TheCable

Congratulations are in order for Nigerian superstar Davido. Family, Friends and fans celebrated with the fresh graduate of Babcock University and sent in their congratulations on social media.

Davido reached a milestone moment in his professional and personal life, finally bagging a degree in music.

However, from many of the comments on social media, there appears to be a big question on everyone’s mind: How did Davido do it? In a school known for strict regimentation of student life, where did the jet-setting artiste find the time to tend to his academic responsibilities at the same time work on his album, and meet other professional touring obligations?

Davido’s academic journey began as a student of business administration at Oakwood University in the United States.

In 2010, he decided he was wasting his life and would rather be doing something he’s passionate about. He tried to leave school and relocate to Nigeria to follow his passion for music, but ‘Baba Olowo’ himself, his dad, was ‘not feeling that idea’.

Davido was sent back to the US to face the drudgery of social science studies, suppressing his soul yearning for artful expression through music. But the heart wants what the heart wants when it knows what it wants. It was only a matter of time before his dad realized that his son was only dancing to the tune of his own destiny.

Leaving school was never an option for his dad and leaving music wasn’t an option for him. So the two had to be combined conveniently and Babcock’s music department was born.

Davido’s father, Deji Adeleke, is a successful businessman who has considerable influence in the university, being a founding member of the university and the chairman of its inaugural Board of Trustees.

He helped access over N200 million in the process of establishing the school years ago, which is the background to the N200 million joke the VC made at the convocation ceremony.

During the presentation, the VC had joked: ‘If you pay N200 million, you can be up here taking pictures with your son.’

Davido’s mother, late Veronica Adeleke, who passed away in 2003 when he was 11 years old, was also lecturer at the university in the early years of establishment. One of hostels in the school bears his family name.

The music department was promptly established and Davido was enrolled on a part-time basis as the first and only student of the music department in 2012.

Already established is that he wasn’t your average student. He carried his work with him wherever he went around the world. He was on off-campus mode but he used to have a rented flat on campus at the staff quarters. He snuck in from time to time to attend lectures and submit assignments, then he’d be out before long.

He obviously received special treatment from the school and his lecturers because, well, he was a special student. “It’s hard but my teachers understand because they know what I do and they’re fans as well,” he explained in an interview.

But the ‘Aye’ singer had his own struggles, like we all do. His H.O.D Olusegun Ojuola revealed exclusively to TheCable some of his fondest memories of Davido, the student.

“Yeah. The first was the day he wore a ragged jeans to school and I chased him out of my office and told him to leave the faculty immediately,” he said.

“He was quite visibly shaken and since then he never wore that stuff to school. Another is that sometimes, when he had shows and he tried to play truancy and begged me to tell the dad that he was in school, I always refused and told him I would never lie. So he caught that message and I made him to make up for missed classes.”

Ojuola added that he always thought Davido would prefer to eat junks and fast foods, but he was shocked by his findings.

“To my surprise, David was always eating common Buka stuff like Amala, ponmo, white rice with dodo etc,” he said.

Mr Ojuola never refers to him as Davido because he tries to separate Davido the artiste and David the student.

“I will always remember that during exams David liked to keep a distance from other students. I asked why; he said he didn’t want to be distracted. He is quite a brilliant student,” he said.

He revealed David was only able to graduate as a part-time student in such a short period of time because of the credits he carried from Oakwood University in Business Administration in 2010 and extra summer semesters.

Above all, Davido will be remembered for his exceptional humility and kindness to those around him. The HOD praised the rich young performer for his charity.

“His stay in school has also been a blessing to some indigent students whom the lord has used David to pay their school fees,” he said.