5 LOAVES & 2 FISH- The Story of Yemi Adeleye

FIVE LOAVES AND TWO FISH (THE TESTIMONY OF ADEYEMI ADELEYE)
Born in one of the many slums of the popular city of Lagos, Musin. He grew up under average income-earning parents.

Like other ghetto brood, he also rolled tires on the streets, and wandered through automobile-repair shops in search of used spark-plugs to manufacture local knock-outs, he started just as one of them.

When he attained school age, his parents could not afford to enroll him in a private nursery school. He, like other kids in the slum, attended to an alternative ‘lesson’ so as to avoid the shame of staying put at home while other kids are out cladded in their beautiful school uniforms.
At the lesson, he was taught by a number of teachers who did not believe in him. "He was too quiet to be a smart kid", they thought. Even at that tender age, he was flogged badly- with cane on his chest and wooden ruler on his knuckles.

At six, he moved to a public primary school in Lagos where he started shinning. But who cares about a star from the ghetto. Bad enough, he was taught from primary one to six in his mother-tongue, Yoruba. This of course retarded his performance, but he was still able to shine in his First School Leaving Certificate Examination- thank God for a supportive mum.
He then moved to Euba Boys High School, a converging point of slum boys in Musin. That school had more touts than scholars, with many teachers who cared less. The principal was alone in his quest to bring sanity to the school. His strength was waning. More and more students were losing their heads. The classrooms were more like boxing rings. This star is dimming, gradually…

Then God’s intervened: Miraculously, in JSS 2, he was admitted to a more scholarly school, Federal Government College, Idoani. He had to start learning the rudiments all over again. He, though, could not really communicate fluently in English; he kept following the teachers as they taught in ‘an unknown tongue’ in the classroom And by JSS 3, with much work and determination, he could find his feet and measure averagely well with his peers.

In the Senior Secondary class, this young lad made up his mind to make a name for himself. But at this point, it was almost too late to do much as WASSCE was just a couple of months away.
However, in reading, he read. In praying, he prayed. And the hitherto nobody sprang a surprise by coming the fifth best in the entire school’s WASSCE result.

So something good can come out of Nazareth?

Gaining admission into the higher institution was another nightmare. Declared unqualified by JAMB in 1999, he also stayed at home after school waiting the next UME.

"And having done all to stand, he stood therefore" in the next UME. But again, they said his score was not good enough to guarantee him a place on the admission list. This was his climax of disappointment. "I did my best, or what else can one possibly do to perform better?" he quizzed himself.
This heightened disappointment made him to take a decision not to be an ordinary student if he was eventually admitted. He resolved to perform so superbly to the extent that the admission system would be proved erroneous. And with much doggedness, many prayers, much God, and many contacts, I, Adeyemi Adeleye was admitted to study Microbiology in Obafemi Awolowo University in 2001.

After my dad dropped me with my belongings, and I went through all the necessary clearance and registrations, I walked into my hostel with one thing clear on my mind: "I will not go the way I came. I came in a humbled manner, but I will go with my head high up. I came in on my knees, but I will leave on my feet. I will do so well in Part 1 and crossover to Medicine; or graduate with an overly First Class (Hons.) if not allowed crossing."

I was so sure of this that I shared it with my first classmate I met on that same first day in school, September 3, 2001. I ruminated over this till it was engrafted on my mind. I already had that First Class in my mind from the first day; I was only waiting for my convocation day to see it come to pass.

Hmm! It is truly easier said than done. By the time work started, my ship was beaten here and there; to and fro. (Part 1 seems specially designed to be the toughest, so that by Part 2, everybody already belongs to a class which they may find difficult to leave. Men that survive Part 1 can survive any class. Men that excel in Part 1 cannot be stopped if they do not lose focus.)
I had old cynical professors. I had strange topics too hard to understand. I had large workloads with little or no time. I had bizarre courses no lecturer is ready to explain. I had 6.00 am lectures with 1,000 others in a lecture room that can only seat 500 with lecturers that will only talk to themselves and the board. I had difficult tests in a row. I had tough assignments that can occupy the entire day. I faced days of water scarcity, yet, fine boy must bathe. I faced nights bereaved of electric power, yet, man must read. I had disappointing responses from home when SOS messages were sent. I had emotional distress. I had huge fellowship responsibilities. I had unalloyed commitment to YDi. I had these and several other reasons to have been an ordinary or even a poor student.

But in all these, two factors were important to my resounding success. These factors made it look like those obstacles were non-existent: GOD; and a tenacious, resilient vision:
God always provided me with the grace to do the extras (that counted), face the challenges, climb my mountains, swim the waters and shut the mouths of the lions. Many of my colleagues looked at me back then and thought I would kill myself with the way I worked. They were sorry for me that I would suddenly collapse for excessive hours of studying. But the truth is that I was running on grace. Grace was like cocaine in my blood, I could make up my mind to do in a day what I won’t ordinarily dare in three days. I was drugged on grace and my performance was really enhanced.

God also made the lines to fall unto me in pleasant places. I always came across the relevant materials. I always solved the right questions before the exams. I always had the right people around to help me.
See; chase God, not gold; because when you find God, gold will chase you.
That tall (day-) dream I had on my first day in school never faded. I just could not let go of it. I shared it with people. I wrote it down. I sand it to myself. I just kept it alive.
Each time I went to class to study I would tell God that great vision. I ruminated over it so much that the vision was engrafted on my heart, in-built into my system and I myself became the vision personified. I knew from the onset that I would graduate with a First Class, and then, the people around me too began to now. And finally, on December 16, 2006, everybody knew what God and I had settled since September 3, 2001. Truly there hurdles, but the tenacity and the resilience of the vision kept it for over five years before it came to pass.

Work was one important factor I cannot overemphasize. But just as a house could not have been built without a plan and a foundation, I could not have worked without His grace supplying the energy to move with the momentum generated by my vision. Grace was the foundation, vision was the plan; little wonder the building was (is) magnificent.

My success has proved the admission system totally wrong. It has also proved that a man’s background cannot necessarily keep his back to the ground. But above that, it has proved many christians wrong. Fellowship pastors and other highly-committed believers are content with average results, giving the amount of time spent for God as an excuse. I have been able to tell them (including you) that christianity is not an excuse for mediocrity. Service in His vineyard is not an excuse for failure in our classrooms. In fact, the extent to which you serve God should be the extent to which you should excel.
This was the revelation I had in school that changed my total mentality. But for that, I would have ended up like one of them.

When God saw that I had learnt and imbibed this lesson, He instructed me back then in Part 2 to pick my pen and write one more epistle to the saints in schools. The task was beyond me though, both in substance and in finance. But He who is able to bring to performance whatever He says, supplied both and even more.
This epistle is what culminated to ‘The Academic god’, a book that has changed thousands of lives of believers. God- through the book- used my pen to teach His sons (the gods) that they ought not to fail and/or struggle through school. He used it to teach them that a saint would fail only due to ignorance. He used it to teach them that they should not only put the devil under their feet, but also their books.

Also, God has also used me to speak in several academic seminars in schools and churches, liberating men from the fetters of ignorance.
Just like the five loaves and two fish the young lad gave to Jesus; my life was meant to be insignificant, but I gave it to Jesus, and it has today become a model of astonishing magnificence.