for his daughter.
He said, “I know my daughter is intelligent. It started when she was in primary school. She was always among the top three. She left primary school in Class Five and did her common entrance and was on merit. We went to a federal school and they said we need to get somebody up there before she would be admitted.
“That was how we took her to Deeper Life High School. Since she joined the school, we never had any regret. Her siblings also took the school’s exams and were admitted. We don’t pay a lot of money in the school, and their fees are moderate, but they treat the kids well and even feed them five times daily. God will bless everybody in that school.
“The first call I received after the result came out was from the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede. He said the Nigerian Society of Women Engineers was asking for my daughter’s data for an award.
“I also saw it in the papers that she was being offered a scholarship to study at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University. But I have not been contacted yet on the details of the scholarship.”
