Meet Olayinka Shado, a proud alumnus of Obafemi Awolowo University’s Faculty of Law, who emerged with a First Class Honours degree.
With a remarkable academic record and a passion for the law, Olayinka Shado demonstrated unwavering dedication and commitment to excellence.
In this interview, Olayinka opens up about the lessons learned and the advice he would give to aspiring law students.
Can you introduce yourself to our audience and readers?
Thank you very much. First of all, I’m grateful for having me in this interview.
By way of introduction, I am Olayinka Shado and just as Catherine said, I’m a recent graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, a law graduate to be specific. I completed my undergraduate degree with a first-class degree. I think that’s just a one-line summary or one-sentence summary of who I am.
Can you please tell us about your educational background?
I think I’m just going to take it up from my secondary education. My JS 1 to 3 was done in a different school from my SS 1 to 3.
So I started off in Ojodu Junior Grammar School. It’s a state-owned public school, and I went on to King’s College, Lagos in 2013. I was there from 2013 to 2016.
At King’s College, I finished as the best graduating student in Literature and English and Christian Religious Studies. From there, I went on to the OAU Center for Distance Learning Program. It’s a pre-degree program ranging from 9 months to one year and I was able to finish among the top 1% of the class with a percentage of 84.3, which granted me admission to study law at Obafemi Awolowo University, where I was for six years plus.
Ordinarily, it should be five years or less, but you understand the peculiarities of schooling at a federal university in Nigeria.
There was the Asuu Strike in 2022, and then there was the COVID-19 lockdown challenge that we had in 2020. So that kind of extended my undergraduate studies from school. But recently, to God be the glory, I am out, finally. I was able to finish well by the special grace of God.
Right now, I’m in the period of waiting for law school, which would hold on to next year for another period of, say, nine months to one year before I get qualified to practice as a lawyer in Nigeria.
So I think that’s much of a background just to have some context to my undergraduate degree, I believe I’m one of the top five students from my class.
We were just about five persons who graduated with a first-class degree of over about 400 students. That’s just a bit of context to the degree.
Describe your experience when you were doing your distance learning pre-degree at OAU. What was it like?
Oh, I would say it was like an advanced secondary school, right, because it’s a pre-degree.
The point was just to kind of test your knowledge of secondary education, but at the same time, kind of introduce you to what undergraduate studies would be like. So in the program, I was taking four courses.
That was because of the choice of field that I wanted to study, which is law. So I was taking English, compulsory English, I think government literature, and I cannot remember the last one right now, but that was like in 2016.
But yeah, we’re just having classes occasionally every day. It wasn’t too serious, I would say, compared to what undergraduate studies are like. It wasn’t too serious. It was a bit relaxed, but at the same time, I think it was a wonderful experience.
It was my first exposure to a proper university environment, right, and I think I was able to build up on some of the skills that I had developed as a secondary school student in terms of, you know, academics, discipline, you know, putting in the hard work to get good grades, making sacrifices, priorities, setting priorities right for the school and all of that.
And of course, interpersonal relationship skills as well, because I was coming from King’s College, which is a boys-only school, so the undergraduate and the pre-degree program where you have like both genders and all of that stuff. So, it means that there are newer distractions and I had to adjust to that particular setting. So, I would say it was a good experience, a fair one.
Okay, that’s good. So seeing that you said you graduated as a top student from the pre-degree program, and you also graduated as a top student from your major that’s law that you studied, would you tell us what your secret was to attain success in both programs? I’m very sure it was very demanding, so would you tell us the secrets of success, how did you attain to be successful in both pre-degree and also in your major as a law student?
Okay, thank you. To start with, I wouldn’t say it’s a secret because I’m not the only one to do it, right, a lot of people have done it before me, and a lot of people are doing it, and a lot of people will do it after me, right.
But I would say my disposition towards what I wanted, my personal disposition towards excellence, so right from my King’s College experience, second-year school experience, I’ve always wanted to be the best, right, in my class.
It was just a disposition, I wouldn’t say that to be practical, I think that really made me have that mentality, I just grew up that way, right, so that attitude was what I took from secondary school to the pre-degree program, from the pre-degree program to my undergrad studies, right.
But if I’m to speak in terms of specific qualities, I would say just first of all your mindset for excellence, your mentality of excellence, because if you do not want to reach for the stars, you will not get the effort that is required for you too.
I think another thing would be environmental influence, right? I always find myself among people that do really good things, right? So in secondary school, my seatmate was always the first or the second.
So I joined them in SS1, they had been in JS1 to JS3, so I joined them in SS1, right? I was lucky to have him as a seatmate, and I think that influenced how I was, you know, how I kind of like, sojourned throughout my secondary school education.
So he was always the first, and second and I wanted to also be a contender, so I wanted to also be like that, So I had that influence around me, and it motivated me to put in the right work, And going into undergraduate studies.
I think, at one stage, I didn’t really have so much of that positive company in terms of academic surroundings, but like at the concluding part of my undergraduate studies, I made a conscious effort to actually relate to some of the first-class students and people that were on the path of first class, and I think it helped me,
In my last session, I had straight A’s, all A’s in all of my courses, I would attribute my relationship with some of these people to helping me gain that success
So I mentioned mindset, which is a mindset for excellence, I think I’ll leave it at that.
Okay. It’s very good that you know, you had that company that motivated you to succeed. I think everybody needs that. So will you tell us if that was also the same thing that motivated you into, you know, picking law as your major and how your academics also motivated you into going into law?
That’s a very, it’s a very common question, but usually there’s no special answer for it, I don’t know if you understand what I’m saying. I did not sleep and then woke up one day, or maybe I saw in my dream that law is really what I wanted to do, right?
I think for me, it was just, I would say back to the mindset of excellence. So when I was in secondary school, I was in the humanities department, right? And I was just thinking, okay, what exactly do I want to study at the university?
At that point in time, law was one of the, you know, really, really reputable professional courses, like we studied in the humanities department. So I think it was just like, I want to be the best at what I do.
And the law is one of the best courses that you can study in the university, that’s from the humanities pipeline. I’m like, okay, let me just do law, right?
At the onset, there was no special motivation. I would say maybe passion because my dad is a lawyer as well.
So my dad is a lawyer as well. I didn’t want to start with that, because I wouldn’t say that was like a major factor, right? I think it was just an underlying thought. My dad is a lawyer, and maybe it’ll be nice to be a lawyer too.
So nothing special. I really just, I wanted to, you know, do the course that was like the most professional for somebody in the humanities department in the secondary school.
And you came up on top! So like, how did your performance in Literature in English and Christian Religious Studies at King’s College influence your approach to legal studies?
Not so much, really, because, Literature in English is not a law right? I did Literature in English in my first year in university, and I’m not getting it wrong.
I think my success as the best-graduating student in Literature-in-English and Christian Religious Studies really actually helped me to do well in my undergraduate course, like when I was taking Literature in English, because I remember at that time, a lot of people were not getting A’s, because Literature in English, was that course that people really found it hard to get an A in my class at my school.
I don’t know how it works in other schools, but like, you know, there are a lot of peculiarities to it right? So you find very few people having an A, but I was one of the people who had an A in my class in Literature in English at the time.
I would say it had a big influence. I think the fact that I was good in literature and English in secondary school helped me to do well in Literature in English when I took it as a broad course in my first year in university.
Okay, so would you like to share with us what those personal influences Christian studies had on you? Like, did it make you not totally believe in God or something like that?
No, no, I grew up in a relatively Christian home, right? I had like a good home upbringing and I would say I was a very good child growing up. I didn’t do all those things that teenagers did, you know, all that stuff.
And I would put that to, like, my home upbringing, right? And, coming as a graduate student in CRS at the time did not have, like, so much role in determining my character in university.
So, it has just a very little influence. It was just because I lived well at the time. So, nothing too serious about it.
Okay. So, can you discuss a particular project or, you know, research paper from your law degree that you are very proud of?
There are a number of them, right? Because I wasn’t just a bookworm.
When I got into university, I did a lot of extracurricular activities, I participated in competitions, national competitions, and international competitions.
But the one that I’m most proud of, which is, like, the most recent, was a competition which I represented my school in Abuja.
That was, like, in July. It was based on one of the courses that I was taking in year five. So, I happened to be, like, the best in that course. So the lecturer just told me, and some of us that we were going to represent the school in this competition, it was a national competition, there were other schools too.
There was an essay stage. We wrote the essay. We qualified to do, like, an oral presentation, which was taken in Abuja, it was a nice experience because we eventually came out on top, and that qualifies us to represent Nigeria at the African Rounds in Kenya this coming November. So, I think that’s one that I’m most proud of.
I’m sure we Nigerians are proud of you, and we wish you the best of luck. Okay, so how would you say your academic achievements are preparing you for your legal career ahead?
I think it’s going to be a lot of work in turn, because not many people make first-class right, and when you make first-class in university, there’s a lot of expectations from you.
In fact, my parents, and my dad were talking to me like two days ago, telling me about scholarships, and how first-class can take you to the UK, to the US. I have that in mind.
That’s one of my personal goals I’m working towards. There’s that pressure from your parents, from your friends, everybody’s looking up to you and saying, oh, you’re going to do really great things and all that.
I think that pressure is helping me not to relax and as much as I’ve achieved this particular milestone, as an undergraduate, I’m looking forward to achieving more. Law school is next year, right?
So for graduates who finish first-class in university, people have a certain expectation that you finish first in law school as well, because people do it, right?
But law school is an entirely different ballgame, as it’s much tougher than graduate school but the point is, there’s that pressure, and that pressure kind of like translates into motivation for me.
Not necessarily that I don’t have my own personal motivation, independent of that pressure, I have my personal motivation, which is what has been my motivation up until now.
That is one. And number two, I think achieving a first-class degree is also like evidence. It’s evidence of unique qualities that I have been able to build, which employers would see as valuable in the workplace.
Those are very good qualities to have, and you know, you graduated in the top 10, so I’m very sure the pressure is too much, but you know, you can take it one step at a time. You achieved what most people have not and didn’t, so, you know, be proud of yourself. I do want to ask you, what strategies did you, you know, use to stay focused while you were in school?
So, like I said earlier, I’ve always had this disposition towards wanting to be really good at what I’m doing, and to be among the best.
Maybe it’s like a people thing, but I’m not sure, I always want to be on top of where I am. So, I think that mindset that I had in university really helped me to stay focused.
Now, just a bit of context to my undergraduate studies., when I started university, I started with a really high GPA data my first year, and I was in the first class. But, like, from my second year, I started to diversify.
I started to do a lot of things. I contested for a political position in my faculty, and I lost. But that was just, like, the beginning of a number of things that I started to do. I worked as an event host. I was doing MC hosting events in my faculty. I did freelance writing, I did competitions, and all of that stuff, so that kind of, like, distracted me from my goal of finishing with the first class to the point that I kind of, like, dropped from the first class.
Like, I started with the first class in my first year, but, like, I dropped in the middle, because of, like, the number of things that I was doing, but I came to the realization in my fourth year that, come on, I really want this thing, and that mindset of, you know, excellence, I want this to feel strong, because a lot of people still thought I was in the first class for the longest of time, but, known to me, I knew that I was just, like, trying to get back.
I was close, right, because I started with the first class, and it was the mindset of, okay, I really want this thing, and I want to be among the few that would finish with first class in my class, and I think that was one of the major strategies that helped me.
Priorities would also be a really good strategy that I worked on, because, like I said, I was venturing into a number of things, but in my fourth year, I realized that I needed to cut down on the number of things, because if I was to, like, really bump back into the first class, so I set my priorities right, and I was saying no to a number of opportunities, and decisions and that helped me, really, so that was a really good strategy.
Another thing was having second guidance because, I was trying to get back, and it was the mindset of, okay, I really want this thing, and I want to be among the few that would finish with first class in my class, and I think that was one of the major strategies that helped me.
So, it was easy for me to reach out to them for ideas. I did this very well in my fifth year. I was reaching out to a lot of people.
When was the time to ask questions about this? How do you prepare for this? How do I answer this question?
So, I think guidance is really important, and it was one of the biggest strategies that really helped me. So, it doesn’t retreat. I said guidance, I said the mindset for excellence, and I said priorities.
Okay. So, Olayinka, you talked about starting with the first class and, you know, slacking behind. Would you say that was a challenge that you encountered in school, and would you say the strategies you mentioned were ways you overcame that challenge?
Absolutely. Absolutely. It was a serious challenge for me. It was. It was because it’s really difficult to navigate the lecturers in my faculty, like, you know, how lecturers can be.
So, at that point, I was really scared that I wasn’t going to make the first class because when I was in my 4th year, I realised I needed to have more ease in my final year, right? I needed to have more ease if I was going to really finish a good first class.
At that point, the pressure was, was like a notch higher for me and, it was a big challenge for me because I had to manage doing work to, you know, to take care of myself
in terms of finances, right, and attending classes, and all that stuff. So, the skills that I mentioned, the attributes that I mentioned played a huge role because, at that point, I realised I had to cut down on the number of stops, and I said priorities, my book became my number one priority, rather than number two, or number three.
So, I brought my books back to number one, and the mindset of excellence was driving me, even though, like, I had it at the back of my mind that if you’re not really serious, the slightest mistake or the slightest loophole can cost you to loose guard and miss the mark.
So, that mindset really helped me to work towards first class, and then, of course, guidance was instrumental as well. They were helping me to stay motivated, doing the right things that I needed to do to achieve what I wanted to achieve.
Okay. So, how do you plan to leverage on your academic excellence for your future career ?
I plan to use it really well. I plan to drain it, right, because I worked hard for it, and when I was working for it, I had to mind other things that I could do with a first-class
degree, and I’m working towards that, right? So, to be specific, I’m looking to, like, penetrate into the global space.
So, like, I want to be an international lawyer, I’m looking to work in a law firm in the UK, US, that’s one of my major career goals, and having a first-class degree is a good start, because these people in the US, they want the best of the best.
If they’re going to recruit someone from Nigeria or Africa, they want the best of the best. So, I think having a first-class degree, and all the achievements that I’ve been able to gather for myself gives me like a promising start.
It gives me a good prospect and I said that I probably would start as a lawyer here in Nigeria so that would also help me to get into like a really good law firm, because competition is fierce.
There are just a few, you know, good law firms in terms of pay and work culture and all of that stuff but being a first-class student and finishing with a first-class in law school as well, gives me the position to secure a slot in a law firm like that.
Securing a slot in a law firm like that is really just a good start for my new career because I can go on to do amazing things and all that stuff. I’m also looking at the prospect of scholarships as well, like for masters. Like there are a number of things that I have in mind that.
