Celebrity on air personality Toke Makinwa has revealed in her latest post on Instagram that she was once advised to withdraw from school as an undergraduate of the University of Lagos over bad grades.
The vocal media practitioner who ended her book tour at her alma mater days ago, said she decided to wrap up the book promotion at the university where she once studied to serve as an inspiration to people who may be going through the same situation she went through years ago.
Toke wrote; “I haven’t always made the right choices but I am thankful for grace. I’m nowhere near perfect, I struggle sometimes but I’m learning to lean on the grace of God to catch me when I fall. It’s quite emotional for me to end my book tour at the University of Lagos because I remember my time there, I wasn’t the brightest student, I had potential but I was a troubled young girl, I didn’t care much for my books till one day I was advised to withdraw, and I hit rock bottom.”
Continuing, Toke added that; “I had nowhere else to go; my grades were bad, so bad the school asked me to leave. Something happened (grace), there was a meeting with all department heads I was granted mercy on humanitarian grounds. My lecturers knew I had it in me but I couldn’t see what they saw; they decided to give me an extra year to turn it around.
The blogger who once said that her break-up with ex-husband Maje Ayida was meant to destroy her, but she survived, said it was hard to spend an extra year but she somehow made it out of school.
“It was humiliating, I started not quite at the bottom but it was a struggle. My mates had graduated and I was in a new class and boy it was hard but I did it. I don’t know how but I made a 2:2. Instead of 4 years I spent 5/6 but I made it out.
“It is important for me to go back and meet with the students in UNILAG, the ones doing great and the students that are struggling too. Sometimes it takes sharing your story to inspire someone to believe in themselves and I’m always up for it. Dates will be revealed soon,” she added.
Toke’s On Becoming book tour which started gathering momentum after she officially filed for a divorce with Maje in June 2016 has taken her to Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, London and back to Lagos this year.
