Dr Tinuade O. Okoro -An exceptional student

The name of Dr Tinuade Olukemi Okoro will forever go down in the history of the College of Health Sciences of the University of Ghana for winning 16  out of the 22 awards at the college’s 12th Congregation held recently.   She is the first student to have achieved such an outstanding  feat in the 51-year history of the university and she attributed her success to divine blessings and hard work.

Dr Okoro stunned invited guests and well wishers  who came to witness the ceremony when she collected her 16 prizes one after another, amidst loud applause.

She won the Nana Wereko Ampem II Prize for Best Student in Clinical Obstetrician and Gynaecology, the Lucy Peprah Tawiah Prize for Best Female Student in Obstetrics and Gynaecology,  Best Female student in Child Health, Best in Gynaecology, Clinical Obstetrics, Ophthalmology, Clinical Surgery, Surgery, Medicine and Therapeutics, Clinical Pharmacology, the Best All-round student throughout the course, among others.

Dr Okoro, who enrolled in the medical school as a foreign student from Nigeria, made her country, parents, siblings and loved ones  very proud. She was also honoured by the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana.

In an interview with the Junior Graphic, Dr Okoro said she  was born in October 1987 to Omotoya Yetunde of blessed memory and Mr Benjamin Oyelede Okoro, a retired civil servant. She is the last of six girls.

She began her primary education in 1993 at the Plateau Private school, Jos, continued at Ranty Model School and completed at the Camp David Nursery and Primary School, Lagos.

She later attended the  Federal Government Girls' College, Akure, at the age of 10  from 1998-2004.  Sadly,  Dr Okoro lost her mum while she was writing the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) but  that  setback  did not weigh her down. She  came out as  the best student of her school in the WASSCE, scoring  six As, a B and a C.    

After the WASSCE, she applied to universities in the US. However, delays in the admission process,  coupled with financial constraints, compelled her to apply to the University of Ghana, a decision which she said she had never regretted. 

According to Dr Okoro, she had strict parents who always encouraged  her not to rest on her laurels but strive to be the best.

"Mum will tell me, ‘you should never allow your friends to distract you in school because some are in school for different reasons’ and that helped me keep my focus," she said.

Dr Okoro' said she always developed a plan to study.

"I look at the material and read it from cover to cover consistently to understand, considering the available time, because no lecturer would ask any question outside our notes," she  recalled.

She said she never took notes during lectures but always paid  attention. Dr Okoro explained that when information got to you for the first time your brain tones assimilated it better than you taking notes. She noted that once she did that and went over the notes again, she grasped whatever was taught.

"I always try to do a little more than  is expected of me. I treat patients with a little more kindness and after the normal rounds I also do my own rounds in my own time," she said with a smile.

Dr Okoro said she had very good friends both from Ghana and Nigeria at medical school and they met to study. They also learnt from one another through the social media such as text messages and what's app.

She said whenever she was about to write an exam she made sure she studied and always prayed to God,  "I tell God to help me remember all that I have learnt and He sees me through and most of the time I excel. 

She said she would return to Nigeria for her housemanship and a one-year mandatory youth service in her Motherland, adding that she intended to pursue a clinical residency programme in the area of surgery, obstetrics, pediatric and community health as part of her specialisation.                                                                  

Dr Okoro paid glowing tribute to her father, uncles, siblings and loved ones for contributing to pay her fees at the medical school and dedicated all the 16 awards to the entire family.

By Hannah A Amoah