1989 was the last time a student of this faculty graduated with first class in Surgery. That was 28 years ago when Obafemi Awolowo University herself was just 28 years old.

Since 1989, thousands of students have passed through the Surgery department. Thousands of them have tried their best to make first class, but none seems 'brilliant enough' to break the record that was set when Surgery was a young practice in Nigeria.

And instead of breaking the jinx to set a new record, a discouraging legacy was established. A legacy that has seen no student graduate with first class since 1989.

Students' inability to break certain records in Nigerian Universities is a tradition. It is not because the students are dull or because they have never tried their best to break the records, but some departments and lecturers believe a certain tradition has to be kept alive.

Literally, what this tradition means is that no matter how you try, you can not break the record even if you are brighter than Albert Einstein.

But somehow Aarinola Olaiya proved the Einstein in her, she grabbed the first-class record that has not been awarded to any student in 28 years at the Surgery department of the Faculty of Clinical Sciences.

While we celebrate Olaiya for her determination to break the terrible academic jinx in her department, it is pertinent to also understand why and an academic record set in 1989 is just broken in 2017.

From what many Nigerian students believe about their lecturers and the system, it is safe to conclude that  OAU is one of those institutions in Nigeria that are filled with too many over-knowledgeable tutors who do not only despise their own students but also glorify their failures.

OAU and many other schools like it might pride themselves with good facilities and a great number of professors but a lot of Nigerian students obviously have a negative opinion about schools that hardly produce first class graduates.

Pointing out the systemic and orientation rots that make some lecturers celebrate students' failure, an anonymous graduate described Obafemi Awolowo University as trash.

"It is trash and it is trash just like every other Nigerian school, where they glorify failure of students instead of feeling bad when their students failed.

It is simple if you cook rice and it gets burnt every time, who do you blame? do you blame the rice or the cook? Sometimes there you can have bad rice too but guess what, there is a problem. You don't go about saying hey, my rice get burnt every time, you ought to find a solution.

Everybody knows all those lecturers that would come out to say you can not have An A in my course and they will say it with pride. It is very shameful.

"We have learnt from students that are leaving to study abroad that they are pretty smart. You will remember your classmate that was just average and went abroad and start smashing, everybody has such classmate. So, it is either Nigerian students are dumb or the teaching method makes no sense. And I think Nigerian lecturers are as responsible as the bigger system that rewards failure. It is a culture that celebrates suffering, it is disgusting, we have a mentality in this country."

The ego of some Nigerian lecturers have on many occasions stood in the ways of many students from making first class. These lecturers believe the best of grades is not for students and there is nothing anybody can do about it.

For instance, a department in Lagos State University School of Communication has a maxim that A is for God, B for lecturers and C D and E are for students, who work hard. In other words, no student deserves to have an A in any course.

There is a similar egocentric culture in OAU and that is why the university has been very barren in producing first class graduates.

An English graduate of the  University who pleaded anonymity identified a link between OAU lecturers' ego and their culture of glorifying failure.

"I just think there is a culture of glorifying failure as there are many departments without first-class students for certain years and the lecturers even do come to class to point out that their course is so hard that even the most brilliant students could not pass it. I just think most of this boils down to stroke their egos. When I was there, I know a couple of departments that have not produced first-class students for decades."

While it may be argued that OAU is not a University that distributes the first-class award like newspapers, it must also be noted that a faculty that produces no distinction student in five years should cover its face in shame, because it shows something is wrong with the faculty.

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It is against this background that Twitter Nigeria chose to bash OAU and celebrated Olaiya for not only breaking the jinx but for also defeating the professors who have made making first-class an unrealistic dream in the University.

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Nigeria is losing its best brains to foreign countries on a daily basis. The students adjudged to be below average at home jet out to become the best students in foreign Universities.

While some of them would return to the country to brandish the certificate in the face of the egocentric lecturers, others might choose to stay behind and become senior lecturers like Salihu Dasuki who now lectures at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK.

The Nigerians students abroad do not have two heads, it is the system that made things possible for them. We need to have same system and orientation in the Nigerian Universities to make learning an exciting experience for these students.

So, it is high time Nigerian lecturers swallow their prides and let students get appropriate rewards for their harwork. The whole world is celebrating their youths doing big things and breaking new grounds.