OAU student’s suicide not linked to academic failure, says spokesman

Abiodun Olarewaju, spokesman of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, says the death of Adedeji Emmanuel, a student of the institution, was not linked to academic failure.

Emmanuel, a 200-level student of management and accounting at the varsity, breathed his last on Tuesday in what was said to be a suicide.

Speaking with NAN on Wednesday, Olarewaju said failure in life goes beyond academic performance.

The spokesperson also said that people fail in different human endeavours, noting that whenever such happened, taking one’s life should not be the next thing.

“So, whether you are wealthy, in middle or lower class of the society, individuals have different challenges in life,” he said.

The spokesman admonished people to take things easy, saying that excellence in academic performance does not mean that one would make it in life.

“And failure academically doesn’t mean that things would not go well with such a person in the future,” he added.

“Dropping out of school doesn’t mean total failure in one’s lifetime. Dangote is not a professor, but the richest man in Africa.

“To the Glory of God, President Muhammadu Buhari failed three times, to clinch the job. But when he contested the fourth time, he won; now running his second term.

“President Joe Biden of USA had so many matrimonial calamities; lost a son, a wife, but today he is the President of USA.”

Olarewaju advised all and sundry not to write themselves off and contemplate suicide.